Up here where healthcare is free and the snow falls early, we just had Thanksgiving. Canada isn’t the only place messing with the schedule, though, because Dynamites’s one-year anniversary got shuffled down a few weeks for TV reasons. Thankfully, this is a column on the wild west of YouTube, where wrestlers can use four letter words and TV schedules don’t matter. Here’s our October 13 recap of AEW Dark.
Last week on Dark…
John Silver got a win! Not only that, Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr got a win too! The excitement made Matt Sydal’s revenge on Nakazawa fade into the background. All this and more in the October 6 recap!
Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…
I will not link to Being the Elite this week because even in the wild west of YouTube, Google apparently still flags some stuff as “adult content” and then you cannot watch it without logging in. In the interest of underage wrestling fans and privacy nerds everywhere, here is your episode 225 weecap: it’s 30 minutes of dick jokes and mini golf. Definitely nothing “adult” about it. Nothing of note happens to our Dark heroes either, so don’t waste your time making an account.
Here’s some side trivia instead: Orange Cassidy won the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship from Dean Malenko on Sammy Guevara’s vlog (episode 290)!
Last week’s Dynamite was Jericho’s 30 year anniversary, and the Dark highlight was Chaos Project getting a shot against le champion titulaire and his MMA sidekick. As expected, Chaos Project didn’t really kill it. They don’t work at the level of the top guys, but hopefully with some more time back in the salt mines they’ll find their niche. Will Hobbs, on the other hand, had a wonderful meat-slapping showdown with Brian Cage, and I am happy to see him off to the main roster pastures. Kip Sabian played arcade games with Miro the whole time, which for many of the tedious segments was probably the right move.
But, like Kip, who cares about the top guys anyway? We’re all here for the undercard! Let’s check out episode 56.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
POP: Traditional dark matches return
Our opener is a neat four-way clash of tag team wrestlers. We have Evil Uno (representing Dark Order), Blade (of Butcher And The), Frankie Kazarian (SCU) and Jungle Boy (Jurassic Express). Cool!
This is the kind of dark match that goes well at live show – it’s just an excuse to give the fans some time to enjoy the talent who didn’t get featured on TV. It’s fun to watch on YouTube too, as there are still enough fans in attendance to create some crowd noise. Jurassic Express are super over in Jacksonville, yo.
Jungle Boy wins it with a surprise pin over Evil Uno, but nobody’s record is going to get messed up since they’re all tag guys anyway. After the bell the whole damn roster comes out to brawl.
POP: Developmental dark matches remain
Next up is random jobber tag duo Lee Johnson and Cezar Bononi versus the Lucha Bros.
Watching Bononi face off against the Luchas makes me very happy they never ended up in WWE – it’s quite a clash of styles. Johnson works a more aerial-oriented offense and it plays well off the luchadors.
Lee Johnson eats the pin, but he can be proud of his work against two of the promotion’s top guys. For Bononi this was a good opportunity to figure out how to work in the AEW style when he’s not across from another tall, jacked dude.
POP: Disappointing Leva Bates
Here’s a surprise entrant in the middle of the line-up – the big rematch between Brandon Cutler and Peter Avalon! Avalon’s been out for several weeks since the count-out draw with Cutler, which has left their storyline dangling.
Cutler comes out with red dragon mask and pyrotechnics. He glances over to see if his shoot friends The Young Bucks are in his corner, or at least the crowd, but their kayfabe heel turn has left him without a valet, and without a fan club. Don’t worry, Brandon, we still love you!
Avalon interrupts his entrance and clubs him before he can even make it into the ring. The Librarian cuts a short promo asking to be given the win by forfeit, but ref Rick Knox won’t do it, valet Leva Bates checks Cutler to see if he’s okay, and our tall hero rolls in, already mostly beaten.
Ring the bell! The match starts with Avalon kicking the living daylights out of Cutler, and occasionally pausing to grab the mic and ask to be declared the victor. Is he afraid of pinning his former buddy clean? Cutler eventually comes back, but Avalon evades in the most heelish fashion, rolling out of the ring, and hiding behind fellow librarian Bates!
It’s a fantastic match, full of heart and traditional face/heel work. Cutler is tempted to go heel (Bates stops him from using the D20 as a weapon), Avalon fights dirty but seems unable to follow through. Finally Cutler snaps, tears some pages out of a book then clubs Avalon with it, at exactly the same time that Avalon clubs him with the oversize D20. And it’s another draw by double DQ!
Match of the night! Can’t wait for the next instalment.
BOTCH: Sydal searching for his place
Another recent tag star is working singles tonight – Sonny Kiss! He’s accompanied by partner Joey Janela, and will face off against Matt Sydal.
Taz and Excalibur on commentary spend most of the match trying to put over Sydal as this great aerial wrestler, but when we just opened with Jungle Boy and Rey Fénix rope walking and flipping around all over the place I don’t really buy it.
Sydal wins it by submission. It was a fine match, but not an interesting one.
MEH: Dark Order grinding stats
Random jobber trios! We’ve got Aaron Solow, Angel Fashion and M’Badu thrown together as offerings to the Dark Order. The cult is represented by numbers 3 (Alex Reynolds), 4 (John Silver) and 10 (Preston Vance).
This is the first time M’Badu has gotten the opportunity to really look strong, and it’s great to see him clobber a few of the minions. They come back, of course, and Solow eats the pin. It’s alright, but perhaps a bit slow for an AEW trios match and comes across more squishy squashy than decisive.
POP: Velvet gets a win on the board
We got another women’s debut this week! Elayna Black, a young wrestler from the indies with a witchy supernatural gimmick. She’s facing the as-yet winless but high-performing Red Velvet. Brandi Rhodes is joining us on commentary, after picking Velvet as her new ladycrush. (RIP Allie, disappeared without a trace…)
Velvet is very quick and agile, and it’s good to see her opposite someone who can keep up. Black has the charming affectation of grunting every time she throws a punch, which makes this feel a bit like women’s tennis. Wrestling is just like real sports, baby!
Velvet gets the win, but they both looked good here.
POP: Absolute squash
If you watched Sammy Guevara’s vlog, you’ll know sunny luchador Fuego del Sol is one of Sammy’s behind the scenes buddies, and that he will be facing Ricky Starks tonight.
Starks squashes del Sol with authority and it is awesome.
POP: Wholesome developmental work
Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN is back this week, coupled with Maxx Stardom to face Gunn Club.
Ryzin has some fun Halloweeny demon emoji pants for the occasion. I’m glad AEW is giving him a chance to develop in front of our eyes. His offense is getting a little more confident. Stardom has fun with his heel-to-the-head gimmick when tied up on the turnbuckle.
They’re no match for the Gunns, though.
POP: Shades of Marty the Moth
Nick Comoroto is another debuting jobber this week, but this guy looks intimidating as heck! Who better to take him on than Darby Allin?
Allin’s bit is that he always gets the shit kicked out of him, no matter who he faces. Comoroto looks like exactly the kind of hairy wild man who should be kicking the shit out of a pissant little skate punk. The imagery works, although it might’ve been a bit more sympathetic if the face and heel dynamic was reversed.
But Allin’s supposed to be the hero here, and he prevails, winning with his coffin drop. He runs over to the booth to attack commentating Ricky Starks after the bell.
POP: Good solid wrestling
And we’re back to the undercard division – Griff Garrison versus Colt Cabana!
Cabana is low key a great wrestler, but normally focuses more on comedy spots in the ring. It’s nice to see him in action against someone where he gets the chance to fight without needing to job in some jokey fashion, or sell the Dark Order storyline.
Cabana gets the win by submission.
POP: Hoss fight, the second
KiLynn King cut a promo against Nyla Rose earlier in the show, and now the clash will happen live on Dark!
This is a replay of their bout back in August, where Rose emerged dominant. Just as a couple months ago, it’s great to see Rose face an appointment with the kind of size and strength that makes it look competitive.
King seems to have been training hard and comes into this full of pep and with an aggressive offense. Her headbutt looks especially hardcore. Rose wins this quickly with the beast bomb.
BOTCH: Excuse me!
Vickie Guerrero grabs the mic after the match to shit on Dark and vow that Nyla Rose will not step into the ring until the bookers give her a title shot. I mean, fine, we could replay that match with Hikaru Shida again, but I’m not really a fan of keeping talent on ice while they wait for their big match. The women’s division is more exciting when Rose is in it, and for sure up-and-comers like KiLynn King don’t deserve to be dismissed as unworthy before they even got out of the gates.
THE BIGGEST POP: Veni, vidi, vici
Holy shit. D3. I guess nobody realized he had an Italian gimmick because he spent so much time getting squashed by Butcher & Blade, Dark Order, Lance Archer, you name it. So today he walks in with a fucking Roman centurion uniform. It’s like something out of Astérix and it is perfect.
He’s in action against Joey Janela. It’s wonderful to watch D3 get the chance to perform without getting whipped into a carbonara. He’s not a bad wrestler! Well, eventually he gets utterly flattened, with either a shoot injury or a very good sell. Janela gets the win.
POP: Good, old-fashioned squash
Hey, Wardlow’s getting a chance to do something without MJF pulling his strings! He’s here to squash debuting Elijah Dean, a dad-lookin’ wrestler with a lovely pink sequined coat.
Wardlow makes short work of him.
BOTCH: What headliner?
Our headliner, for some reason, is Eddie Kingston versus jobber Baron Black.
Black doesn’t even enter with his usual “The Empbruh” outfit, twisted copper crown and all that. Kingston wins it, and it feels like this match was set just to fill some kind of quota. Boo! And not the ghosty kind!
This was a very long episode of Dark. It felt even longer because I didn’t have time to watch Tuesday night and had to Kerouac it to bring you this column ahead of Dynamite. It was a good episode, though, packed with fun matches and a bit of storyline progression for our favorite losers.
My biggest complaint is that the Dark Order/Nightmare Family rivalry that has been building for weeks evaporated into thin air on this ep. Having Cody win back the TNT championship on Dynamite doesn’t feel like the feud paid off with the kind of full-faction epic megamatch Dark had been hinting at. Oh well, guess here in YouTube land our stories don’t matter.
Did you dig it? Did you pop for any of the debuts? Leave a comment below, or drop by the Discord to say hi. I’ll be back next week for more fun times on the Dark beat.
