This isn’t good-bye, Daily’s Place, just a Dark “see you later.”

Before AEW hits the road again, Dark still has to pack things up. And in a special edition of The Waiting Room, Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss try to reconcile.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Lance Archer w/ Jake the Snake Roberts VS Ryan Mantell; Archer wins.
• QT Marshall & Aaron Solow w/ Nick Comoroto VS The Hughes Brothers; QT & Solow win.
• Abadon VS Natalia Markova; Abadon wins.
• Matt Sydal w/ Mike Sydal VS Carlie Bravo; Sydal wins.
• The Blade w/ The Hardy Family Office VS Tre Lamar; The Blade wins.
• Bear Bronson w/ Bear Boulder VS “Big Trouble” Ben Bishop; Bronson wins.
• Marko Stunt & Fuego Del Sol VS Baron Black & Ryzin; Stunt & Fuego win.
• Kris Statlander w/ Orange Cassidy VS Viva Van; Statlander wins.
• The Varsity Blonds w/ Julia Hart VS Chad Lennex & Zachariah w/ Dustin Rhodes; The Varsity Blonds win.
• Angelico VS Prince Kai; Angelico wins.
• Wheeler Yuta VS Ryan Nemeth w/ The Wingmen; Yuta wins.
• Shawn Spears & Wardlow VS Hunter Knott & Rosario Grillo; Spears & Wardlow win.
• Tay Conti w/ Negative One VS KiLynn King; Conti wins.
• The Dark Order VS Will Allday, Jason Hotch, Chandler Hopkins & Dean Alexander; The Dark Order wins.
• Jake Evans w/ The Hardy Family Office VS Mike Sydal w/ Matt Sydal; Evans wins.
• Red Velvet VS Ashley Vox; Velvet wins.
• Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero M w/ Alex Abrahantes VS Chaos Project; Kingston & Penta win.

MY THOUGHTS

Just over two hours at 123 minutes, and 17 matches!? Just as I thought things were winding down. But I suppose Dark classic is the last thing in Daily’s Place for the next month, they wanted to go big. I probably would’ve tried to skin the best of these and put them on Elevation just so it’s less here. Elevation had room to breathe to be one hour and that would’ve helped Dark be closer to 90 minutes. But those gripes aside, things go as usual for Dark. Archer adding a projection of his logo onto the ring is a nice new detail to his presentation. Everything else is pretty par for the course: his opponent gets a half decent showing but #EverybodyDies when the Murderhawk Monster is in there with them.

The Factory gets a really good match out of the Hughes Brothers, AKA Team TNT, sons of D-Von and a good win, mostly because QT has that Strap Match with Cody Rhodes tomorrow. Commentary was great plugging the Strap Match, too. Ricky Starks has a great sense of humor and comedic timing. The Waiting Room being in the early half was a surprise, but it was still a good return edition that also did a good job plugging AEW in Pittsburgh and the big Rampage debut. Sonny and Janela having their story on here was really good, and Janela was of course teasing being HBK in this scenario. The jacket and boots, literally getting his smile back as Britt claims she fixed his teeth, really good stuff.

Sonny does have a right to be upset with the Bad Boy, and Janela trying to deflect was pretty funny. Janela getting serious was good, too, Kiss giving Janela that opening and Britt totally wanting him to HBK Barber Shop this was good stuff, and definitely what I expected. The fact they hugged it out was actually smart, though, because we were expecting the turn the entire time. There’s probably going to be a bigger moment where Janela does finally turn on Sonny, and it’ll be in front of fans at a moment that’ll really get Janela some Heel Heat.

Abadon’s back, I’m scared, but duh, she wins. Sydal VS Bravo was really good, probably one of those ones that could’ve been on Elevation like I said. It would even work with how Elevation ended, where Sydal ran off Chaos Project beating up Dante Martin. That aside, Sydal gets a win to build momentum to face Andrade El Idolo tomorrow, that’s going to be really good. Blade brutalizes Tre Lamar even before the bell, that really helps for his intensity and momentum going into the Mixed Tag. It was still a really good showing for Lamar, and he might’ve made a good impression on management.

“Big Trouble Bishop” is quite the name for a young indie guy, but he is a big guy for sure. He immediately looks impressive pushing Bear Bronson around but Bronson also looks more impressive for being able to stop him, a great hoss fight for sure. Marko teaming up with Fuego was definitely a unique combo and a fun plug for the Sammy vlog series. A very good match and very good win for the fan favorite underdog. Fuego’s first win in AEW on this go-home to Road Rager, #VlogCrew celebrating with him, that was great stuff in itself. Statlander of course wins to build her own momentum towards the Mixed Tag, but she gave Viva Van a good showing in her AEW debut.

Dustin’s trainees get another solid showing but of course the Varsity Blonds win, it was a good halfway point for the show. They had a good promo, too, putting themselves over of course. Angelico not having anyone in his corner was a surprise for his match, but it shows he didn’t think he needed anyone to take care of Prince Kai. Kai has a good showing in taking the technical fight to Angelico, but Angelico turns it up a notch to get that win. There needs to be a time where, as AEW is working with NJPW, we get Angelico VS Zack Sabre Jr. for an awesome technical display. Angelico’s extended exit was weird, but I guess it was so Wheeler Yuta and him could bump shoulders. Is that AEW’s awkward way of foreshadowing a future feud?

Speaking of, Yuta VS Nemeth was very good, very agile and technical in its own way, and a lot of great character stuff with The Wingmen as Nemeth’s overzealous corner crew. I like that their thing isn’t really interfering, it’s just non-consensual makeovers. Yuta getting the win is great, too, it is making The Wingmen into a bunch of goofs and that is exactly what they are. The Pinnacle of course wins, much like they did the last time Spears & Wardlow teamed up. Honestly, Wardlow probably could’ve taken on Knott & Grillo on all by himself, but Wardlow & Spears make a good combo. They and MJF should be the Pinnacle’s trio if trios titles ever show up.

Conti VS King being a little later in the card is pretty good for them, shows AEW likes both of them and sees them as hooks for fans to stick around. It was a very good match, King getting a really good showing against the #2 contender. Conti and King were both bringing out some new stuff, too, so it’s great to see them changing things up as they’re getting stronger in the ranks. The Dark Order of course wins the 8 Man, but that’s quite the collection of Dark regulars on the other team. Dark Order really can win with any combination.

Evans VS Mike Sydal was one of those I felt could’ve gone either way because of the building feud with The HFO and the allies of Christian Cage. It was a very good match with the agility and technical ability of both guys, as well as the aggression from Evans, and Evans winning makes sense with how the rest of the HFO built momentum tonight. The sweep by the HFO tonight surely goes with how they’re not winning tomorrow or against Christian and his friends. Velvet VS Vox being the penultimate is definitely great for them, it’s another case of being a hook to keep fans watching through to the end. Velvet wins to stay in the top rankings, she’ll probably be hovering around the title just as a way for Britt to avoid Thunder Rosa.

Kingston & Penta being the main event here makes all the sense given their tag title match tomorrow. Also, going against Chaos Project, it was like facing some kinda Bizarro version of themselves. Chaos Project still have great character work, they’re solid midcard “jobbers to the stars” types. Even though the tag title match is a Street Fight and therefore no one would be cheating, I am pretty sure the Young Bucks still screw Kingston & Penta out of the titles so that they don’t lose two matches in a row on top of losing the titles. Either way, that is going to be another barn burner of a match and will get the fans really fired up.

My Score: 8.2/10