AEW Elevation Episode 98 (1/16/2023) /AEW Dark Episode 179 (1/17/2023)- Women's Matches

 By Mark Rodriguez  

This week we get two matches for Dark Elevation and one for Dark, so I'll put them in the same article. Emi Sakura joins Nyla and Marina once again, but we'll see how that goes with their current situation with Vickie Guerrero. We also see The Vipress return to Dark Elevation. Let's check it out. 

Match 1- "The Native Beast" Nyla Rose, "The Problem" Marina Shafir & Emi Sakura w/ Vickie Guerrero vs Johnnie Robbie, Vipress & Zyra

The match opens with Robbie facing off against Nyla. The Native Beast grabs Robbie and knees her in the midsection. She then swings her fist down upon her back. Nyla gets her in a headlock and drags her over to her corner where she tags in Emi. This surprises Marina who was expecting the tag. 

Emi whips Robbie over to the ropes and hits her with a harsh chop to the chest. After delivering a second chop, she backs up and runs into her with the Flying Crossbody. Emi goes over to tag in Nyla, ignoring Marina. Marina tags herself in and gets into Nyla's face. While this happens, Robbie quickly runs across the ring and tags in The Vipress. Vipress runs in and starts hitting both Marina and Nyla, but Nyla doesn't even flinch. Nyla picks her up on a Gorilla Press and lets her fall.

Marina gets Vipress up to her knee and kicks her in the face. She then kicks her across the back and whips her towards her corner. She goes up to tag in Emi, ignoring Nyla. Nyla and Marina argue and as Emi watches them, Vipress almost gets away with a roll up pin. Vipress whips Emi towards her corner and tags Zyra in. Nyla comes in and knocks her down with a Spear. Nyla slams Zyra down with the Beast Bomb and leaves Emi to pin her and get the win.

Emi is confused as to what's going on but celebrates the win anyway. Nyla and Marina are still upset with each other while Vickie Guerrero is still mad at both. The internal drama between those three continues.

Match 2- ROH Women's Champion Athena vs Zeda Zhang

As both women prepare to grapple, Athena goes for a swing and misses, allowing Zeda to trip her up. Athena kicks her down to the mat. She goes for the Ground and Pound until the ref stops her. Athena then gets into the ref's face and Zeda uses this chance to get her in a waist lock takedown. Athena manages to get back to her feet and shove her off. She then kicks Zeda down to the mat with a High Boot.

With Zeda up against the ropes, Athena starts to stomp her. Athena grabs and whips her towards the other side of the ring. As she goes after her, Zeda elbows her in the face. Zeda tries to kick her away but Athena gets her stuck on the ropes, leaving her to kick her across the back several times. Athena than slams her across her back and gets her in the crossface. She gets the fish hooks on her and she taps out.

Athena gets her title belt and then goes after Zeda, who has rolled out of the ring. She grabs her and runs her into the barricade. She then gets her back into the ring and picks her up for a code breaker. Athena prepares to slam Zeda's face into the title like many others, when suddenly Yuka Sakazaki runs into the ring. She beats Athena back with several punches until the champ rolls out of the ring. Yuka makes sure Zeda is alright and then picks up the belt. Athena throws a tantrum outside of the ring as Yuka holds the belt up high.

I can has title?

Match 3- (AEW Dark)- Danika Della Rouge vs Kiera Hogan

Both women grapple and Kiera gets Danika in an armdrag takedown. Kiera runs towards her, but misses, making her hit the turnbuckle. Danika runs at her but takes an elbow to the face. Kiera kicks her back and then goes for the ropes. She jumps off and sends Danika flying with a Huricarana. Kiera grabs her and hits her with elbow strikes and goes for the ropes. Danika manages to pick her up and slam her with a flapjack. Danika then goes for the Ground and Pound until Kiera shoves her off.

Kiera crawls over to the ropes and Danika runs towards her. Kiera keeps her at bay with a back elbow to the face. She tries again only to eat another elbow strike. Danika rushes at her a third time and Kiera trips her into the middle rope. With Danika hanging off the ropes, Kiera runs at her with the hip attack to the back of the head. Kiera then pulls the rope back, making it knock Danika off them and onto her back.

Kiera waits until she gets up and runs at her, knocking her down twice with flying elbow strikes. Kiera runs at her and hits her with an elbow strike, making Danika drop to the mat. She then runs at her with a sliding single foot dropkick. With Danika on all fours, Kiera slams her into the mat with the legdrop. Kiera goes for the pin but Danika kicks out.

Kiera gets up and goes for a kick that Danika dodges. She then goes for another kick that Danika dodges, but a second roundhouse kick manages to connect. Kiera picks her up with a single hook suplex and goes for the pin. Kiera wins the match.

My Thoughts- 

The tension between Vickie, Marina and Nyla continues, and it's cool to see how it affects an outsider like Emi Sakura. Vickie was already snapping at Marina before the match started, and Nyla was also giving her the cold shoulder, purposely ignoring her tags. This is most likely due to Marina losing the match against Athena and a chance to carry some gold to shut Vickie up. I'm wondering where this story will go between the three. Nyla already went after Jade and lost the chance to legitimately win the TBS title. Marina went after Athena and lost the chance to get the Ring of Honor title. I'm assuming eventually we'll have to see one of them try to go for the main AEW Women's Title. Once they try and Jamie Hayter retains, I'm assuming that will be the last straw on Vickie's back and their team will split up?

The match itself was entertaining, if mostly to see Nyla and Marina get in each other's faces. Shortly with such a short time between sixe women, we barely got to see much of what Vipress can do.  

The second match was a Title Elimination match, so it wasn't a title match, but had Zeda manage to win, she would have earned herself a title shot in the foreseeable future. Athena made such short work of her Zeda, I wonder why they bothered. I mean, we have seen matches where Athena was put through the ringer by her opponents, so I wonder why they didn't let Zeda put up more of a fight. 

Of course the big surprise was the return of Yuka Sakazaki and the potential of her being the next big challenger for the Ring of Honor title. 

Kiera's match was cool. It opened the show, so her scoring a win was a great way to get things started. We'll see how things continue to go between her and Jade.

Sadly we lost the Jay Briscoe, one half of one of the best tag teams of all of wrestling, The Briscoes due to a car crash. This past Wednesday, Tony Khan set a special event to celebrate the life of Jay Briscoe. During this event we got a couple of extra matches featuring Marina Shafir VS Might Myra, Athena VS Madison Rayne and Yuka Sakazaki VS Sandra Moone. Adam Cole, Claudio Castagnoli and Christopher Daniels also had kinds things to say about Jay Briscoe and Tony Kahn announced this show will be free for everyone on the Ring of Honor Youtube channel.

Our thoughts go out to Jay's family, especially Mark. Who knows what he's going through right now, having lost his brother a day before his birthday. No word as of yet regarding what will happen to the Ring of Honor Tag Titles. At the time of his passing, the Briscoes were the current Ring of Honor tag champs after defeating FTR at The Final Battle during a double dog collar match.