AEW Dark has another 16 to serve up!

Elevation was big, but AEW Dark looks to match it! Will the Varsity Blonds be rolling into their tag title opportunity through SINGLES competition?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs w/ Hook VS Dean Alexander; Hobbs wins.
• Dante Martin VS Falco; Dante wins.
• Preston Vance w/ The Dark Order VS RYZIN; Vance wins.
• Chuck Taylor w/ Best Friends VS Aaron Rourke; Chuck wins.
• Lee Johnson w/ Cody Rhodes VS Fuego Del Sol; Johnson wins.
• Evil Uno & Colt Cabana w/ The Dark Order VS Tamilian Vineesh & Duncan Mitchell; The Dark Order wins.
• Cezar Bononi w/ The Pretty Picture VS Marko Stunt; Bononi wins.
• Nick Comoroto w/ The Factory VS Adrian Alanis; Comoroto wins.
• Sonny Kiss w/ Joey Janela VS Serpentico w/ Luther; Serpentico wins.
• Big Swole & Red Velvet w/ KiLynn King VS Vertvixen & Jazmin Allure; Swole & Velvet win.
• Griff Garrison w/ Varsity Blonds VS Deonn Rusman; Griff wins.
• Matt Sydal VS Marty Casaus; Sydal wins.
• Diamante VS Kris Statlander w/ Best Friends; Statlander wins.
• Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero VS Reka Tehaka; Nyla wins.
• Angelico VS Vary Morales; Angelico wins.
• Brian Pillman Jr. w/ Julia Hart VS Luther; BPJ wins.

MY THOUGHTS

Firstly, there were a series of subtle announcements for the Double or Nothing Casino Battle Royal throughout the night, with great looking playing card graphics. They should honestly consider making that limited edition merchandise to sell during DON weekend. Though, thinking about it now, they were all the King of Spades… Will Hobbs, Evil Uno, Colt Cabana, a mystery third member of Dark Order, Matt Hardy, Private Party, Jungle Boy, just to name a few, but I’m sure we’ll get more names tomorrow night and in the following weeks.

Ricky Starks on commentary for Will Hobbs and not Brian Cage is in itself the passive aggressiveness he should be having against Cage. And apparently there’s something about Dean Alexander’s hometown being wrong in introduction but the Sammy vlog series addressed it, so for those following that series get a nice little extra layer of story when Hobbs interrupted the introduction by attacking. I give kudos to AEW tying in everything they have, because they do it in a way that doesn’t then take away from what we are getting on in-ring programming. I wasn’t confused as to what inside joke they were making, it was just Hobbs attacking a guy before he squashes him. But those who know the joke get an extra little laugh.

I forgot Falco was in AEW through Dark before, so it was good to see him back. He and Dante Martin had a great match, but Dante’s roll keeps on going. Matt Hardy has a good promo to further the feud with The Dark Order, and him saying Dark Order has no boss could cause there to be not a new Exalted One but at least someone being the new leader. Following Hardy’s promo up with Vance getting a win works well, and of course Vance wins. Chuck gets a good win, but there hasn’t been as much to Best Friends VS Death Triangle as I’d hoped, even with Cassidy and PAC both getting in the DON world title match. Maybe the go-home gives us a trios match that can also have no effect on the title match math.

I’m surprised that Archer had another promo tonight, but he is calling out Miro and wants a TNT Championship match at Double or Nothing. One year later from the match with Cody Rhodes, I still don’t know if Archer gets that title. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t, but Archer VS Miro is going to be awesome. Fuego had a good promo on social media to hype his match with Big Shotty, and it was a very good match, but Johnson is getting that swagger and getting some good wins. At a certain point, I feel like we should get Johnson & The Rhodes Brothers VS The Factory in a trios match so that Johnson and QT can have it out properly.

The Acclaimed having a music video drop tonight was a great surprise. An Acclaimed album should be something AEW considers selling as merch, too. Uno & Cabana being in the Casino Battle Royal, makes sense they’d win tonight. I like that Justin Roberts continues to be confused that Cezar Bononi goes back to fetch Peter Avalon on the “sensual sled.” Not sure why Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus didn’t go with Marko to the ring, especially with The Pretty Picture accompanying Bononi, but I guess they like having Faces make the save. Jungle Boy had a good promo on his own, but I don’t see him winning the Casino Battle Royal. Would be a great surprise if he did.

Comoroto keeps winning, and I feel like there has to come a time when a fifth man joins The Factory. Kiss VS Serpentico was good, and Kiss is making good on the promo where he promised to really turn it up. It was a good twist for Luther to help Serpentico so directly, but I was surprised we didn’t also have the frustration in Janela from a few weeks ago come right back. Maybe if they keep losing, it’ll come back. #Swolevet continues to be a strong duo, Red Velvet has a great video package and the momentum, but I still don’t think she dethrones Serena Deeb on Dynamite. Marty Casaus goes from being a moth to being Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, apparently. But that didn’t help him beat Matt Sydal, who is getting ready to put Christian Cage over.

Angelico VS Morales was a surprise to me, I don’t remember that being advertised anywhere. But given that, it was a great match, and Angelico of course wins. A bit lame we didn’t get Ren Narita returning to Dark, or Kal Jak debuting on Dark. Those were some lowkey highlights going into this for me. I swear AEW still doesn’t have this figured out and it’s baffling to me. Unless, is it a strategy to fish out moles in the company feeding sites that hype Dark up? The sites that, to be honest, I turn to in order to be ready ahead of time. And going to AEW’s Twitter is worse, they don’t post all of the matches at once and there’s so much activity between tweets about Dark.

Diamante VS Statlander was really good, really creative with Statlander’s slow roll splash, but Statlander is definitely getting back on that roll she had before getting hurt. Of course Nyla Rose wins, she’s always going to be a strong presence in the Women’s Division. Rusman had a great showing but of course Garrison wins. Brian Pillman Jr. getting the main event spot was a really great thing in the big picture. Everyone knows more about the Pillman family after the Dark Side of the Ring special, so how can anyone not be sympathetic to him? I don’t think that helps the Varsity Blonds win the tag titles this time around, but they are going to give The Young Bucks one hell of a match.

My Score: 8/10