Kimber Lee vs Alpha Female
I enjoyed this, albeit not as much as their Mae Young
Classic match last year. Alpha Female goes on the attack from the off, and I
liked her quickly wearing down Lee for an Anaconda Vice, hitting a flurry of
blows to the head to weaken her opponent. Kimber Lee goes back on the attack,
with AF oddly seeming to slide to her knees just to eat a bunch of kicks. Alpha
hits a big Dominator and a lovely big forearm, but we get an awkward moment
with a Gory Bomb reversal, where they just seem to fall over. Loved Lee’s
swanton bomb, which looked to land flush, before AF hits a clothesline for two
and another Dominator for the win.
Thunder Rosa vs Harlow O’Hara
This almost starts with a goofy dance sequence, but I liked
Harlow stopping it straight away with a big shoulderblock. Loved Harlow’s big
running knee, and I thought she looked really good in this match. Bad habit of
swinging way too high on missed clotheslines, but her locking a butterfly guillotine
to Rosa, holding it for a few seconds, then suddenly dropping to the mat looked
great. Rosa has a few nice moves, hitting a bunch of nasty chops in the corner,
but even then O’Hara gets the better of her by chopping her back in the face.
Rosa hits a nice running boot to the face and a top rope stomp for the win, and
this was all good.
Davienne vs Skylar vs Oceanea vs Alisha Edwards
Fun four way match, where I thought Davienne and Edwards
were the standouts. Davienne is really fun working as monster, making the most
of her power and size advantage by bending Oceanea over her knee with a
backbreaker. There’s a great spot where she’s got both Skylar and Oceanea on
the mat, and does a baseball slide dropkick, pushing them both gut-first into
the ringpost. Edwards is worlds apart from her role as face jobber on Impact,
here working shit-talking heel, and she’s a load of fun, ostensibly teaming
with Davienne, but trying sneaky pins behind her back. Oceanea and Skylar seem
fine, but do less to stand out before Skylar hits a poor looking double arm DDT
on Oceanea for the win.
Penelope Ford vs Jessica Troy
It’s been two years since I saw a Ford match, and she seemed
to have improved vastly in that time. Here, she looked totally confident in the
ring, with her execution way up on what it was. Loved her rolling spear into
the corner and a really good looking Northern Lights suplex. Troy took the
offence nicely, but suffered from having a load of terrible looking strikes,
with boots to the head that looked weak and flimsy shots in the corner. In
contrast, Ford hit a really nice flurry of shots, a big German suplex into the
buckles and a great looking rolling cutter. Troy’s non-strike offence was
perfectly fine, but she tried a lot of strikes, before Ford picks up the win
with a rolling cradle.
Zoe Lucas vs Karen Q
This was really good, felt like they matched up really well.
Loved the matwork at the outset, felt evenly and smoothly worked. There’s a
slightly blown flying headscissors early on, but crucially they don’t let it
throw them or affect the rest of the bout, as Q hits a big combination of moves
in the corner. Lucas has some great flexibility that she uses to her advantage
here, getting a nice bridge on a Fisherman’s suplex and getting her leg up
really high to hit a spinkick, so that it acts more like a clothesline to the
face. She also hits a neat slingshot into a splits on Q for a two count. They
also achieve the rare feat of making a simultaneous kick to the head KO spot
look good. Lucas hits a great looking standing scorpion kick and a rolling DVD,
but Q rolls into a Boston Crab, with Lucas tapping immediately. Loved this.
LuFisto vs Shazza McKenzie
Can’t help but feel that McKenzie came into this with the
wrong gameplan, as she decides to brawl on the outside with LuFisto early door.
This ends with her taking a powerbomb onto the apron, so you can guess how
successful this plan was. LuFisto works her on the mat, tying her legs in a
deathlock, whilst also grinding her knee into McKenzie’s spine, before
following that with headbutts to the back. McKenzie pretty much has to work
from underneath, and ends up using her speed advantage to get some respite,
slipping through the ropes to avoid a LuFisto charge and tying her in the ropes
to lace into her with kicks. It’s not enough though, as LuFisto hits a backfist
and a back suplex for two, before a burning hammer gives her the victory. Maybe
a little too one-sided to be great, but this was a lot of fun.
Undeniably Impressive (Tessa Blanchard & Indi Hartwell)
vs The Bird & The Bee (Willow Nightingale & Solo Darling)
This kicks off with a really great bit of matwork between
Blanchard and Darling, felt really competitive and logical. Loved little
touches like Blanchard having to work to get a grip of Darling’s finger to
wrench a wristlock, Darling not giving up the digits easily. Nightingale and
Hartwell in contrast work faster, running the ropes and countering each other,
playing to their own strengths. First time I’d seen Darling and she really
impressed, like a little buzzsaw with a neat series of kicks. Tessa kicks Nightingale
in the back as she runs the ropes to make her face-in-peril, and her team work
a series of running strikes to the back with Willow draped in the ropes. I
liked Willow blocking a train of moves in the corner after a couple of blows,
makes sense that you wouldn’t just stand there and take a beating, but falls
prey to a Tessa codebreaker from the second rope. Darling comes in and also
gets worn down, with Blanchard chaining nicely into a butterfly suplex from the
mat. Even when Darling comes back, Blanchard impresses, really whipping herself
into the mat on bumps. Eventually, order breaks down with all four in the ring,
and unfortunately the worst move of the match gets the win, with Nightingale
and Darling hitting a contrived double team slam on Hartwell that doesn’t
really come off, but this match on the whole was great.
Terra Calaway vs Delmi Exo
Brief stuff with Calaway attacking before the bell, and Exo
getting zero offence. Terra picks her off the mat during pinfalls after a big
sideslam and a full Nelson slam. Harlow O’Hara comes in for the save, before
turning on Exo. Oceanea makes the save, and this was more angle than match.
Calaway looked great though.
Jazz vs Jordynne Grace
I enjoyed this a bunch, but it clearly suffered from Grace’s
real-life ankle injury that clearly bothered her and likely made the match go
short. This started really well, liked how they worked the matwork to start,
with each powering out of holds rather than working counters. However, after
getting tied in a deathlock by Jazz, Grace’s ankle clearly bothers her, as she
goes to the outside to shake it off. Jazz doesn’t go after the injury after
that, even when heeling it up later, so it must have been affecting Grace badly.
Jazz takes control with some cheap moves after both women have exchanged
clubbing blows, working her in the ropes and raking Grace’s eyes. She also hits
some nasty crossfaces during a Camel Clutch. Grace gets a very brief comeback,
but Jazz escapes a fireman’s carry with an eyerake, and hits a Michinoku Driver
for the win. This was still good, but feels like a missed opportunity. Would be
up for a rematch.
