AEW
This week’s AEW Dark: Elevation was taped prior to last Wednesday’s Dynamite with Excalibur and Matt Menard on the call.
Marina Shafir & Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero) defeated JC Storm and Joelle Clift
At some point, I assume AEW will introduce Women’s Tag Team titles to help give a purpose to some of the women that don’t have anything to do. Rose has been stuck on Dark and Dark: Elevation for months in tag team and trios matches with no real purpose.
Shafir and Rose got the win in a short match after hitting Clift with a double team fireman’s carry/DDT that saw Clift land right on the top of her head.
Julia Hart defeated Tiara James
Hart continues to roll with this new character, picking up her fourteenth straight singles win. They are clearly positioning her for some kind of title match before the end of the year.
She made James’ AEW debut a rough one, winning a quick match with the Hartless submission.
With Malakai Black seemingly gone from AEW, you wonder what they will do with the team so they don’t lose any momentum as fans are really into the act.
Matt Sydal & Dante Martin defeated Serpentico & Zack Clayton (w/ Luther)
Clayton is one of Tony Khan’s new Dark projects as he has developed an affinity for the reality show star as of late. Why Serpentico is teaming with hi instead of his regular partner Luther was never explained.
Martin & Sydal won this in roughly two minutes after Martin hit Serpentico with the Nosedive. I think Excalibur and Menard joked through nearly all of it.
Athena defeated Emi Sakura
This was Athena’s first match since losing to TBS Champion Jade Cargill at All Out. Surprisingly, this was only her 10th overall match since debuting in early-June. That feels low, doesn’t it?
This was a spirited and competitive match early with both shoving each other early and Sakura hitting a Cross Rhodes into her “We Will Rock You” hand claps.
The story here was that Sakura wouldn’t die no matter what Athena did. Athena got beat up for a while but finally rallied with a thrust kick and the O-Face finisher to get the win. We’ll see where they go from here.
House of Black (Buddy Matthews & Brody King) (w/ Julia Hart) defeated Isaiah Prince & Kubes
Based on the reaction to HoB, it’s hard to believe they will be disappearing following Black’s aforementioned exit. Both King and Matthews are great and deserve a nice main roster run as a tag team.
King used his power to overwhelm Matthews and King, hitting the cannonball dive. Matthews finished off Kubes (yes, that’s really his name) with a chokeslam on his knee followed by the pump handle driver for the win.
Menard hit the “Alright, I’ve heard enough” meter during this match with the incessant laughing and screwing around. Again, if the announcers aren’t taking this seriously, why should the viewer?
Hikaru Shida defeated Christina Marie
This is the first match for the former AEW Women’s Champion since the four-way for the interim title at All Out. She will team with new champion Toni Storm against Britt Baker & Serena Deeb Wednesday.
Shida won easily, hitting the meteora and the Katana knee for the pin and win. She hasn’t been on Dynamite with this frequency since April.
John Silver defeated Ryan Nemeth
This was Silver’s first match since the loss at All Out in the Trios title tournament. Evil Uno, 10 and Alex Reynolds all came out with him, nursing various injuries.
This was a comedy match that Silver won with the running boot to the back of the head, followed by the Spin Doctor for the pin and win.
Menard wondered what Silver’s Google history looked like based on his facial expressions. He’s turning into an SNL character stretched out into a movie.
The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny) defeated The Factory (Aaron Solo & Nick Comoroto)
This was a homecoming match for Butcher & Blade as they are synonymous with the area. This was a perfect way to use them here in a featured match considering they aren’t in any main show program. All three came out in custom old-school Buffalo Sabres jerseys.
QT Marshall, who ran down the city before the match, and Cole Karter were all out with their Factory mates. I can appreciate Comoroto trying something new with his character but the whole presentation feels like he pulled it out of a hat.
Blade and Solo worked the first portion, eventually giving way to the big men. Comorto wasn’t backing down, but Butcher gained the advantage leading to some double-team action.
The rest was as you might expect: the heels get the advantage, the faces eventually fight back, and the good guys hit Drag The Lake to get the win. The one nuance was Marshall getting thrown out for getting in the ring which led to the finisher on Solo.
I don’t believe Butcher & Blade will ever get back to the point when they were fighting the Young Bucks in a falls count anywhere match on Dynamite, but at least they got this moment tonight.
Final Thoughts:
Condense this and Dark into a one-hour show with some good matches and have the commentary team take it more seriously and there’s something. Otherwise, it’s an assembly line of quick matches to give people to do with the occasional fun moment like the main event.
