Involuntary Crimson Mask? NBD: AIW Girls Night Out 5 Review

Photo Credit: @allysin_kay

The new format used for the first time for a Smart Mark Video On Demand viewing.

Highlights:

• The Chad used a distraction to the ref and interference from Chest Flexor to defeat The Duke.
• Louis Lyndon also used distraction from his manager Flexor to hit a low blow and defeat Michael Facade.
• Eric Ryan tapped Rickey Shane Page with the Koji Clutch.
• Marti Belle scored the upset victory over Mia Yim with a Pedigree/X-Factor hybrid.
• After the match, Yim was held up by the members of Flexor Industries and slapped by Allysin Kay as a sign of her ejection from the group.
• KC made Luscious Latasha submit with Cattle Mutilation.
• Crazy Mary Dobson defeated Miss Heidi with a wobbly-ass moonsault.
• Flexor Industries made their mark in a third match as Flexor tossed powder in Angeldust's eyes, allowing Gabby Gilbert to apply the crossface for the win.
• Veda Scott scored her first win in her AIW tenure with a DDT chain on Kimber Lee.
• Cherry Bomb was held up at the border and thus was not able to make her #1 contenders match against Kay. She was replaced by Yim.
• Yim legitimately busted open Kay's nose with an errant kick, causing a massive stream of blood to spill into the ring during the match.
• Yim got the victory via twisting moonsault.
• Mickie Knuckles retained the AIW Absolute Women's Championship by countering a Sara del Rey corner whip into a pumphandle bomb.

General Observations:

• Gabby Gilbert's motormouth/"That '80s girl" shtick is GOLD.
• Is it just me, or does Aaron Bauer sound a lot like Jay Baruchel?
• The Duke cracked me up. He looks like some dude that they yanked off a construction site, and his tights have "You've got male!" and "I date tens" on them. That was hilarious.
• Lyndon and Facade broke out some crazy athletic shit in the beginning of their match. The wheels came off Facade later on, but it was still neat seeing them go through the standard "feeling out" process the way they did.
• The dual chant at the beginning of the Ryan/Page match elicited maybe the most ironically truthful commentary on indie fans from Bauer - "These fans are annoying."
• Marti Belle had the Rihanna hair going for this match. Speaking of Belle, here she is, an ACTUAL former model who learned how to wrestle. She's not in WWE, but Kelly Kelly is why?
• Whoever trained Yim did a damn good job, because even in this stage of her career, she actually looks like she's been doing this for years now.
• The wheels came off Belle towards the end of the match, but I still thought this was a strong opener to the main GNO card.
• Latasha to me may have been the most impressive performer of the night given that she looked to run circles around KC in there.
• Funniest moment of the night, Latasha went to lariat KC, and because she's so short, she hit KC in her ribs.
• Dobson/Heidi to me was the weirdest match of the night in that it was so goddamn sloppy that it was a trainwreck, but each woman busted out some impressive moves that I couldn't help but be momentarily impressed.
• Again, Gilbert's motormouth shtick is pretty epic.
• Lot of comedy early on in the Gilbert/Angeldust match with them running an epic criss-cross pattern that led into Gilbert running the ropes until she gassed herself.
• Angeldust bumped her tiny rear end off in this match. Seriously, she makes Sara del Rey look as tall as Isis the Amazon.
• Apparently, referee Jake Clemons had an erection during the match, which elicited a "Jake's got a boner!" chant from the crowd.
• Veda Scott is not just a houndstooth aficionado and a ROH interviewer, she's actually got a lot of promise as a wrestler too. Again, forgiving some of the missteps in the match because of the lack of experience by both women, Veda's grasp of the submission game is actually really, really sweet.
• Hold of the match though was from Kimber Lee busting out an octopus hold/tarantula hybrid. My eyes bugged out when she slapped that one on.
• Of all the people in wrestling who try to pull off the attractive/scary combo, Allysin Kay does it the best with the exception of maybe Daffney and MsChif. Then again, she doesn't have the help of a gimmick either.
• Yeah, Yim's kick didn't look like it should've caused the gusher, but it did. And boy was it a fucking blood geyser. Kay is a warrior, because I'd have put my shoulders on the mat and ran to the back if that happened to me, let alone worked anything close to the kind of match she did.
• Case in point, I'm not sure I'd have been able to have countered a spinning heel kick into an Everest German suplex with my face not gushing blood, and Kay did just that having to stem the tide of her nose leaking out blood like it was faulty watertight door in the Titanic... too soon?
• Mickie Knuckles looks like a zaftig Emma Stone. I mean that as a compliment.
• For someone who has the nickname "Queen of the Deathmatch", Knuckles seemed more than happy and competent to trade mat exchanges with del Rey, which furthers my theory that CZW/garbage/hardcore wrestlers are often times the ones who have the best grounding in the fundamentals.
• Knuckles played a lot of the early match for comedy, culminating in her playing the bongos on del Rey's butt.
• Once del Rey got on the mic and berated Knuckles for becoming a joke, the crowd turned on her and started chanting "You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in!"
• In the "things that probably shouldn't have looked as bad as they did" department, Knuckles maybe took the sickest unintentional bump of the night when she landed on her head on a routine arm-wringer takedown.
• In the best bit of heeling of the night, del Rey flipped off the crowd using Knuckles' hand while in a wrist lock. It was sublime.
• Definitely caught the A1-Wrestling podcast shout out by Bauer.

Match of the Night Not surprisingly, the match that everyone seemingly came to see was the match of the night. Mickie Knuckles and Sara del Rey capped off the night with a strong, emotionally-charged main event that felt like the richest prize in the company was on the line. It was a match that had a little bit of everything and it told a neat story that worked for everyone even if the only knowledge of the history between the women was told to them during the actual match.

It was a match that had something for everyone. It had mat work, comedy, stiffness, antics and even an interlude on the microphone where del Rey, quickly becoming one of the most popular wrestlers on the independent scene, made sure that the fans wouldn't cheer her and instead be behind the local hero Knuckles. During the promo, an in-character del Rey said that Knuckles used to be her equal. During the match, the Champion showed that she certainly still was.

The biggest sign of quality happened on a misstep towards the end of the match. Knuckles was trying to do a move in the corner that would've sent del Rey crashing into the turnbuckle, but in the process, she virtually gave herself a powerbomb. Other times in the night, there have been places where a botch happened and the match participants just continued to go about their business as if it didn't happen. Knuckles and del Rey worked it into the match and it was amazing. Some people think that a botch happens and OH MY GOD DEDUCT TWO STARS FROM THE MATCH! UNACCEPTABLE! In a way, I kinda hope that things end up getting jiggered (not seriously, obviously), because that's real life, and the really great wrestlers handle it in a way that enhances the match. That's what happened here.

Overall Thoughts: This was the first AIW card I watched in full and the first time I got a whiff of a full-time women's roster that wasn't SHIMMER, and I was left a positive impression on both fronts. The show had a clean presentation and great lighting, which is important if you've ever watched a show where you had to strain to see things like facial expressions or ring gear. As for the variety in roster, the only women I had seen on SHIMMER tapings before this card were Yim and del Rey (and Veda Scott as well, but I've yet to see a volume with her on it). It's amazing at how developed the women's scene is in the independents that there's enough talent to go around for several promotions and special cards. The good matches were really good, and the not-so-good matches at least had some fun moments. There were a lot of really cool personalities at play here too, especially Gabby Gilbert who was all over the card and Chest Flexor.

And yeah, there was a strong argument that Kay shouldn't have finished the match to the lengths she did. Health, safety what have you. That being said, both she and Yim are grown-ass adults and were seemingly okay with letting the show go on. While the main event was the crown jewel on the show, Kay's performance to me will stick out as the most memorable because of how goddamn gutty it was. She's a keeper.

Results:

• The Chad pinned The Duke via the Mercy Kill
• Louis Lyndon pinned Michael Facade via low blow
• Eric Ryan submitted Rickey Shane Page with the Koji Clutch
• Marti Belle pinned Mia Yim with a Pedigree/X-Factor hybrid
• KC submitted Luscious Latasha with Cattle Mutilation
• Crazy Mary Dobson pinned Miss Heidi with a moonsault
• Gabby Gilbert submitted Angeldust with a powder-assisted crossface
• Veda Scott pinned Kimber Lee after a chain tornado DDT into a grounded DDT
• Mia Yim became the number one contender to the AIW Absolute Women's Championship via pinfall over Allysin Kay with a twisting moonsault
• Mickie Knuckles retained the AIW Absolute Women's Championship over Sara del Rey via pinfall with a pumphandle powerbomb