Stop the presses! We have a surprise announcement coming out of Florida… Yes, we’re hearing now that they’ve found some more wrestling – they’re finding it everywhere! It’s an extra special Friday edition of AEW Dark! Here’s the November 6 recap.
Last time on Dark…
Dark Order unveiled a new comedy trio. Max Caster destroyed Angel Fashion, with poetry! There were a whole lot of post-match beatdowns. Check back on the November 3 recap to catch up.
Countdown to Full Gear?
This is a bonus episode of Dark, presumably to show the dark matches from Wednesday’s Dynamite. Unlike the bonus episode ahead of All Out, this episode leading into Full Gear doesn’t feature any talent booked for the PPV. I’ll be sure to update y’all next week if any Dark stars pop up on the pre-show or during an angle, though!
Let’s get staight to it, then: episode 60.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
MEH: Swole pads her stats
Our opener for this very special episode is Big Swole versus Tesha Price.
Fun bit of trivia: Price faced Swole’s current nemesis Britt Baker back in 2018 during the Mae Young Classic (NXT women’s tournament). She doesn’t last long here, with Swole tapping her out after a brief back and forth. It’s fine.
BOTCH: Sydal can’t pick a side
Matt Sydal joins us for match number two versus Christopher Daniels.
Sydal has adjusted his in-ring style more toward the evil hippie gimmick, which apparently means doing a lot of arm drags and tricky roll-up pin attempts. This offense doesn’t look as tight against oldskool wrestler Daniels as it did against aerial ace Lee Johnson, so Sydal takes to trying to kick the old man’s legs out from under him. It’s not a very inspired set.
As it turns out, this match was not really about Sydal anyway. TH2 walk in to distract CD, who promptly loses.
I’m happy to see the TH2/SCU feud being continued, but this setup didn’t really work for me.
To cap it off, Sydal bows and shakes CD’s hand after the match, undermining whatever heelishness he might have been trying to cultivate.
BOTCH: Cutler gets number two
Brandon Cutler must be thrilled coming out of his first victory in AEW. It’s earned him a rematch with Michael Nakazawa!
Cutler attacks strong off the bell and quickly gets Naka down for a two-count, but the wily oil wrestler kicks out and manages to gain the upper hand by pushing Cutler off the ropes as he goes for a springboard nothing.
Oiling up the ropes doesn’t succeed in doing much except pissing Cutler off. He comes back with a springboard elbow and cements his second win with the TPK finisher.
Both Naka and Cutler have had much better matches.
POP: Kaz teases more solo work
After three un-pop-worthy segments, I have to give a special mention to Frankie Kazarian who takes a couple minutes to cut a generic but entertaining promo about how he should be a top guy.
He doesn’t call anyone out in particular, but that’s fine because it will allow him to face whoever in his apparent quest to become a singles guy. They could dovetail this with the Shawn Spears/Scorpio Sky feud and do something there, they could integrate it with the SCU/TH2 feud… Pretty much any AEW midcarder would benefit from going up against Kaz, so I’m excited to see where it will go.
POP: Seven second jobber meets who?
Here’s a fun one. Griff Garrison is getting a chance for a win against local jobber Ariel Dominguez. Dominguez was last seen on NXT back on September 30, where he went with the moniker Joey Pistachio and lost to Cameron Grimes in 7 seconds.
Dominguez is so small that Garrison looks like a monster by comparison. The diminuitive Floridian lasts a bit longer than 7 seconds here, though, making a few quick escapes before Garrison squashes him.
POP: Lance targets Eddie, redux
Uh-oh. I’m starting to think Lance “Murderhawk Monster” Archer has a thing for killing Griff Garrison. After already killing him on Tuesday’s Dark, he comes in to kill him again tonight. Perhaps Evil Uno’s theory about Garrison being immortal is sound?
Jake Roberts cuts a promo that almost makes it sound like Eddie Kingston is going to win versus Jon Moxley on Saturday, which would be awesome. Either way Archer seems like he’s going to go through Penta, Fénix, Butcher and Blade before crushing Kingston, and that definitely will be awesome. It’s about time Archer gets to have some meaningful battles.
POP: Dark Order rising
Hey, it’s a random tag duo! Sean Maluta is teamed with Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN against Dark Order’s Stu Grayson and Evil Uno.
Grayson comes out turned to 11, flattening Maluta before handing off to Evil Uno who has a much tougher time controlling the cruiserweight. This is the first time Maluta’s had much of a chance to show his stuff in AEW, and he’s not a half bad wrestler.
Ryzin is a half bad wrestler, who came into AEW with a half good storyline to take down the Dark Order. Grayson and Uno aren’t having that, though, taking turns to clobber the dual-mohawked jobber. He tags out to Maluta for a break, but the Dark Order are too much and Uno quickly puts Maluta down for the pin.
BOTCH: Absolutely jobberific
Local jobber Trevor Read is making a debut tonight against “Absolute” Ricky Starks.
Starks immediately unleashes everything on Read. Read doesn’t get a single shot in before getting pinned.
This feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity, because if there was one match on the card that might have tied in to Full Gear, it was this one. Starks has an ongoing feud happening with Darby Allin, who will be facing Cody for the TNT title. If the Murderhawk could murder Griff Garrison (again) to send a message to Eddie Kingston, surely this fight could’ve been used to introduce a promo? Oh well.
POP: A full-length match
Our main event tonight is Lee Johnson versus Chuck Taylor. In the absence of any outstanding matches on the card, I will preemptively declare it my match of the night. Let’s find out how it goes…
Actually, no. First of all, Lee Johnson – now officially “The Nightmare Family’s” Lee Johnson – is accompanied to the ring by nobody. Chuck Taylor, on the other hand, has best friends Trent and Orange Cassidy in tow. It seems the Nightmare Family are only really a family for Cody’s matches, huh? This fact doesn’t escape Taz on commentary either. Not gonna lie, I will be fine if Johnson continues being the badass highflyer that he is on Dark, without any nods to his new affiliation beyond the chyron.
Back in the ring…
Johnson and Taylor kick it off slow and técnico. This pacing gives Excalibur time on commentary to talk about the history of Chuck Taylor with Kenny Omega and El Generico (now WWE’s Sami Zayn), and how the guys were heroes for Johnson coming up. This kind of commentary adds depth and context to the matches and it’s too bad Excalibur doesn’t often get the chance to go there.
The intensity escalates nicely with a couple of big moves and pin attempts. Johnson does a glorious dive out of the ring that gets Orange Cassidy so fired up he raises his hand just enough to get high-fived by his best friend’s opponent. Trent shrugs and follows suit. But once Johnson gets back in the ring Taylor makes short work of him.
After the bell, the Best Friends pick up Johnson and treat him to a hug while Taz and Excalibur dunk on the conspicuosly absent Nightmare Family.
This was a mediocre episode of Dark that didn’t do much to advance existing storylines or build toward Full Gear. I’m glad Kaz got the chance to have some time on the mic, and that Archer got to repeat and improve on his promo from Tuesday, but neither segment was a must-see. The main event was solid, so if you’re only going to watch one segment, skip to the end.
Full Gear is only hours away, so join us on the Discord server to take part in the live thread, or just to chit-chat about any wrestling and wrestling-adjacent stuffs. I’ll be back here on Steel Ring Post next week with another Dark recap. Till then, wrestlefans!
