Pro Wrestling EVE held “EVE x The World 2” on August 28. It featured Miyu Yamashita defending her International Championship against Kay Lee Ray in the main event, along with some surprise wrestlers from AEW and all over the world.
We open the event with the EVE champion, Session Moth Martina, and her open challenge. The open challenge is answered by former EVE International champion, AEW’s Kris Statlander. The crowd is fully behind Martina from the start. Statlander is really using her strength advantage, but Martina is as resilient as anyone. Statlander hits two piledrivers and even Martina can not overcome that and we have a new EVE Champion. Martina reached her goal and had multiple successful defenses, but she must now regroup.
Everyone’s favorite assistant Abi is now the ring announcer. She is now attempting to be Amira Blair’s assistant, as she got her a tag team match on the show. The First-Class Dolls (Frankie B and Aysha) from Australia are taking on Amira and…Kingsley????? Kingsley sings her entrance song and Amira does not quite know what to make of Kingsley. Will Ospreay stops the match for EVE’s Got Talent. The First-Class Dolls are up first and show off some impressive dance moves. Amira tries to play a Dolly Parton song with her nose, but is interrupted by Kingsley, who sings the Backslide Girlz song. Will has the audience decide the winners and even though they did not seem to be on the same page, Amira and Kingsly were the winners of the talent portion. We are now onto the match, or the wrestling part. Kingsley and Amira work surprisingly well together and also get the win in the wrestling portion. After the match, Amira seemed to be saying some heartfelt words, but then took out Kinsley and Abi, to show who she truly was.
Hyper Active, back from Japan, come out to the ring with their new friend Holly Barton. They will be teaming with AEW TBS Champion Maya World and will be facing the EVE tag team champions French Art, Alexxis Falcon and RHIO. French Art are dominate, but are upsetting their partners, as they are only tagging each other. Then, Alexxis and RHIO dominate Holly until she makes the tag to Maya, who faces off against RHIO. Maya looks to be doing well until she is introduced to French Art. We get some big dives to the outside. Alexxis hits Maya with a low blow, but cannot put her away. Alexxis then hits Off With Her Head, but Holly makes the save. Maya hits Alexxis with a Senton to pick up the win for her team. The thing that stood out to me about this match is how impressive French Art looked in a match filled with international stars.
We pick up the second half of the event with a triple threat match to crown the first ever Spirit of EVE Champion between Emersyn Jayne, Lucy Sky and Skye Blue. These are three of the toughest women who have ever stepped in an EVE ring and three women who love violence. Lucy brings in a kendo stick, but Blue answers with a cricket bat with tacks. Lucy may be the least known in this match, but she looks scary and can really do some damage to her opponents. Blue is bleeding heavily, and her face is completely covered.
Whenever Blue is in EVE, something clicks and she thrives in the bloody violence. Blue grabs a set of darts and puts them into Emersyn’s face. All three women are bleeding, as Lucy brings thumbtacks into the match. Emersyn puts giant skewers into the head of Lucy and Blue, but Blue pulls them out of her head and puts it into Emersyn’s head. Emersyn hits a Spanish Fly off the top rope on Blue into the thumbtacks. Blue barely kicks out.
Lucy hits a huge frog splash on Blue, who was on a table to pick up the win and become the first Spirit of EVE Champion. Lucy Sky is going to be very scary champion to face. The crowd chants for Skye Blue as she leaves the ring. Every time she is in EVE she leaves everything out there and some would say steals the show.
After the ring gets cleaned up we get Nyte Skye (Skye Smitson and Violet Nyte) against Nightshade and Nyla Rose for the Marvelous Tag Team Championships, which is currently held by Nyla and Nightshade. Nyte Skye is a great team, but Nyla and Nightshade are very powerful. Nyte Skye isolates Nyla, and appears way too confident for someone who is facing two of the scariest women in wrestling. This ruckus crowd is fully behind Nightshade as she comes into the match and takes out both members of Nyte Skye. Nightshade hits a sit-down powerbomb, followed by a senton from Nyla for the win and to retain their championships. Nightshade says that they will be bringing some of their friends from Marvelous to EVE, and the graphics tell us that some of those friends will be Senka Akatsuki and the team of Spark Rush. On January 9 it will be EVE x Marvelous. After the announcements, Nyte Skye come back out and attack Nightshade and Nyla. Martina tries to make the save, but they take her out too.
Up next is the hard-hitting Chantel Jordan taking on AEW’s Maria Shafir, who is accompanied to the ring by The Death Riders. These wrestlers have similar styles, but Shafir has much more big match experience. Marina throws Chantel around during the beginning of the match and appears to be taking her lightly. Marina just offers herself up and eats forearms and slaps from Chantel with little effect. Chantel is able to get some offense going after a dive to the outside. Marina takes back over and forces Chanel to tap. Chantel showed how tough she is and gets some respect from Marina. Chanel is getting some moral victories, but needs some actual victories.
The main event features Miyu Yamashita defending the EVE International Championship against Kay Lee Ray. Miyu has been dominating in all of her appearances in EVE and Kay Lee Ray is an all-time icon, who is looking for gold after returning from the WWE. The crowd is behind Ray, but Miyu is as focused as ever. Ray goes for a dive, but is met with a knee from Miyu, which puts the momentum purely on Miyu’s side. Miyu accidently knocks out ref Aubrey with a kick. Ray hits a Gory Bomb, but by the time the other ref comes out Miya is able to kick out. Miyu gets a second wind.
They both exchange strikes and Ray catches a Miyu kick, turning it into a Gory Bomb, followed by a senton. Miyu is able to roll out of the ring. Miyu hits a skull kick, but Ray rolls to the outside. Each wrestler has taken their opponent’s best shots and keeps coming back. With under five minutes remaining, they exchange kicks, until Miyu takes down Ray with a spinning back kick to the back of the head for a three count to retain the EVE International Championship.
After the match, Statlander walks right past Ray to Miyu, which really pisses Ray off, as she feels disrespected. They fight to the back, leaving Miyu in the ring alone, as Marina Shafir walks up to Miyu from behind and chokes her out.
This was another great event from EVE with lots of surprises and some of the best wrestlers in the world. The highlights of the night for me were the debut of Kingsley and inaugural Spirit of EVE championship match. The interactions between Abi, Amira and Kingsley was so entertaining and on a show that was full of hard-hitting matches this was a great change of pace. Kingsley is now a true international superstar, making her mark on three continents.
The three-way match between Lucy Sky aka Lucy Deathmatch, Emersyn Jayne and Skye Blue was everything you wanted in this match. It was violent, it was bloody, and all three women looked incredible. Blue is on another level whenever she is at EVE, as her face was filled with blood during this whole match.
Next up for EVE is “Mean Grrrrrls” on September 4, which will feature Saphire Reed against Kay Lee Ray, French Art defending the EVE Tag Team Championships against The Showstoppers, Lana Austin looks to get some revenge on RHIO, and Chantel Jordan takes on Emersyn Jane. It appears that we also have rivalries between Kay Lee Ray and Kris Statlander, as well as Marina Shafir and Miyu Yamashita that still need to be resolved.
Check out all of the EVE action from past to present by subscribing to their YouTube channel.
