We take a look at the opening match from the GWF’s Women’s Wrestling Revolution 8 show, pitting one of Ireland’s hottest prospects against the first wXw women’s champion.
The GWF have gotten into a habit of posting full matches on their YouTube lately, as a way to nudge people towards buying shows in full on Vimeo, or joining their video-on-demand Patreon… which is an unusual route, I guess. This match is currently available on the GWF YouTube channel, with English commentary from Dave Bradshaw.
Valkyrie vs. Killer Kelly
This one comes from May’s Women’s Wrestling Revolution 8 show, a series of shows that may well attract attention to Berlin from the United States…
We start with a tie-up as Kelly grabs a headlock, which Valkyrie reverses as she looked to work the arm. A reversal attempt doesn’t go well as the Irishwoman gets right out of it, before pulling Kelly into the Axel Dieter Special. I swear, that move feels like it is in just about every show I watch these days!
Kelly rolls back, and the referee takes a while to figure out he should be counting the pin, but Valkyrie kicks out as they go back and forth with covers until Kelly grabs the head… only for Valkyrie to go right back to the armbar. Another headkick takedown puts Valkyrie on the mat, but she’s still trying to sneak wins by rolling up Kelly into a pinning predicament, despite her head being clung onto. The headlock gives way to a cravat as Kelly snapmares her to the mat, and even clings on when Valkyrie pulled off a slam… eventually she gets free as the pair hit stalemate with double dropkicks. Valkyrie takes her turn to grab the head, before rebounding out of the corner with a shoulder tackle… her leapfrog goes over the Portuguese, as a spinning heel kick took Kelly outside for a baseball slide dropkick through the ropes!
A crossbody off the top gets Valkyrie a near-fall, as she started to take control of the match, only to miss a charge into the corner as Kelly rebounds with a bicycle kick for another near-fall. An enziguri puts Valkyrie back down, as does a Fisherman’s suplex, but it’s still not enough to put her away, as Valkyrie tried to drop down and roll-up Kelly out of a German suplex.
That doesn’t quite work, as Kelly gets up and exchanges roll-ups for near-falls, before Kelly turns up the aggression with forearms. Valkyrie’s keen to go like-for-like as they exchanged those strikes, before double headkicks knocked both women down. They fought back to their feet, throwing more elbows on their way up, then kicks, before Valkyrie’s handspring into a leg lariat finally put Kelly down for a near-fall.
Valkyrie tries to finish things off, but her standing moonsault came up short, as she’s forced to elbow out of a German suplex… only to handspring into another German suplex, this time with Kelly pulling it off for a near-fall. Kelly goes back to the cravat, throwing some hard knees into the equation, sending Valkyrie into the corner for the Shibata-ish dropkick, but it’s still not enough to get the win, as a kick to the head knocks Valkyrie to the floor…
A PK off the apron’s countered with a leg sweep as Kelly crashes onto the apron, before being placed in the ropes for a flying legdrop and a standing moonsault, which is enough to get the win! I enjoyed this match for what it was – the opener of a show, and one that set the table for the rest of the event. It’s pretty easy for a match between two good guys to fall flat, but both Valkyrie and Kelly showed aggression at key moments, getting the crowd on their side when it mattered most. Something tells me I ought to dig out a lot more of Valkyrie’s matches… ***¼