Greetings, fans of the undercard! It’s Wednesday morning and time to reflect on the pops and botches of everyone’s second favorite YouTube wrestling show. Read on for our recap of the July 21 episode of AEW Dark.
Last week on Dark…
Joe Alonzo aced another audition for tag team finisher test dummy. Luther chewed the streamery. Peter Avalon and Brandon Cutler lost again, again. Revisit all the pops and botches in our July 14 recap.
We’re gonna need a montage
Yesterday I enjoyed two Tuesday mornings in two different time zones. Forgive my flight-induced fuzziness as I try to find the fitting phrases to recap this week’s show.
Follow along with Episode 43 on YouTube.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
BOTCH: Shida showing little patience
Raché Chanel returns with her leopard print leg warmers and oversized grooming products. Hikaru Shida is not amused.
The pair have a more competitive match than you would expect given Shida is champion. Chanel’s goofing about is fun, but she isn’t ready for competition on this level. Shida gets the pin with a Falcon Arrow.
BOTCH: Super meh Kip Sabian
Corey Hollis appears today in AEW to meet the super bad Kip Sabian. Sabian starts the match with his sunglasses on and keeps up the theme of the evening by pausing partway through to do his hair.
Hollis stalks around, hunched over like a traveling bruiser, but his moves don’t amount to much and Sabian makes short work of him.
I must admit to being a fan of Kip Sabian. Unfortunately with Jimmy Havoc suspended for accusations of assault, it busted the Young Ones quirky flatmate storyline they had going. Super Bad needs some more depth than just being vain and engaged to Penelope Ford, and Corey Hollis didn’t help bring it.
BOTCH: Desperately seeking a good women’s promo
I really want to enjoy the Nightmare Sisters, but these promos aren’t doing it for me. Dasha González drops by a training session where Dustin Rhodes manages to immediately be condescending (“my girls”) and stand uncomfortably close.
Brandi Rhodes almost takes the promo somewhere interesting by acknowledging that women don’t play a leading role in the promotion, but still isn’t able to explain why tag matches help when the singles title already lacks strong challengers. Allie and Brandi start bickering. The end.
I still hope this leads to Dustin somehow getting his ass kicked.
POP: Battle of the tough guys
Tino Sabbatelli from NXT jobbing fame shows up with a nickname worthy of the WWE main roster to tag with Brady Pierce against Best Friends.
Chuck Taylor and Trent come in pretty hard and tough here, looking a little heelish in their offense. Even their hug spot didn’t go long enough for the camera operator to give the people what they want.
Pierce and Sabby give as good as they get, though, with a lot of stiff hits and earnest grimacing.
Best Friends go over, but for me this match was altogether too grumpy. Fortunately we had Aubrey Edwards officiating to soften the edges a bit. Discord community commenter Dave M J also put a smile on my face by pointing out that Sabby’s trunks still say Tino. Poor guy.
I’ll give this a soft pop, but you might need to be in a certain mood to appreciate the work.
BOTCH: Starks and the missing story
Will Hobbs and Ricky Starks meet in what had the potential to be the surprise hottest match of the card.
It’s not the hottest match of the card.
Starks struts around a bit, bounces off Hobbs, then knocks him down with a flying shoulder tackle. This is a good opportunity for our directionless star to strike a pose and celebrate the evening’s focus on wrestlers playing with their hair. Hobbs looms up behind for a lovely peekaboo moment. They go at it a bit longer, and it’s nothing really memorable. Starks gets the pin by hauling Hobbs up in a double underhook then slamming him back on his face. It looked pretty rough to me, although Taz sold the move as strong. It got the pin, at least.
POP: Just good wrestling
Scorpio Sky enters with a rare blast of pyro for Dark. Aaron Solow doesn’t enter with the same ceremony, but Taz puts him over as an indie superstar. From the outset he looks the part, exchanging locks and holds, building to stiffer strikes. Sky has a great-looking evasion, which he transitions to a dropkick – a throwaway moment that emphasizes how slick both these athletes are.
I was expecting this to spend a bit more time up in the air but Sky cuts the match short with a quick TKO. Could’ve been longer, but definitely a fun showing and keeps us hungry for a rematch down the track. Match of the night, as far as straight-up wrestling is concerned.
POP: Developing the women
I haven’t seen much of KiLynn King, but she walks in with a 0/5 record and full of charisma. Diamante is warming up for a match against Ivelisse on Dynamite, so the outcome of this is a foregone conclusion, but King gets some decent shots in.
King doesn’t transition quite smoothly enough to have me buy her offense and she doesn’t sell quite good enough for me to believe Diamante is actually hurting her, but there is something there. Diamante takes it with a Code Red.
This match gets a developmental pop. I would like to know more.
POP: Storytelling in the ring
In a follow-up to the confrontation with Bryan Cage that closed last week’s Fight for the Fallen, Darby Allin enters the ring casting a death stare toward Taz in the commentary booth. Robert Anthony gives them a moment then gets restless and calls for Allin to get his head in the match.
Anthony looks tough here, throwing Allin around outside the ring. He works far better in this role than he did last week losing to Starks. He talks to the camera, engaging the viewers, showing some fire.
Meanwhile Allin’s attention remains almost entirely focused on Taz, to the detriment of his body. When he makes the inevitable comeback, each move sends a message to Cage. Allin works the arm then finishes with a stunner and coffin drop.
Good storytelling from both guys in this match.
POP: Starks gets a manager
But the action isn’t over!
As the victory music plays, Cage stomps out to scoop up the battered Allin and suplex him over the top rope.
Anthony steps up to come to Allin’s aid, when lo! Out comes Starks!
Taz does little to contain his glee as his new stable swiftly dispatches Anthony and throws the railstand ragdoll around some more.
Reflecting on Starks’ earlier match against Hobbs, I realize Taz is what sold it for me. Having the Human Suplex Machine in Starks’ corner is going to bring some much-needed storyline to the young star’s work.
Dynamite’s gonna be good, y’all.
POP: Butchering cutlery
The Butcher and The Blade close it out with a win over Peter Avalon and Brandon Cutler ahead of their match with Young Bucks on Dynamite. Cutler rolls a 19 on his oversized D20, sadly still shy of the critical hit that might change his luck.
AEW’s losingest duo continue to pull out some fun, exciting work in the ring, getting a few aerial hits in, doing some cool evasions and selling clotheslines like they rode into them on a BMX.
Avalon hits a questionable tope into Leva Bates, who is hanging ringside in The Butcher’s arms after a failed attempt at a flying crossbody. She recovers from the friendly fire in time to toss a tome into the ring as distraction and hand another off to Avalon who uses it to club The Blade.
Alack! Cutler the paragon is dismayed by the dirty tactics of his bespectacled party members and stays distracted long enough for both The Butcher and The Blade to come back and lay him flat.
Will Avalon turn Cutler to the dark side? Will they ever roll a 20? Tune in next week. Or tune in to Being The Elite, where this story may or may not be continuing. I am still on my quest to get up-to-date, but will fill you in as soon as I do.
Episode 43 of Dark was another enjoyable watch. The editors seem to have established a structure to the episodes, front-loading the less interesting matches. This is different to broadcast television, where often there is a bigger match or promo to hook you in, so don’t be discouraged.
If you’re still on the fence, have a read of our pops and botches and feel free to skip ahead – the second half usually has a diamond in the rough. A new feature starting from episode 43 is YouTube chapter markers, so you can easily navigate to the match you want to see. Once you’ve caught up, let us know your thoughts by commenting below!
As always, check back on Steel Ring Post for our ongoing AEW coverage and retro wrestling reviews throughout the week.
