This week saw early snow in my neck of the woods. Does the mayor have a special white telephone? Is there a plow signal? No and no. Chaos ensued. Just another day in 2020. So, what happened on AEW Dark? Let’s recap the October 27 episode.
Last week on Dark…
John Silver interrupted Brandi Rhodes. John Silver interrupted Colt Cabana. Match of the night? John Silver. Head over to our October 20 recap to catch up on everything John Silver didn’t hijack.
Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…
Last week’s Dynamite was an excellent episode, featuring awesome lucha, spontaneous musical theater and a pompous new entrance for Kenny Omega. (Kenny immediately squashed Sonny Kiss, subbing in for a self-isolating Joey Janela.) KiLynn King got a brief match, jobbing for Britt Baker. It was nice to see her on the main show, but it’d be nicer if the top women got something more meaningful to do than beat jobbers.
Over on YouTube, Being the Elite episode 227 continued a bit of build for Peter Avalon/Brandon Cutler III. Sammy Guevara did a great job as fan insert, questioning why this match is not booked for Full Gear, or the Full Gear pre-show, or even the go-home show of Dark. Dude is ready for his face turn. Meanwhile Best Friends and Orange Cassidy continued their aloof schtick by tipping “The Captain” Shawn Dean to win a match he isn’t even in. Miss this episode, you didn’t miss much.
Okay, Cutler/Avalon III let’s fucking go. Join us for episode 58.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
POP: Sorry guys, I’m just here singing the Airwolf tune
Opening this way too long episode of Dark is debuting Minnesota duo Top Flight. They’re being served up to Stu Grayson and Evil Uno of Dark Order.
Top Flight are made up of brothers Dante “Angel Dorado” Martin and Darius “Air Wolf” Martin. They’re pretty good wrestlers, but that’s not the important thing. This is the important thing.
You’re welcome.
Top Flight are cool kids, I’d like to see them again. Dark Order win it with the Fatality.
POP: Starks on top
AEW seems to have started mixing up the jabronis a bit more since the crowds came back. Ricky Starks gets to face debuting VSK, down from the northeast.
VSK stalks about the ring with real presence. He doesn’t have much of a character, but he gets some decent offense in and looks more solid as an opponent than a lot of the jobbers we get in for Dark. There’s a certain type of wrestler that Starks looks real good beating, and this is one. Bravo.
POP: Cruiserweight classic
Lee Johnson is rightfully put over on commentary as one of the most exciting guys in the undercard at the moment. He’s 0 and 13, and somehow I don’t think this bout with Matt Sydal is going to get him that first W.
Sydal started experimenting with a slightly heelish hippie routine last week, and he continues it here. Dude works well as a baddie.
Johnson is given the upper hand out of the gate, working Sydal over with several harmless but fun aerial attacks. Sydal comes back with some quick throws and angry kicks. Johnson manages a few reversals but Sydal keeps escalating. He seems to be going for a painful submission victory, jumps over the ropes… and immediately slips off the apron. Has Nakazawa been up to his old tricks?
Johnson hits a tope, Sydal disappears under the ring, then comes back and hits Johnson in the back of the head. The action goes back into the ring, eventually resulting in Sydal tapping Johnson out with a cobra clutch. Evil submission hippie is an excellent gimmick, which almost makes up for seeing Johnson eat another hard-fought loss.
This is my surprise match of the night, excluding Cutler/Avalon III which will undoubtedly be in a class of its own.
BOTCH: Champ cameos at bottom of the card
Our AEW women’s champion Hikaru Shida is stuck in a division where none of the other women can really sustain main event booking. Back at All Out they had to call in (former) NWA champion Thunder Rosa to give her a decent opponent. Aside from that, and Vickie Guerrero teasing yet another clash with Nyla Rose, it’s pretty much just been a squash parade. It’s frustrating for fans, and must be even more so for Shida. Tonight, however, our champ faces indie star Leyla Hirsch!
Hirsch comes out looking like Lady Kurt Angle. Shida comes out looking annoyed. Hirsch shows some nice amateur wrestling moves to open, but Shida is not here for this shit and cuts straight to the puroresu throws and strikes.
I quite like Hirsch’s mat style and angry amateur gimmick, but nothing in this match really gels between the two of them. Shida wins it because of course she does, but once again it feels like the powers that be have missed a trick booking this women’s division.
POP: Cheery trios action
It’s time for trios! Jurassic Express are taking on debuting tag team Jersey Muscle and “as seen on NJPW” Danny Limelight.
Limelight and Jungle Boy kick it off and it’s a whole lot of fun. Jungle Boy just keeps getting better, and he works well opposite another guy who can bounce around like a pinball.
Marko Stunt and Luchasaurus also bring some excitement to the ring. There’s nothing unique going on here, but it’s exactly the brand of joyous mayhem that AEW does well. Marko Stunt gets the pin after a team-assisted destroyer, which is pretty much the perfect AEW finishing move.
POP: CD plays up his decrepitude
Next up we have TH2 versus SCU, two solid tag teams who haven’t faced one another since January.
Angélico and Frankie Kazarian get things started with some beautiful chain wrestling that makes me want to see what they could do in a singles match-up. Jack Evans tags in and promptly gets a chop-shaped reminder of his singles loss to Kaz last week.
Christopher Daniels steps up to clobber Evans a little more, but his storyline this year has been to struggle as younger stars target both his injuries and insecurities around turning 50. Evans and Angélico both get the chance to push him further down the hole, but he resists tapping out and tags back to Kaz who gets it done.
It’s not over after the roll-up, though, as TH2 let out their frustrations by pulling CD back and punishing him a little more. Dude hasn’t had a promo since BTE episode 223 but just seeing him express himself in the ring is magic. I hope the young talent are taking notes.
POP: Women’s stories
Let’s see if it’s second time lucky for women’s wrestling on Dark today. Katalina Perez is the debuting jobber for Anna “99” Jay of Dark Order.
There is a storyline happening with Jay! After John Silver interrupted Brandi Rhodes’ match on Dark last week to ask for a slot on her YouTube show Shot of Brandi, she featured him in episode 37. In the closing moments of that show, Anna Jay jumped Brandi. Now Brandi is joining us on commentary.
So, yeah, Perez gets destroyed. Brandi spends the whole match selling her feud with Jay and it’s brilliant, because Jay doesn’t even acknowledge she’s there. Let’s hope this Brandi angle gets a better pay-off than her one with Allie did.
POP: CUTLER/AVALON III
Here it is! Cutler/Avalon III! If you missed the epic storyline, you basically need to go back over a year of BTE. Here’s the Cliff’s Notes: they’re both jobbers, one is bitter and resentful, the other is bright-eyed and optimistic, they decided to tag together to break their losing streaks but ended up just losing even more, then decided to face off to find the losingest loser of AEW. Twice it ended in a no contest/draw. Now we’re getting the third instalment – no time limit, no disqualifications, no count-outs, woo!
Cutler jumps straight in and it’s on. It’s hard to do this match justice in a recap, because the duo go at one another with some deliberately feeble-looking offense, but we get replays, overhead panning shots, and earnest calls on commentary like “that’s thick, thick plastic, which can hurt!”
Avalon brings out his milk crate full of dime novels and the way he crashes into them after a missed marti-knees, you’d think they were made of steel.
Cutler comes back with a bag of what in any other hardcore match would be thumbtacks, but this is a sack of roleplaying dice. Anyone who’s stood barefoot on a D4 knows which is more painful.
This DM hasn’t come to play!
After failing to get the upper hand, Avalon snaps and yells at his long-term valet Leva Bates, telling her she’s worthless. She slaps him and says he was only ever relevant because of her. Not gonna lie, Bates is a fan favorite and always sold the librarian gimmick better than he did. She storms off, leaving him with no one in his corner.
The distraction gives Cutler the opening to roll Avalon up, but just before the three count the paladin cops an unprotected Silmarillion-shot to the head!
Before a million concerned fans can start raging online, the evil librarian reveals the Silmarillion to be nothing more than a hollowed-out gimmick. Psych! Inside is a set of brass knuckles! Avalon comes for Cutler, but he’s slammed on the dice!
Somehow he gets back up and makes it to the apron, then both of them fall through a table that was set up at ringside earlier. This finally brings out Cutler’s shoot friends The Young Bucks to cheer him on, and it seems their presence pushes him to victory. Peter Avalon, still winless, now friendless too. Brandon Cutler, winless and friendless no more! Huzzah!
My smarky self was hoping for an Avalon win, but perhaps this will push a more interesting storyline for him. Either way, this is how you book the undercard! More, please.
POP: Orange Cassidy models a T-shirt
Our cooldown match is “winningest team in AEW” Best Friends versus random tag duo Anthony Bowens and Max Caster.
Caster was last seen on AEW losing to Shawn Spears, before which he released a pretty good diss track. Yes, he’s got a rapper gimmick, and for this appearance he takes it on stage with some Cena-reminiscent pre-match wackness.
Trent gives him a fist in the face for his troubles. Bowens and Caster don’t have much chemistry as a team, but they’re fun wrestlers and bring us an enjoyable cooldown. In kayfabe, the Best Friends probably take a bit too long to take them out, given their position in the power rankings. Shoot? Don’t care.
POP: It’s Fuego del Sol Day!
Also tonight, “The Machine” Brian Cage faces Fuego del Sol. Del Sol will have to pull out something truly spectacular to make this match anything more than an authoritative squash.
Okay, del Sol does something spectacular-ish. As a follow-up to this week’s appearance in Sammy Guevara’s vlog (episode 292), he pulls off a tornado DDT for Cody! He still gets utterly destroyed – as he should – but the shots he does get in look good and tie into a storyline. What more could you hope for in the undercard?
BOTCH: Dated tropes
The singles party continues with Dark Order’s Preston “10” Vance versus Sean Maluta.
10 is a (relatively) big guy who dominates Maluta from the outset, but for some reason he also needs to distract ref Bryce Remsburg so buddy Alan “5” Angels can get in a cheapshot. In true classic form, the heel’s cheating immediately powers up the face and 10 starts getting his ass kicked.
Doesn’t last, because 10 needs the win to further the Dark Order storyline. This was silly, and not in a good way.
Maybe I’m just getting fatigued, realizing there’s still a half hour of wrestling to go.
POP: Shadow of the Colussus
For our third women’s match of the evening, we get random jobber tag duo KiLynn King and Savannah Evans versus women’s tag team cup champions Ivelisse and Diamante.
Dude. Evans is a monster! King is one of the bigger women on the roster, but next to Evans she looks positively petite. The champs wise up to this pretty quick, as they charge into twin brick walls at the bell.
Diamante and Ivelisse chip away at Evans till she topples, tagging in “Most Valuable Jobber” King. King gets a good run of offense in before Diamante takes her out with a Code Red. Not a bad match!
MEH: Solow goes low
Crossing the two-hour mark, we have pretty boy Aaron Solow returning to face Sonny Kiss, fresh from his decisive loss to Kenny Omega on Dynamite.
Solow brings out a bit of a heelish persona this week, not just to contrast with Sonny’s sympathetic character but also to push some heat with former tag partner Ricky Starks, who is currently on commentary. I don’t like it. I can buy Solow as vain and arrogant, but he comes across as needlessly cruel here, which isn’t really something I enjoy seeing in wrestling.
Sonny Kiss wins it.
BOTCH: Archer buries everyone, except who matters
Oh great, the wrestler whose entire character to date has been about needless cruelty shows up. “The Murderhawk” Lance Archer promptly takes out both Solow and Sonny. Jake Roberts cuts a promo. Archer cuts a promo. I really don’t care. Having this guy chew through everyone that isn’t Cody or Mox just cheapens everyone else on the roster while simultaneously making Cody and Mox look like assholes for never giving up their belts.
POP: Meaty men
In what should be this night’s headliner, Will Hobbs is back on Dark to face wild man Nick Comoroto.
I love Nick Comoroto. He popped out of some weird corner of NXT where Bugenhagen lives and AEW is much better for having him here. He’s wearing a straight jacket. He has a very hairy chest. He is the perfect slab of meat for Hobbs to beat.
Hobbs takes it with a thunderous frog splash.
BOTCH: Main roster storylines
In what’s actually this night’s headliner, Darby Allin shows up to beat Alex Chamberlain (last seen in August, losing to Shawn Spears).
The plucky punk gets the win. Then he gets jumped by Cage and Starks. Hobbs runs out to save him. It’s all very predictable.
This was a very long show to recap. It’s a stretch to make two and a half hours of wrestling compelling even in a pay-per view, but hoping to find five star pops in a compilation of dark matches is like panning for gold. I imagine for episodes of Dark bloated out to this length it’s better to just leave it on in the background and only tune in when something cool happens. Perhaps being a YouTube show that’s how it’s intended to be watched? Sucks to be me, eh?
I do enjoy getting to see new indie talent get their shot, and hear various folks try their hand at commentating. This week Anthony Ogogo joined to call a few bouts and did a fine job. I suspect the investment in Dark shows AEW are trying to build something meaningful here too. As much as putting the women’s champs on the B show feels like a slight to the division, an optimistic reading might be that they’re trying to reach a different audience. Certainly the Cutler/Avalon program was something that rewarded YouTube fans with a treat that cable-watching fans would not have appreciated in the same way.
It’s still a lot, though. What do you all think? Do you appreciate me watching all these matches so you don’t have to? Or do you think Dark is a beast of its own, one anyone can love if they give it a chance? Drop us a line below or on the Discord. I’ll see you next week!
