Wednesday morning wrestling fans wake with plenty to look forward to. This evening Jon Moxley and Brian Cage will face off in Fight for the Fallen, but what happened in the lead-up to the event? Join us as we recap the July 14 episode of AEW Dark.
Last week on Dark…
Brian Pillman Jr’s mullet arrived. Lucha Bros, The Butcher and The Blade squashed The Faboo Four. Serpentico found a way to bring streamers to the corona era. Peter Avalon and Brandon Cutler lost again. Catch up with all the pops and botches in our July 7 recap.
Working hard for the money
To provide you all with a richer recap experience, the past week I have been marathoning the YouTube series Being The Elite. Alas, I am far enough behind that not a single Dark talent has anchored a storyline, so you will have to wait a bit longer for a 4000-word essay on the life and times of a man trying to get a librarian gimmick over in professional wrestling.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
POP: Allie making something of the Nightmare Sisters
The latest angle for Brandi Rhodes is an odd couple tag team with Allie, who is kayfabe in a relationship with QT Marshall. Last week Dustin cut an uncomfortable promo threatening Allie to be nice or else, and it seems it took.
The big character moment during the match was Allie dropping to her knees to slap her opponent in the jaw, an entirely uneffective but cool-looking move from the Rhodes playbook. Is she warming to the fam? She also spiked the fixed camera a few times. We presume the kiss was blown to QT, but was the wink intended for The Butcher and The Blade?
Dustin wasn’t wrong in his promo when he said this is a story we’ve all seen before, but it’s essential drama, and it’s good to see some character work getting done in the women’s division.
BOTCH: The rest of the match
Brandi and Allie are up against Diamante and Raché Chanel. Chanel’s wannabe bougie character has potential, but she hasn’t really had the chance to make it shine yet. In this match the almost certainly not a Parisian is here to job. She takes the spear from Brandi and it’s one, two, three.
BOTCH: Not quite breaking out
This is the first time i’ve seen Robert Anthony in action. I liked his superhero-inspired outfit, and he seemed alright in the ring, but it’s hard for me to get excited about an average-looking guy with two first names.
Ricky Starks is presented as a major contrast – strutting in like a superstar, glistening and cocksure.
They kick off with some fun locks and transitions then step up to exchanging strikes. Anthony takes a heavy spear, then a swinging neckbreaker. Starks eventually gets the win.
There were some decent spots in the match, but the lack of storyline made it forgettable for me. Starks has the entrance of a top guy, but he has yet to get me invested in his character either inside or outside of the ring.
BOTCH: Talking about the glove
Shawn Spears cuts a brief promo about history and legacy. I mean, I guess. I enjoyed Spears as the perennial underdog in NXT, but I’m not really down with either the chairman or the glove.
POP: Random trios action
This week’s randomly assembled jobber team is Shawn Dean, Joe Alonzo and Will Hobbs. They face a trio of bad dudes from Dark Order: Alan Angels, John Silver and Alex Reynolds, aka 3, 4 and 5. I probably have the numbers in the wrong order.
Hobbs opens against Angels and shrugs off a slap to the face. It’s good to know the guy’s glass jaw only breaks for oranges. Dean gets off a few crowd-pleasing aerial spots before the Order shut him down. Dean is strung out between Silver and Reynolds to set Angels up for a springboard moonsault faux-finisher, but shows heart in the kick-out.
Hobbs comes in for the hot tag, but things rapidly deteriorate. I lost track of the tags in all the excitement. It’s a bit of a mess, bodies go flying everywhere, but that feels right for trios on the developmental show.
Somehow Alonzo comes out looking like the biggest badass for eating two explosive finishers in a row over the past couple weeks. This time he’s pinned after a double flipping DDT.
POP: Oiled up amuse-bouche
Michael Nakazawa and Marko Stunt are up next to bring us a comedy interlude. It starts relatively straight, despite Stunt leaning heavily on wrestling physics to throw the bigger guy around. Naka goes through some of his oiled-up spots before trying the underwear finisher, but Stunt reverses and leaves Naka choking on his own fumes.
This match doesn’t outstay its welcome, and helps sell Marko Stunt as more than just a mascot for Jurassic Express. Making all three look good is important since they’re up against The Elite in Fight for the Fallen.
POP: Web fluid – it’s what’s for dinner
Brady Pierce teams here with Pineapple Pete against Luther and Serpentico. Serpentico stalks his way into the ring looking a mite spookier than last week. Luther follows, tongue flopping about like an unwelcome shower curtain.
Surprise! Serpentico stretches his arms and releases his streamers like some nightmarish Spider-Man. Luther starts scooping strands into his mouth as Pete looks on in disgust.
Once the mess is cleared, Luther and Pete get straight into it, exchanging hard strikes. Serpentico and Pierce briefly tag in, but then it’s right back to our openers. Serpentico spends a lot of the match being used as a projectile by Luther, tossed and spiked into the pineapple pincushion. Pierce tags in just in time to take the pin.
Luther’s ring work is ugly and looks like it hurts. I hope that’s intentional and part of his gimmick, because there’s something intriguing about this rusty hardcore uncle. Putting him together with someone as stylish and limber as Serpentico feels like it could work.
Props to Pineapple Pete too, who kept in character throughout. My match of the night.
POP: Everyone’s favorite losers
Brandon Cutler and Peter Avalon are back! Their opponents are Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, who are warming up for their match against The Elite at Fight for the Fallen.
Cutler and Avalon are coming together as a team, and they make a strong go of it. Cutler blocks the dextrous dino’s standing moonsault after being laid flat by a chokeslam. Avalon staggers him with a springboard DDT and follows with marti-knees. Cutler makes a flying elbow-drop! One, two – and it’s broken up by Jungle Boy who has just recovered from Leva Bates’ sneaky hurricanrana on the outside. Great sequence.
Luchasaurus brings it home for Jurassic Express, after a team finisher that sees Avalon swung over to Jungle Boy for a cutter, then covered by Luchasaurus for the pin.
JOB: The Machine v The Mullet
Dark gets a J to go with the P&B this episode. This match didn’t give us much to pop about, but it was necessary.
Brian Cage enters with Taz’s renegade FTW Championship around his waist. He puts the belt up in a match with Brian Pillman Jr.
Pillman comes at Cage with a flurry of kicks, but there ain’t nobody stopping The Machine ahead of his match with Mox at Fight for the Fallen. Cage wins it with a chain of powerful monster moves.
Having seen Cage pull out some aerial stuff on Lucha Underground I hope we can see a bit more of that side of him as he settles in to AEW, but this booking made sense.
Overall I enjoyed episode 42 of Dark. In the absence of the full roster, it’s fun to watch local talent band together to see what they can do against the established names. The hope that a local might surprisingly get over adds an extra layer of interest.
Do you agree with my takes? Did I miss a trick? Leave a comment below! And don’t forget to check out our other AEW coverage. Come back later on to chat and read about Fight for the Fallen!
