Before AEW returns to Wednesdays, we need Dark from the weekend!

As AEW returns to Wednesdays and the road, they serve up a big, hot plate of Dark classic! 15 matches, 90 minutes, and grudges galore!

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Wardlow VS Baron Black; Wardlow wins.
• Lee Johnson w/ Dustin Rhodes VS Vary Morales; Johnson wins.
• Abadon VS Hyan; Abadon wins.
• “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs VS Marko Stunt; Hobbs wins.
• Lance Archer w/ Jake the Snake Roberts VS Kenny Bengal; Archer wins.
• Tay Conti VS Charlette Renegade; Conti wins.
• QT Marshall & Aaron Solow w/ Nick Comoroto VS Chad Lennex & Zachariah w/ Dustin Rhodes; QT & Solow win.
• JD Drake w/ The Wingmen VS Frankie Kazarian; Kaz wins.
• Angelico w/ Matt Hardy VS Arjun Singh; Angelico wins.
• Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero VS Holidead; Nyla wins.
• Sonny Kiss VS The Blade w/ The Bunny & The Hybrid2; The Blade wins.
• Julia Hart w/ The Varsity Blonds VS Ashley D’Amboise; Hart wins.
• Six Man Tag: Jack Evans & Private Party VS Evil Uno, Stu Grayson & Colt Cabana w/ The Dark Order; The Dark Order wins.
• Capt. Shawn Dean VS JDX; Dean wins.
• Cezar Bononi & Ryan Nemeth w/ The Wingmen VS Sage Scott & Jake St. Patrick; Bononi & Nemeth win.

MY THOUGHTS

Another episode at just over 90 minutes? Dark is definitely going big before AEW goes on the road and the YouTube shows probably get trimmed down a little. Though I feel like they might still find a way to give us three more hours of content even so. Having only the wrestler audience present doesn’t really help it feel all that important, though. Wardlow gets a strong opener with Baron Black, but why is he not using his ‘This is War!” song? The Pinnacle’s generic theme should be used when all members are entering, not just one or two. And I guess Wardlow’s finishing is now “The Casualty of War.” A solid name for a legitimately nasty move.

Big Shotty and Vary have a great match, and Johnson gets a great win for it. Abadon shows up, Abadon scares me, Abadon scares her opponent, and Abadon wins, simple as that. Then, as great as Marko is, it was obvious Hobbs was going to win. Same for Archer destroying Bengal, but it was a great detail that Bengal was willing to just forfeit by leaving. Jake the Snake on commentary is always great, too, he should be reason enough for Archer to always be on the card. Conti gets to show some character against Charlette Renegade, Charlette gets to show some of her own skill and strength, but Conti is ranked #2, she was going to win to stay ranked #2.

I do like that the Nightmare Family is incorporating the Rhodes Wrestling Academy, Dustin’s school, in the story against The Factory. Though if I were Dustin, I would’ve stayed ringside because of The Factory always having someone else other than just those in the ring. But either way, Zachariah and Lennex give The Factory a really good match but The Factory wins to stay strong against the Nightmare Family. JD Drake and Frankie Kazarian was really good, they opened with great technical wrestling and continued with heavy hands. Also I think Avalon and Bononi were wearing matching Polo shirts. Kaz wins because the #EliteHunter needs to stay strong to hunt The Elite.

Speaking of technical style, Angelico has that in spades, but Arjun Singh definitely made him use a lot of that skill here. Angelico still wins, when is he going to get a TNT Championship match? Jora Joll being ringside so Hardy could add to the recruitment speech was good, I wonder what his answer will be. Joey Janela had another good interview promo, in that he did a lot of great expressive work while not saying much. I expected Janela to interfere with Sonny Kiss’ match, especially with the great showing Kiss had against The Blade, but that’s what the HFO was there for. Them all attacking Kiss after to bring out “Good Friends” Chuck and Orange was good, and Janela acting like he was late to helping as Kiss’ friend was another great layer of the story.

Holidead joining AEW is great, but I wonder if she and Thunder Rosa will reunite as the Twisted Sisters. She had a good showing against Nyla Rose, even as Nyla and Vickie are building towards their tag match with Britt Baker & Rebel. Nyla using a Burning Hammer is an impressive addition to her arsenal, too. I wonder if that will be used to win the tag match. Julia Hart, in her new ring gear, gets a real good win against Ashley D’Amboise, I’m thinking all members of The Varsity Blonds trio will rise up to be the top of AEW some day. I feel like seeing fireworks in the back should’ve made this a show closer by default, even if that’d be way too much for just Julia and Ashley.

Evans teaming with Private Party shows the HFO can interchange much in the way The Dark Order can and that’s really fitting as this feud continues on the side of everything else Hardy is doing. They had an awesome Six Man Tag, we got a lot of good teamwork moves from The Dark Order, but HFO has good Heel teamwork to get the advantage. But it was a great surprise for Dark Order to win, I didn’t think that’d happen, but really, when it was Cabana and the OG, it was the right move. Excalibur’s dialogue here, saying it “capped off” a great Dark makes me think it really should’ve been the main event, but oh well.

The Captain has a great return, JDX has a great debut through it, but it is great for Shawn Dean to finally get a win in AEW. I don’t know if there will be another battle royal or some other match with multiple entries for All Out, but I feel like it’d be great if Dean got in on it for the hometown crowd. The Wingmen getting the broadcast main event is great stuff for them, as well as a win, but of course they were winning here. Another reason The Dark Order winning that Six Man should’ve been the main event, but maybe it shows AEW is putting some stock in The Wingmen as a faction.

My Score: 8.2/10