AEW Dark Episode 183- 2/14/2023 Women's Wrestling

 By Mark Rodriguez

Tonight we get to see Mei Suruga's first singles match in AEW. She's always been teaming up with her mentor Emi Sakura, so let's see what she can do on her own. We also get to see Diamante in action. 

Match 1- Mei Suruga w/ Baliyan Akki vs Hyena Hera

Mei walks right up to Hyena and gets all up in her face, showing she's not backing down despite the height difference. Hyena raises her arm to really showcase the size advantage and Mei responds by stomping on her foot. Mei goes for the test of strength since Hyena is down on her knees, but she stands up and slams Mei into the mat. Hyena pats Mei on the head and starts treating her like a kid. Mei suddenly bites down on her hand.

Mei walks around the ring, holding onto Hyena as she screams in pain. Mei finally lets her go, flipping her across the ring as Hyena holds onto her hand. The ref points at Mei telling her that biting isn't allowed, and she almost bit into his finger as well. You just don't point your finger that close to a biter's mouth, man. 

Hyena gets up and kicks Mei in the midsection. She tries to hit her but Mei flips out of the way. Mei knocks her down with a flying crossbody splash and uses that as the cover. Hyena kicks out. As Hyena tries to get back up, Mei delivers stomping kicks across the back. Mei grabs her by the hair and whips her across the ring, similar to how Emi Sakura so often does. Mei grabs Hyena's hair and tosses her across the ring a second time.

Mei stomps onto Hyena's back and then slams her face against the top turnbuckle. Mei climbs up on the ropes and is ready to chomp down onto Hyena. The ref puts a stop to it, putting his arm in the way. He quickly pulls back before Mei can bite him and tells her that biting isn't allowed. Mei then drives her elbow into Hyena's face instead.

Mei pummels Hyena and then knocks her onto the mat, stomping onto her back to keep her down. Mei then steps on both of her hands, leaving her trapped as she slaps her around. She then jumps and stomps on Hyena's fingers. After Mei kicks her around and starts yanking roughly on her arm, Hyena fires back, hitting her in the midsection. Hyena is ready to sock her in the face but Mei suddenly pulls back and apologizes. She gets on the mat and starts crying, much to the confusion of her opponent.

As soon as Hyena drops her guard, Mei kicks in her midsection and knocks her down. She grabs her hair and starts bouncing her head against the mat. Hyena had enough and hits her in the face. She then sends her towards the ropes and knocks her down with a clothesline. She knocks her down a second time and then hits her with a running elbow against the top turnbuckle. Mei jumps on the ropes and kicks Hyena back. She then grabs her arm as she stands on the ropes, walking across them Old School style and dragging Hyena along for the ride. She then jumps back onto the mat and sends Hyena down with an armdrag. 

Hyena is hanging off the ropes and Mei runs in to hit her with a dropkick across the back. Mei hairwhips Hyena to the mat and then runs and jumps off the ropes, landing on her with a diving foot stomp. Mei goes for the cover but Hyena kicks out. Mei locks up Hyena's legs and bend over backwards to pull back on her arms. Hyena taps out and Mei wins the match. 

As the ref holds onto Mei's arm in victory, Mei tries to bite him again.

Match 2- Diamanté vs Ultra Violette 

Both women grapple and try to gain control of each other's arms. Diamante gets Violette in a headlock and shoves her towards the ropes. Diamante lays on the mat to trip her up by Violette does a barrel roll to avoid her. Violette gets Diamante in a crucifix pin but her opponent kicks out. Both women run at each other and go for a dropkick, but Diamante manages to knock down Violette first. Diamante slams her head against the top turnbuckle and starts throwing kicks at her.

With Violette up against the ropes, Diamante gets her back to her feet and hits her with a forearm shot. She climbs the ropes and starts hitting her with ten forearm strikes. With Violette dazed, she whips her to the other side of the ring and follows her with a running lariat. Violette drops to the mat in a sitting position and Diamante runs into her with a dropkick. Diamante goes for the cover but Violette kicked out. 

Diamante, showing frustration now, starts slapping Violette around and talking smack. Violette starts hitting back. Diamante shoves her back but Violette knocks her down with a flying clothesline. Violette knocks her down with a running lariat. She then dodges an attack from Diamante and hits her with a spinning backfist. With Diamante dazed, Violette goes for the ropes and knocks Diamante down with a flying dropkick. Violette goes for the cover but Diamante kicks out.

Violette grabs Diamante, but her opponent knocks her down with a lariat. Diamante grabs onto Violette and slams her with a German Suplex. She holds onto her waist and slams her two more times, making this a Triple German Suplex, the third one pinning her down. The ref counts to three and Diamante wins the match.

My thoughts- 

Mei sure like to bite a lot. We've seen her tag with Emi Sakura several times but we finally get to her own brand of shenanigans as a singles wrestler. Her match was fun and full of a lot of silly stuff, and Hyena Hena was a good straightwoman to the antics. Hyena got to show off some of her moves as well, but Mei stoles the show, wanting to even bite the ref a few times.

The Diamante match was pretty alright, but wow, the crowd was bored. There was barely any sort of reaction out of them. I'm thinking maybe Violette should have put up more of a fight to make things more evenly matched or exciting. I felt a bit bad for Diamante having to ignore the dead crowd and continue doing her poses and such.

AEW Dynamite saw the three-way match between Ruby Soho, Toni Storm and Britt Baker that we didn't get before due to Britt's injury. This time the extra caveat was the question of whether or not Ruby will side with Saraya and Toni or with Britt and Jamie. Ruby ended up winning the match but for now we still don't know if she'll join Team Saraya or Team Britt or just go solo. 

As for AEW Rampage, Jade will be defending her title against Vertvixen. It's good for Vertvixen to get more TV exposure, though I doubt she'll be able to take the TBS title off of Jade. This was a surprising match seeing that Vertvixen has challenged Jade for the title before. They really must be running out of people to challenge her, and they want to keep the bigger names like Britt and Ruby away from her.