AEW Dark Elevation Ep 101/Dark Ep 182- 2/6/23-2/7-23 Women's Matches

 By Mark Rodriguez

This week Dark Elevation has two matches while Dark gets one, so I might as well put them together. We get to see more of Billie Starkz as she faces off against Yuka Sakazaki and also a Four on Four match! Kiera Hogan also sees some action.

Match 1- "Magical Girl" Yuka Sakazaki vs Billie Starkz 

The match starts with Billie finally getting a good clean handshake from Yuka. They grapple and try to take control of each other's arms. Billie gets Yuka in a cravat headlock. Yuka manages to get out of it and get her in a headlock takedown. Billie gets Yuka in a headscissors and she kicks out of it. 

Yuka shoves Billie towards the top turnbuckle and runs at her. Billie moves out of the way leaving Yuka to hit the turnbuckle with her elbow. Yuka goes for the ropes and kicks Billie back when she tries to approach her. Billie tries again and grabs onto her leg, but Yuka pulls her in and wraps her legs around her neck. She leans backwards off the ropes, choking Billie. Yuka lets go and as she climbs on the ropes, Billie kicks her back with a high boot, making her fall on the apron. Billie trips Yuka down and kicks her on the side of the head. Bille climbs the middle rope and lands on Yuka with a senton splash. 

Billie gets her back in the ring, but Yuka spins and kicks her in the face. Yuka gets her back into the ring and climbs the ropes. She leaps off and knocks Billie down with a flying dropkick. Yuka goes for the cover but Billie kicks out. Billie grabs her in a suplex and goes for the pin, but Yuka kicks out. Billie grabs Yuka and smashes her face into the top turnbuckle and starts kicking and stomping her. Bille grabs Yuka in a vertical position and slams the back of her head onto her knee. She goes for the pin but Yuka still kicks out.

Yuka starts throwing forearm stikes and then rolls along with Billie with the snapmare. Yuka goes for a kikc and Billie ducks under it, but she still gets hit by her other leg. Yuka then bounces off the ropes and knocks Billie down with a diving clothesline. She goes for the cover but Billie kicks out. Yuka starts throwing elbow strikes but Billie manages to grab her in a Northern Lights Suplex. Yuka is able to avoid getting the three-count.

Billie angrily rolls Yuka on her back and gets back to the ropes. She leaps off and hits Yuka with a swanton splash and goes for the pin. Yuka somehow manages to kick out. Billie is shocked with disbelief and starts wailing on Yuka. She goes for a kick but Yuka catches her leg and pulls her in for a pin, which she narrowly escapes. Yuka tries to kick her but Billie catches her leg and knees her in the face. Billie runs towards Yuka and gets clocked by a spinning lariat. Yuka picks her up and bodyslams her. Yuka drags Billie closer to the ropes so she can climb up and land on her with the Magical Girl Splash. Yuka pins her and scores the win!

Match 2- Diamanté, Emi Sakura, "The Problem" Marina Shafir & "The Native Beast" Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero vs Madison Rayne, Skye Blue, Queen Aminata & Hyena Hera

The match opens with Skye Blue taking on Nyla Rose. Skye tries to grab her but Nyla picks her up. Skye slips from her grasp and Nyla shoves her off of her. Skye kicks Nyla, getting her down to one knee. When she tries to kick again, Nyla catches her leg and pulls her down to the mat before she can do anything. Nyla holds onto her leg but Skye kicks her off. Skye runs at Nyla and the Native Beast knocks her down with a jumping body splash and uses that as a pin. Skye kicks out and hit Nyla with a jawbreaker. She takes this chance to go over and tag in Queen Aminata. Nyla tags in Marina Shafir.

Marina starts throwing kicks at Aminata, and the Queen grabs her in a snapmare. Aminata is able to grab Marina in a snap suplex. Skye is tagged back in and she sends Marina up against the ropes and starts attacking her. Skye goes for a kick but Marina grabs her leg, picks her and backslams her. Marina goes over to tag in Emi Sakura who lets out her snooty anime laugh.

Emi chops into Skye, sending her up against the ropes. She then runs into her with a flying crossbody. Emi goes for the ropes and lands on Skye with a swanton. She then goes over to tag in Diamante. Diamante picks up Skye and knocks her back down with a lariat. Diamante picks her up again but takes too much time taunting her teammates, which gives Skye the chance to start fighting back. Diamante slams Skye with a German Suplex and goes for the cover. Queen Aminata comes in to stomp on her to break the pin.

Skye manages to get Diamante up against the ropes and knees her in the face. While Diamante is dazed, Skye goes for the thrust kick to the jaw. Skye crawls over and tags in Madison Rayne as Diamante tags in Marina Shafir. Madison starts throwing strikes at Marina and then gets her up against the ropes. Marina reverses this and gets Madison up against the ropes now but gets kicked back. As Marina comes in to strike, Madison grabs her and slams her with a cutter. Madison goes for the pin but Emi comes in to stomp on her and break the count.

Emi comes in for the save and stomps Madison across the spine

Marina grabs Madison and knees her in the side of the ribs. She then grabs her and slams her down. Skye comes in to thrust kick Marina in the face. As Marina gets back up, Skye kicks her down again. Diamante rushes in and knocks Skye back with a back elbow. Hyena Hena kicks Diamante in the face but Emi comes in and grabs her by the hair. Emi knocks down Hena with a single chop. Queen Aminata steps in and socks Emi in the face, knocking her down. Nyla rushes in but Aminata manages to trip her over the ropes and making her spill out of the ring. 

Nyla grabs Aminata's legs from the ring apron and yanks her out of the ring. Skye leaps off the ring and toppled everyone. Madison follows suit also knocking everyone down. Madison grabs Marina and gets her back in the ring and goes for the cover. Marina kicks out. Marina would kick Madison across the ring and into the ropes and Hena would tag herself in. Marina would knock her down with a single kick and tag Nyla in. Nyla grabs her and slams her down with the Beast Bomb. Nyla Rose gets the pin and wins the match for her team.

Match 3- (AEW Dark) Megan Meyers vs Kiera Hogan

Megan rushes in, trying to grab Kiera twice, but she dodges every attempt. She grabs Kiera in a side headlock but she slides out of it and grabs her in the same move instead. Kiera shoves her towards the ring but Megan knocks her down as she runs towards her. Kiera knocks her down with a standing dropkick. Kiera shoves Megan towards the ropes, but she hangs upside off them, kicking her away. Megan goes a handstand and grabs Kiera with her legs and shoves her face first into the middle turnbuckle.

With Kiera up against the ropes, Megan starts kicking her. Megan starts throwing some punches but Kiera would block them and hit her back. Megan would go for a big swing but Kiera dodges in and knocks her down. Megan charges towards Kiera but she gets tripped up to hang off the ropes. Kiera runs at her with a hip attack to the back of the head. 

Kiera pulls Megan off the ropes and lands on her with the Legdrop. She goes for the cover but Megan kicks out. Kiera grabs her but Megan hits her with the Jawbreaker. Megan whips Kiera towards the ropes. Kiera kicks her back when she tries to run towards her. Kiera manages to knock Megan down and then runs in with a Sliding Dropkick. Megan is now dazed and Kiera nails her with a kick to the of the head. She than grabs her for an Inside Cradle Suplex and goes for the cover. Kiera keeps her down for the three-count and wins the match.

 My thoughts-

I really liked the match between Yuka and Billie Starkz. They both gave it their all and gave each other a decent challenge. It's a shame for Billie that Yuka is a rising star, because whenever she connects with that flying swanton that should really be the end of the match. I hope Billie continues to make appearances until she starts racking up wins. 

I loved the 8-woman tag match and it was a lot of fun. With Diamante and Emi Sakura around, Vickie didn't seem as angry towards Nyla and Marina. The commentary mentioned she actually looked somewhat happy when they won. It's funny how we had Queen Aminata, The Queen Bee Madison Rayne and The Queen Emi Sakura, and the commentary had fun with that. We would have needed Miranda Alize the Queenpin to make it a full deck. A lot of fun, too bad Hyena Hena had to take the fall though. 

Kiera continues to rack up the wins on Dark. It looks like that Inside Cradle Suplex is her new finisher. We'll see how far she can rise in the ranks. She might not have been able to beat Jade for the title but she's not going anywhere. She had a decent match and Megan Myers gave her a decent match.