What to do when the smoke keeps you inside for days? Watch outdoor wrestling from the other coast, of course! AEW is still shooting in smoke-free Jacksonville, where our beloved jobbers got another hot’n’sweaty workout. Here’s our recap of the September 15 episode of AEW Dark.
Last week on Dark…
Hobbs, Cage and Kingston all got squash to cheer them up after the battle royale. They all remained grumpy. Ben Carter took to the skies! Griff Garrison did alright. Check back on our September 8 recap to remind yourself of the meh.
Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia
A highlight from Dynamite last week was Kip Sabian announcing his best man. Before revealing it to be smiling Miro of apparent WWE fame, Dark’s best hair guy Brian Pillman Jr got some face time! Interested in the top guy news too? Click on over to read all the pops & botches.
Being the Elite episode 221 was fairly entertaining this week, and featured a short mention of the Dark match we’ve all been waiting for – Brandon Cutler vs Peter Avalon, losingest loser loses! Megabyte Ronnie was also introduced to rebalance the cosmic scales after FTR’s cake did not get destroyed during Dynamite. Did Brian Cage punish him for his gluttony? Watch along with episode 52 to find out.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
POP: Short and sweet
Starting us off tonight is Red Velvet, who’s recently been the best women’s jobber in AEW, versus Brandi Rhodes, accompanied by brother-in-law Dustin Rhodes and action figure Li’l Bran Bran.
Red Velvet shows off her clean técnico moves, and it makes her the perfect foil for Brandi’s smart reinvention as a brutish – if a little clumsy – heel.
Brandi wins by submission, by following her trademark spear with a body scissors. Anna Jay also popped in for a while to sell the Dark Order/Nightmare Family feud. It was a short match, but it worked well for everyone involved.
POP: Buffalo beatdown
Debuting for AEW today is the team of Daniel Garcia and Kevin Blackwood. Announcer Justin Roberts doesn’t mention that they hail from the same territory as their opponents, The Butcher and The Blade.
Eddie Kingston escorts B&B to the ring, and the big boys from Buffalo immediately take it to poor Garcia. Blackwood gets a hot tag and shows off some fine aerial talents, but the moment Garcia comes back it’s all over.
It’s a shame we didn’t get to to see much of these two, since they seem like a reasonably developed team. With a bit of luck they’ll get a chance to go longer in future episodes.
POP: Entertaining burns
Next up is mean girl Dani Jordyn vs superbad Penelope Ford.
A heel on heel squash doesn’t often work, and this fact doesn’t escape the attention of the booth, who work it into their amusing banter. Veda Scott is back, and she works very well opposite Taz, with Excalibur stuck in the middle trying to keep the peace.
Back in the ring, it’s not super interesting, until best valet Kip Sabian finds Ford’s page in Jordyn’s burn book, which results in a bunch of paper shredding and ref Aubrey Edwards getting involved. This is all far more entertaining to watch than it is to read. It’s wrestling. It’s silly. The superbad couple understand that.
Ford wins this with her fisherman’s suplex.
POP: The people’s hotdog
We got another AEW debut from Buffalo this week: cake-destroyer Megabyte Ronnie! He’s a big guy, but he’s no Brian Cage.
Ricky Starks pointlessly joins us on commentary.
This match looks to be a boring helping of big guys slapping meat, but suddenly things take a left turn. Ronnie pulls a hotdog out of his fanny pack and uses it to stage a sausage-swallowing people’s elbow. Cage kicks out and retaliates with a 619, finally showing off his acrobatic prowess that we’ve seen in other promotions. Highly entertaining, and totally puts this match over as even sillier and better than the last.
Oh yeah, Cage wins it, obvi.
BOTCH: Too much of a good thing
Next up is Santana & Ortiz versus one of our familiar Dark team-ups: best hair guys, Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr.
Santana & Ortiz are frequent visitors on Dark, always grinding their stats while giving us fun matches and this one is no different.
Garrison works well as the pretty boy who takes a beating. He comes back with a spinning elbow then reaches out to Pillman for an oldskool hot tag, but the bemulleted kid can’t follow through and gets pinned quicksmart.
This match scores a meh, not because it was bad per se, but because of its placement in the night. Can’t put this many squashes in a row, guys, it ruins the impact!
BOTCH: Too little of a good thing
Indie vet Jesse Sorensen is back this week to job to up-and-comer “Glass Jaw No More” Will Hobbs.
Hobbs has tried to adopt a bit of a sneering attitude since his appearance on the battle royale and… it’s okay. A smile still breaks out here and there, so I’m not really sure what his character is supposed to be. He makes short work of Sorensen, but this feels like treading water while the powers that be put together a decent feud for the guy.
BOTCH: I thought they were champs?
Raché Chanel is back! She’s partnered with Skyler Moore to get clobbered by Women’s Tag Team Cup champions Diamante and Ivelisse.
Moore inexplicably gets some offense in against the champs, as does Chanel, and it does not look good. The jobber duo fail to make both their own offense and the offense of their more experienced opponents look convincing. I’m always here for developmental content, but pairing two fairly rough wrestlers against a couple of vets doesn’t make for much of a match.
The champs take it, but they deserve much better.
POP: In-ring storytelling
“Boom Boom” Colt Cabana is fighting tonight, accompanied by a somewhat antagonistic Dark Order. This is part of a storyline that involves Cabana disappointing Mr Brodie Lee following the loss to Nightmare Family at All Out. His opponent is QT Marshall.
They start off with some decent grappling, which is always a breath of fresh air on AEW. Cabana comes out ahead in the first exchange. He’s looking good in the second too, then Stu Grayson comes down from the stage to ask for a stiffer offense. This backfires by distracting Boom Boom long enough for Marshall to take advantage. It’s reversed later when Cabana switches to a heelier offense.
QT fights back with a diving elbow, goes for the Diamond Cutter finisher, misses it, then hits a backbreaker and flatliner! It’s 1, 2… but Cabana kicks out! Cabana winds up his Flying Apple finisher, but Marshall evades, there’s another pin attempt, then he kicks out too! This is turning into a competitive match.
Well, we can’t have that. Dark Order sets up a ref distraction allowing Stu Grayson to knee Marshall in the jaw, then Cabana finishes him off with Mr Brodie Lee’s discus clothesline.
This match was surprisingly entertaining, it had highs and lows and just some good pro graps in between. A couple weeks ago it felt like the Colt Cabana story wasn’t really going anywhere, but this felt like it advanced the plot and pushed Cabana closer to his cultish compadres.
POP: Losingest losers both lose
It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for! “The Librarian” Peter Avalon enters to no music and full-blown librarian shush gimmick. Brandon Cutler has a special PPV costume, a red dragon mask! It must be serious – there’s no D20!
The bell rings and they’re straight into it! Avalon goes over the ropes. Cutler is pissed! They exchange strikes and suplexes, then Avalon’s back outside again and topeeeee!
Outside the ring it’s time to exchange chops in front of the faces, then Avalon rolls in and bounces back to loose a tope of his own. Avalon grabs a book from fellow librarian Leva Bates to finish Cutler off, but she grows a conscience and doesn’t let him do it.
Cutler trials a new finisher, but Avalon kicks out. Avalon comes back hard, but Cutler kicks out! It’s a near fall parade! Are you on the edge of your seats? I am! Why isn’t this the main event of the evening?
They exchange strikes in the high rent district, then knock one another out. The ref is counting… 6! 7! 8! Avalon reaches for the ring! 9! Cutler reaches for the ring! 10! It’s a double count-out!
Well, it couldn’t have ended any other way. Fantastic match.
POP: Grabbing the brass ring
Our cool down match is Best Friends vs debuting Maxx Stardom and Dontae Smiley. Good names, good costumes, good bye and good night. Bang.
We all know how this is going to go, but Smiley makes a noble effort at getting what little crowd is in attendance to pop for him. They don’t. But I like the sass. Trent doesn’t.
Stardom gets to loose a few clever moves, and he calls for the crowd to pop too. Yeah, Best Friends are having none of this. They’re focused on the parking lot showdown. Smiley gets chucked into the barricade. Stardom gets speared. Smiley takes the pin.
POP: Doing what they do best
Our headliner is the staple 8-man tag match. Private Party and Gunn Club are partnering here to take on Dark Order.
Alex Reynolds starts it off for the kool-aid pushers. He mostly gets his ass kicked. Eventually he gets the tag and then it’s Austin Gunn’s turn to be decimated. Marq Quen also eats a bunch of punishment.
Inevitably, things fall apart and everyone gets a chance to brawl with everyone, both inside and outside the ring. You know it, you love it, this is AEW’s forte. The final two are Austin and Evil Uno, Stu Grayson gets the blind tag and it’s a fatality! Fun stuff.
This was a return to form for Dark after a lackluster post-PPV show. We got a mix of squash matches, comedy bits, storyline advancements, chaotic tags and just a smidge of “serious” wrestling.
The success of the Cutler/Avalon feud should be a hint to AEW that having undercard storylines is worth the effort. Even if episode 52 doesn’t smash the other episodes in total views, the match created buzz for the show that the usual squash parade does not. Aside from giving the ardent YouTube fans something to look forward to, I think it also shows the local jobbers on Dark that they can do more there than just try to get booked on Dynamite.
That said, it’s still fun to watch local jobbers really work for a pop, even if you know Best Friends is going to kill them. Wrestling is so much better when the workers solidly commit to whatever they are doing.
What do you all think? Should there be more jobber feuds on Dark? Comment below. Dynamite seems to be back on normal schedule for now, so join the live chat on Discord this evening or check our AEW corner tomorrow for the recap. See you next week for more undercard fun!
