AEW Dark promises OVER 100 MINUTES of action!

With 14 matches in no less than 100 minutes, AEW Dark is going big! Who shines brightest in the shadow of Friday Night Dynamite?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Lance Archer VS Zicky Dice; Archer wins.
• Abadon VS Willow Nightingale; Abadon wins.
• Cezar Bononi w/ The Wingmen VS Cyrus; Bononi wins.
• Angelico VS Matthew Justice; Angelico wins.
• Tay Conti w/ Negative One VS Natalia Markova; Conti wins.
• Chaos Project VS JP & Tommy Daily; Chaos Project wins.
• Marko Stunt VS Ariel Dominguez; Stunt wins.
• Aaron Solow w/ The Factory VS Sonny Kiss w/ Joey Janela; Solow wins.
• Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero VS Missa Kate; Nyla wins.
• QT Marshall w/ The Factory VS Bear Bronson; Marshall wins.
• Thunder Rosa VS Megan Bayne; Rosa wins.
• Six Man Tag: The Dark Order VS Kit Sackett, Dan Barry & Justin Law; The Dark Order wins.
• Big Swole & KiLynn King w/ Red Velvet VS The Sea Stars; Swole & King win.
• Matt Sydal w/ Mike Sydal VS Dante Martin; Sydal wins.

MY THOUGHTS

I find it funny that after wondering how Elevation and Dark might get shorter with touring coming back, Dark stuffs itself full again. At the same time, AEW just seems to be getting bigger and bigger, with Rampage on the horizon for three televised hours and anywhere from two to three hours on YouTube. That said, opening with Lance Archer mauling Zicky Dice even before the match was not what I was expecting. Nor was I expecting the double tunnel set-up for Daily’s Place returning. Jake the Snake continues to be great on commentary for Archer, and Archer turned Dice into dust for a great opener.

Abadon continues to be scary as hell, she continues to win, and I am still hoping to see Britt Baker dealing with Abadon just to avoid Thunder Rosa. Willow Nightingale does get a good showing against Abadon, a lot of good character work, but I feel like no one will ever not be afraid of Abadon. Bononi VS Cyrus is a really good match because both guys are BIG guys. Nemeth’s interference failing was a great little bit, too, but Bononi still wins out. I see potential in Cyrus if he can do well on the mic or comes up with a character fans can get behind.

Matt Hardy has a good promo with The Hybrid2, and it helps give kayfabe to why Angelico is facing Christian this Friday on Dynamite. Matt Justice got to start off strong, but WOW that dive onto railing and nothing else. That was a ballsy spot for Justice to be on the bad end of, but it shows his own toughness. Angelico still wins so he has momentum going into the match with Christian, but Justice’s toughness also translates into Angelico’s own strength and ability. Tay Conti had a strong match with Markova, Conti is winning and is considered the #2 contender, she might be in line for a title match while Britt avoids Rosa.

The Daily Brothers, aka the Amazing Graysons, got roughed up by Chaos Project but still got to have a good showing in their debut loss. I’m a little surprised AEW insisted they change their names, though. I get that the Graysons themselves are referencing DC Comics and Dick Grayson, aka the original Robin. But c’mon, it’s not like the brothers are cosplaying Robin in the ring. Now it just looks weird that they have “Grayson” on their tights but they’re the “Daily” brothers. Wouldn’t it be weirder that they’re the Daily brothers wrestling at Daily’s Place?

Joey Janela had another good promo, even though he went and meme’d Big Mommy Milkers back into things. I also appreciate that Janela and Kiss are still somehow sticking together, to further imply this is going to implode at some point. Kiss not having Janela ringside despite the promo was also part of that. Kiss VS Solow was really good, showing Kiss’ toughness, but given Kiss had no back-up and Solow did, naturally Solow wins, and of course The Factory beats Kiss up. And again, I feel like this was another missed opportunity where QT Marshall has his match right after Solow’s since he was there. Bronson could’ve made the save to call QT out, they have their match, which was very good, by the way, and then The Factory is done for the night.

Stunt has a good match with debuting Dominguez, someone finally closer to Stunt’s size. Fans love Stunt, Stunt is a lot of fun to watch, just don’t expect him to get a singles title. Unless AEW comes up with a literal AEW Dark Championship. Well, even then, I think other people get that belt other than Stunt. Vickie continues to belittle Justin Roberts but I feel like she has almost too much Heel heat right now. She made it a bit tricky for Andrade to debut on Dynamite last Friday, and she always makes it hard during any entrance for Nyla Rose since fans are booing so hard. Nyla of course rips her opponent apart since she’s moving up to take on Britt, too, after that burger tossing during the celebration. Britt will definitely need Rebel to counteract Vickie and help her cheat Nyla when that showdown happens.

With Thunder Rosa being the #1 contender, I’m surprised she wasn’t in the main event. But I suppose it was a given she was beating Megan Bayne. Bayne already has a great character just on presentation as a sort of Greek Amazon or even demigod, I think she could be a strong competitor if given time to give mythology themed promos. Maybe AEW Rampage can be used to get the Women’s Division going as strong as the others. Women’s midcard title? Another attempt at Women’s Tag medals or whatever? We can only hope.

The Dark Order brings another unique formation with Stu Grayson, Colt Cabana and Preston Vance. Cabana still isn’t numbered, but I feel like he’d be Number 8. Stu is “Player Two,” 2 + 8 = 10. They of course get a win because Vance is going to team with Hangman to take on Team Taz, and because they were facing a random assortment of Dark jobbers. Why did it take me until today, putting this article together, to realize “The Sea Stars” are called that because it’s “The Sisters,” just said with exaggeration and almost an accent? The Sea Stars have a good match with #SwoleKings, but Swole, King and Velvet are a strong trio so of course they’re all staying strong this week.

Dante Martin has a good promo to hype the match, and how great for him to be in the main event with a veteran like Matt Sydal with an actual main event length of time. Okay, 15 minutes isn’t a lot of time but for no commercials and as strong and as fast as these two can go, that’s a lot of time. The match itself was awesome, with both guys showing off truly innovative moves. Dante keeping up with Sydal at just 19, going on 20, is incredibly impressive. It was a touch disappointing that Dante didn’t win, but no shame in it given the showing he got. Here’s hoping that when Darius is 100% again, we get Sydal Brothers VS Top Flight for an even wilder match to build on this one.

My Score: 8.3/10