Universal Studio stays Dark!

Ba-dee-ya~! September gets Dark but there are plenty of stars ready to shine! Who builds momentum going into AEW’s Grand Slam week?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Wardlow VS JDX; Wardlow wins.
• Big Swole VS Allie Katch; Swole wins.
• Santana & Ortiz VS Chaos Project; Santana & Ortiz win.
• Joey Janela w/ Kayla Rossi VS Dillon McQueen; Janela wins.
• Tay Conti w/ Anna Jay & Negative One VS Marina Tucker; Conti wins.
• Lee Johnson & Brock Anderson w/ Dustin Rhodes VS Luke Curtis & Cameron Stewart; Johnson & Anderson win.
• FTR w/ Tully Blanchard VS Stallion Rogers & Anthony Greene; FTR wins.
• The Bunny w/ The Butcher & The Blade VS Xtina Kay; Bunny wins.
• Lance Archer VS Marcus Kross; Archer wins.
• Ryan Nemeth & Peter Avalon w/ The Wingmen VS John Silver & Alex Reynolds w/ The Dark Order; Silver & Reynolds win.
• Daniel Garcia w/ 2point0 VS Alan Angels w/ The Dark Order; Garcia wins.
• Six Man Tag: The Factory VS Darian Bengston, Cole Karter & Sean Maluta; The Factory wins.
• Colt Cabana w/ The Dark Order VS JD Drake w/ The Wingmen; Cabana wins.
• Eddie Kingston VS Bear Bronson w/ Bear Boulder; Kingston wins.

QUICK NOTES

AEW is pumping up Dark again, but this is a pretty big week for them being in New York for Dynamite and Rampage and paving the way towards the anniversary and the start of “season three.” Great to see a lot of fresh match-ups just within the established roster, such as the various Dark Order matches. Garcia VS Angels is probably going to be a show stealer in and of itself. Kingston VS Bear Bronson sounds like another great one, and I like that former WWE Cruiserweights are showing up somewhere. Curt Stallion & August Grey deserved better chances than WWE’s Prick Khan gave them, so maybe Tony Khan can at least find them a place to be within the various partnerships, even if it’s with Impact or NWA.

AFTER WATCHING

Wardlow has a quick promo and an easy opener, maybe Wardlow should go for the TNT Championship on behalf of The Pinnacle. Wardlow VS Miro would be pretty brutal. But as is the way of AEW Dark, a lot of the match results were obvious, but all good performances regardless. Good to see that Negative One gets to hang out with Jay & Tay again, since the Universal Studios location isn’t too far from home. Maybe Negative One will be the key to keeping the group together. I was surprised FTR wasn’t later in the card given they’re going up against Darby & Sting, but whatever. Stallion didn’t change up his look but Greene going with pants was very different from his tights in NXT.

Stallion & Greene got a great showing against FTR but again, FTR are going against Darby & Sting, they were going to get momentum. Great to see Silver & Reynolds back in action together and winning, but another missed opportunity to just have Garcia and 2point0 making their entrance while Angels was already ringside. Garcia VS Angels was still really good, and while there was that brief stretch where Angels was being seen as last place in the Dark Order, I like that they’ve turned that around to let Angels show his skill. Though, Angels did still lose, so in a way maybe he’s still last.