Still more Dark from Miami!

AEW Road Rager was wild but there was still so much more to see! The Hardy Family Office is on a roll, will they get stronger in the Dark?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Matt Hardy w/ The Hardy Family Office VS Jah-C; Hardy wins.
• Brian Cage VS Foxx Vinyer; Cage wins.
• The Acclaimed VS Derek Pisaturo & Roman Rozell; The Acclaimed win.
• Diamante VS Harlow O’Hara; Diamante wins.
• Ethan Page w/ Scorpio Sky VS Ryan Mantell; Ethan wins.
• Big Swole VS Sahara Seven; Swole wins.
• Dante Martin VS RSP; Dante wins.
• Evil Uno & Stu Grayson w/ The Dark Order VS Sean Maluta & Papadon; Uno & Stu win.
• Ryan Nemeth w/ The Wingmen VS Marcus Kross; Nemeth wins.
• Penelope Ford VS Robyn Renegade; Ford wins.
• Frankie Kazarian VS Austin Green w/ Diamond Sheik; Kaz wins.
• Lee Johnson & Brock Anderson w/ The Nightmare Family VS Mark Davidson & Aaron Frye; Johnson & Anderson win.
• Julia Hart w/ The Varsity Blonds VS Madi Wrenkowski; Julia wins.
• The Blade w/ The Hardy Family Office VS Jake Tucker; The Blade wins.
• Private Party w/ Matt Hardy VS Deonn Rusman & Joeasa; Private Party wins.
• “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs VS Travis Titan; Hobbs wins.
• Gunn Club VS JD Drake & Cezar Bononi w/ The Wingmen; Gunn Club wins.
• Angelico VS Wheeler Yuta; Angelico wins.

MY THOUGHTS

I figured Dark would be recorded from Daily’s Place, it’s just easier to have it be from the AEW home base. But did it have to be another two hours? Starting to feel like a broken record but not just shoving as many people as they can into these would in turn make it seem more important.

But moving on, Matt Hardy and the impressive Jah-C have a good opener. Hardy promised on Elevation to win again here and he did that, but he also gets to mock Christian Cage again with the Five Second Pose. Jora Johl even had his part to play as the HFO’s lackey. Hardy VS Christian is going to be very good for Fyter Fest, I wonder how “overbooked” it’ll be with the HFO being such a big faction and having enemies all over the place. Team Taz dominates again with both Cage and Hobbs getting wins. Cage is going into the FTW Championship match with Ricky Starks with a lot of momentum. I feel like Team Taz will choose a side and help the other win, and it might be Starks they choose.

The Acclaimed rebound from the 8 Man Tag loss on Elevation and wow that military diss rap. It was a good match, but naturally the Acclaimed win, they need to stay strong in the rankings as well as strong towards the feud with Varsity Blonds. Diamante has a good promo and her calling out Big Swole is quite the surprise as Swole is also back tonight. Diamante has a good match with Harlow, who I believe was on Women of Wrestling as Fury of the Psycho Sisters. Naturally Diamante wins because she needs to stay strong going into a feud with Swole. Likewise, Swole and Sahara Seven had a really good match, and Swole won for a strong return and strong promo to respond to Diamante.

Scorpio Sky was good on commentary for Ethan Page’s match, and Ethan got a good win off Ryan Mantell to go strong into the Coffin Match. The transition from Iconoclasm to Ego’s Edge was very creative, but kind of a shame he gave it away here instead of debuting it at Dynamite. Dante and Rickey Shane Page, aka RSP, was a great match, especially with that flying rana to start things. I do find it clever that AEW shortened the name to RSP just so there wouldn’t be a third Page after Hangman and Ethan. RSP is a hefty guy but he can move. Even so, Dante gets another great win, and he is definitely in that crop of future stars like I said Lee Johnson and Jungle Boy are in.

The Dark Order being on Dark classic here implies this might’ve been taped as early as last Thursday, because they were in Miami Wednesday for Dynamite and Elevation. Logistics aside, they have a very good match with Maluta and “Greek God” Papadon, I hope Uno and Stu finally get after the tag titles to parallel Hangman going after Omega. Penalty Kick Piledriver is a great new finisher for them, and can definitely work on guys perhaps too big for a Fatality (Gory Bomb Blockbuster). Ryan Nemeth of course wins but I do like that the Wingmen couldn’t style Marcus Kross’ hair so they just tried to ruin it instead.

Penelope Ford wins and stays strong in a good match with Robyn Renegade, but when are we seeing the Renegade sisters teaming together? I know the AEW Women’s Tag Division took a real nose dive cuz of Ivelisse, but AEW’s gotta try it again at some point. Kaz gets a good match out of Austin Green, who is a big dude. Green and Diamond Sheik could be a great combo of muscle and manager, we’d have to hear Sheik on the mic to see how his promos are. Johnson & Anderson have a good match with Davidson & Frye, Brock might need a bit more polish but he’s got a lot of mentors to learn from. The Nightmare Family gets a good win, I do want to see who they feud with.

Madi Wrenkowski is back and the dogtooth gear is a great look. She also has a lot of new aggression and some new moves, but Julia Hart wins, of course, as she’s staying strong as the third Varsity Blond. “Mother Lover” Jake Tucker is like taking a knockoff HBK and fusing it with a Paul brother, but Blade looks like a beast destroying him. Private Party gets a good match and win against #inFAMy, who get a good showing. Gunn Club getting the penultimate match is great, and them winning to stay strong is also great, but I’m curious as to Peter Avalon’s status. Is he hurt and recovering without the public knowing? If so, hopefully he recovers soon, I would love seeing all the Wingmen in an 8 Man Tag with, say, the Dark Order.

Wheeler Yuta has a good promo to help us understand his character while Angelico and Jack Evans have a good promo to both bury the Decoder and put him over. They made for a great main event, very technical but also with great agility. A lot of great creativity between both guys, too, and Angelico was mildly surprising. But the HFO sweeps the night, they’re looking to take over, and I’m still hoping for a big faction match between them and the friends of Christian Cage. Yuta, on the other hand, is now going into his Fyter Fest match with Sammy Guevara with bad momentum, but I was figuring Sammy was going to win anyway, unless Shawn Spears screws him over.

My Score: 8.2/10