New year, new opportunities for someone to make it big!

AEW has some leftovers from 2021, but they’re nice and hot for Dark: Elevation! Will someone break through to that next level at Daily’s Place?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Riho VS Vanentina Rossi; Riho wins.
• Andrade El Idolo w/ Jose VS JP Harlow; Andrade wins.
• Megan Bayne VS Leila Grey; Bayne wins.
• Scorpio Sky w/ Ethan Page & Dan Lambert VS Ray Jaz; Scorpio wins.
• John Silver & Alex Reynolds w/ The Dark Order VS Mike Orlando & Shayne Stetson; Silver & Reynolds win.
• Jake Atlas VS Serpentico w/ Luther; Atlas wins.
• Skye Blue VS Angelica Risk; Skye wins.
• Jay Lethal VS Troy Hollywood; Lethal wins.

QUICK NOTES

Great to see Jake Atlas show up in AEW after WWE went and cut him during that bit of madness over the summer. WWE has again stopped caring about Cruiserweights, but Atlas is a great athletic talent so AEW and other companies can definitely find a place for him. And I like that we’re getting a chance for someone to move up the ladder in Bayne VS Grey. Leila Grey has had a good amount of matches on Elevation and Dark classic and has looked good in defeat, this could be her night.

AFTER WATCHING

It seems Elevation continues to be giving each match about five minutes, because eight matches gave us 40 minutes and change. A unique thing for Andrade’s win tonight is that he used a submission to win. It was a double armbar, which is essentially him changing up the Rings of Saturn, aka The Brutalizer, that Pac uses. Perhaps a message sent to The Bastard as that story isn’t quite resolved. Megan Bayne was given quite the entrance here, having attendants lead the way to fit her Greek Goddess Athena persona, and it turns out she got to be the one winning big tonight.

I like that AEW had Atlas later in the card, shows they think of him as a pretty big deal, and the same goes for Skye Blue. It shows AEW already sees bright futures for those two, but AEW is pretty chocked full of people. Maybe there’s a place for Atlas if AEW does more with the FTW Championship or if he can find a team to work with. The AEW Women’s Division getting the second title in the TBS Championship helps open things up, if they can just give the women more TV time. But of course, a name as great as Jay Lethal closing is a natural move. Troy Hollywood was also looking great against Lethal, so I’m thinking AEW will keep an eye on him, too.

Whatever is happening with ROH, I feel like Lethal has needed to move on from there, and AEW is a great place to be for that. Lethal should be put in that Face of the Revolution Ladder match. Let Lethal establish himself here in AEW as he did in ROH, maybe he can be TNT Champion after Cody’s had his run with it.