AIW DVD January 29, 2012 “Girls Night Out 5 – Guys Night Out 3” – Cleveland, OH

This event has been much-talked about. Plus, you gotta give props to any company out there that dedicates a night to furthering women’s wrestling. As a father of a little girl, I’d rather her see more Sara del Rey and Kimber Lee and less Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres.

We opened up with a promo montage. Gabby Gilbert really stood out during this segment. Veda Scott also did a great job. Both are very strong on the mic.

Guy’s Night Out 3 Pre-show:
1. The Duke vs. The Chad

Aaron Bauer-Maguire was in great form. The Chad is such a specimen. He needs to keep hair because with the shaved head, he looks like a tattoo-free Randy Orton. He needs to work on his persona. Chest Flexor keeps him over with the crowd. But what happens when that storyline is over? If he has no persona, that’s fine. Work on making it your strength, like Chris Candido did in old ECW days. It was a nice match and Duke didn’t lose anything by losing it. Plus, you had the heel faction interfering to win it.

2. Facade vs. Louis Lyndon

This is two of my favorite guys wrestling so I was excited about the prospects. You had two great athletes doing what they do in the ring. And then Gabby Gilbert joined them for commentary. There was some good innovation. I liked the story they told of the outside interference. Really fun match. I wanted more. More of the match, not from the match. That is exactly how you want to have left things.

3. Rickey Shane Page vs. Eric Ryan

This was a really well-put together match. The crowd seemed to have little reaction to the match itself. I think it’s crowd confusion. Two really good fan favorites going at it. Crowd doesn’t know who to cheer for. You did have a nice back-and-forth of “Eric Ryan” vs. “RSP” chants. Poor Rickey. I don’t think there’s anybody he hasn’t tapped out to. I’m afraid to introduce him to my 2-year-old because if she gives him a high 5, he might tap out. But Eric Ryan got a really good victory. Looks like they are giving him a nice push. Eric Ryan is somebody who has the ring work. We need to get the persona or something unique and I think there will be no barrier for him.

Girls Night Out 5

1. Mia Yim vs. Marti Belle

I don’t know if I can really call Mia one of the top underrated wrestlers. I think she’s hands-down one of the top female wrestlers. I would put her up against any female wrestler in the world-Beth Phoenix, Nattie Neidhart, Kharma, Gail Kim, Victoria-as one of the best. She has REALLY hard kicks, does things like tarantulas. (I’m not sure Kelly Kelly can even spell “tarantula.”) She’s like watching a really stiff ROH wrestler. Marti Belle won and then Flexor Industries turned on Mia Yim.

2. Luscious Latasha vs. KC

Excited to see my first Latasha match. KC brings a lot of enthusiasm to her match. Latasha was a really good heel. All throughout the match, she just brutalized KC. The crowd hasn’t bought in to KC yet. I say they give her time to develop and don’t push her too high too fast. KC pulled out a cattle mutilation and got a submission victory. There’s a line from the movie Vanilla Sky that says, “Just remember, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour.” Luscious definitely gave a sour heel to KC’s face tonight.

3. “Crazy” Mary Dobson vs. Miss Heidi

Miss Heidi has a lot of enthusiasm. She’s a cute little sprite-like thing. Mary has a nice ring persona. I was impressed by both of these women and their work. There were still some proverbial wrinkles left to be ironed out with both their work. Some good work nonetheless. I thought this was a great way of putting over Dobson. And I wouldn’t mind seeing either of these two again.

4. Gabby Gilbert vs. Angeldust

I’m really liking the Gabby Gilbert character. The make-up scares me a tad bit. She is so dedicated to her character. My usual line is that Angel Dust looks like she needs to eat. But she understands her crowd and loves to get them going. Gilbert is so unique and does the little things so well. I found that as the match went on, the more I was impressed by Angel Dust. Flexor Industries interfered giving Gilbert the win. Probably my favorite match so far.

5. Veda Scott vs. Kimber Lee

Veda looked gorgeous as always and the crowd wanted not to hate her, but they did. Kimber ran out with a lot of enthusiasm. Kimber did this really weird diagonal tarantula which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. And for those curious, Kelly Kelly cannot spell “diagonal” either. Nice innovation. I was very impressed with Kimber’s wrestling too. This was a really good match. I found myself a fan of Kimber after this match. (I was already a fan of Veda’s.) I would probably call this the sleeper match of the night.

6. Allysin Kay vs. Mia Yim

This was supposed to be Cherry Bomb but she was held up at the border (storyline-wise, I hope). Kay is good with the mic. You can see she has the experience in front of live crowds. Then Wadsworth came out and said there was going to be a new opponent… Mia Yim. Great angle. I have seen so many pictures and heard so many things about this match, I was REALLY looking forward to it. Kimber-Veda was the technical match. This was not that match. There was an insane, wild brawl outside the ring. And then there was blood. If I am correct, Kay broke her nose during this match. You know, when you add blood (even if it was unintentional), you take it to a whole other level. This match was not a 5-star Richards-Edwards classic. This was real. This was personal. This was violent.

7. Mickie Knuckles vs. Sara Del Rey

I loved this match. The story they told was that the list time they were together in the ring, Mickie broke her femur. Now here they were several years later, totally different people. After some back and forth, Sara took the mic and told her this was not the Mickie she remembered. Mickie chased her and then Sara attacked her. This was everything you’d expect to see from two of the best in their generation. This was hard-hitting. This was dramatic. And this was an exclamation point.

Well, overall, it’s hard to say if this was better than Girls Night Out 4 or not. I would say if you love women’s wrestling, you definitely need to see this. To me, the overall match of the night was Kimber-Veda. Gabby Gilbert is quickly becoming one of my favorite women in wrestling.

Commentary was also fun here. You had Aaron Bauer-Maguire and Gabby Gilbert for the guys’ part. You also had ABM and Pedro DeLuca and Rickey Shane Page for the rest of it. RSP is a good talker and has such good chemistry with ABM, they make for a really good tandem.

Plus, the face there was blood in a women’s match added a whole new dimension. This isn’t the fluffy Divas wrestling you see on Monday night or even the other stuff you see on Thursdays. These women are devoted and committed to their craft and their passion. If this doesn’t earn your hard-earned money, take a step back and re-evaluate your values.

To follow me on Twitter, click here. For Facebook, click here.