Everyone’s talking about spikes lately, and how much they suck. Wrestling spikes kinda suck too – Spike Dudley, Sheamus’ hair, Chris Jericho’s jacket… November 17’s AEW Dark bucks the trend by being full of sugar, spice and all things nice. Here’s our recap.
* Okay, Road Warrior shoulder pads were pretty cool.
Last time on Dark…
Tag brothers Top Flight scored a win. Librarian Leva Bates got back in the ring. Fuego del Sol lost again. Check out all the highlights in the November 10 recap.
Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…
It was an action-packed week for our undercard!
Last week’s Dynamite featured some blow-offs to quite a bit of stuff that had been built on Dark. Shawn Spears beat Scorpio Sky in what I hope will not be the end of the feud. Tay Conti and Red Velvet put on a clinic that shows they both deserve to fixtures on the main roster. Natural Nightmares smashed The Butcher and The Blade in a bloody end to the weirdly sporadic Allie/The Bunny storyline. Also, Brian Cage beat Matt Sydal. It was practically a half-episode of Dark over there!
Being the Elite episode 230 was a very funny instalment that featured lots of callbacks to previous storylines. The most conspicuous Dark appearance was “The Captain” Shawn Dean, randomly showing up in the toilet where a Best Friends bit was going down. Brandon Cutler also got yelled at by Frankie Kazarian, who had lots of scenes to build his new “anger management” character.
BTE also had a crossover with Sammy Guevara’s vlog episode 295, where he set up an elaborate prank involving a title belt and a circular saw. The Spanish God also found time to sit down in Pretty Peter Avalon’s elevator for a bite to eat. Fuego del Sol got some more build as the next jobbingest jobber of the jobbers – well worth catching up if you enjoyed the Cutler/Avalon storyline over on BTE.
Crack your White Claws, folks, here’s episode 62.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
POP: Big happy family
Opening the show tonight is some delicious Dark bread and butter – random jobber trios! Bshp King, Joey O’Riley and Sean Maluta have been grouped together to take on the Gunn Club, now also featuring Billy’s other son Colten.
Colten kicks it off with Maluta. They’re fine. Once Austin tags in we get to see some more of the acrobatics that make trios exciting. Billy does his usual great job earnestly selling hits from guys half his size. What a pro! Definitely wrestling’s best dad.
Austin pins O’Riley for the win.
POP, but BOTCH: Promo à gogo
Before O’Riley can get up, Lance Archer comes out to murder him again. Jake Roberts cuts a promo. Archer cuts more promo. They’re great promos.
They also have no one to feud with. Last week it seemed like Archer was going to start picking off Eddie Kingston’s boys one by one, but also last week on Dynamite PAC showed back up from England, and now he’s taken the let’s punish Eddie spot.
I get it, they need to give PAC as much to do as possible given it presumably wasn’t cheap or easy to get him to come back to the US in the middle of a pandemic, but damn. Give this poor Murderhawk Monster a bone, guys. Like, a bigger bone than jobber femur or whatever.
BOTCH: Starks chalks up another win
Travis Titan is a debuting jobber out of Michigan. He’s facing Ricky Starks.
This match looks to have been scheduled as part of the Dynamite taping, since we have some real fans in the audience. Starks plays to them well. Titan looks okay getting beaten, but there’s not much memorable going on here.
POP: Good, clean, indie fun
This is some indie hero shit right here. Joey Janela versus Marko Stunt. Janela is accompanied by fan fave Sonny Kiss, Stunt by even bigger fan faves Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus.
Janela plays it cute, like he’s just humoring the kid, which gives Stunt an opening to fire off a few legit drop kicks. After eating some hits, Janela gets angry and they have a good back and forth – Stunt dealing out all the fast little guy stuff and Janela pulling all the faces he can to seem like the heel of this bout.
Janela gets the win in this shameless crowd-pleaser.
BOTCH: The DMD Show
Dr Britt Baker DMD has been out of action following a knee injury back in April. AEW has tried a few non-combat angles to keep her in the spotlight, and this is the latest – a talk show, in a cheezy doctor’s office set, with canned laughter, plus a live audience of jobbers, in Daily’s Place. It sounds like it should be the greatest bit ever.
It isn’t.
She tries to pull off a roast of everyone in the main roster, but it’s not clever or well-timed enough to be funny.
Fortunately her guests are TH2. Unfortunately Angélico opens with another mediocre roast. Fortunately Jack Evans gets the mic to himself for a bit, and it is the typical coked-up sounding stream of nonsense that we all love him for. Unfortunately that’s not enough to save the segment.
POP: Kaz on a roll
Griff Garrison is getting another solo shot after his November 6 win over Ariel Dominguez. This time he’s facing a tougher opponent in a Frankie Kazarian who has been cutting tough guy promos for weeks now.
Yeah nah, this isn’t going to be Garrison’s next win. Kaz gives the younger man a good lesson in how to pace a match. It starts slow and técnico, escalates through some chops and trash talk, then it’s on like Donkey Kong. Garrison gets a few good shots in, but this story is all about Kaz, who takes it with a reverse DDT.
BOTCH: Superbad out on her own
One of the big meta stories heading into this episode is that we are getting five (count ’em) women’s matches. This might be the most women’s wrestling we’ve gotten in AEW since the Women’s Tag Team Cup (night 1, night 2 and night 3).
The first match is Penelope Ford versus Rahne Victoria, an Iowan with some kind of witch queen gimmick. I was hoping for a Scottish werewolf brandishing a cup of tea, but I’ll take it.
Ford enters without her valet Kip Sabian and kicks Victoria straight in the face as soon as the bell rings. She is all business this match, kicking the shit out of Victoria, whose entire offense amounts to trying to sneak a few opportunistic pin attempts. She wins with her fisherwoman’s suplex, but it’s not her best match.
POP: Cutler extends his streak
Brandon Cutler’s latest angle is his two match winning streak! Will he become the winningest winner of Dark? Let’s find out, he’s facing Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN.
Cutler and Ryzin work really well together. Neither of these guys are great wrestlers on their own, but there’s something here. Cutler gets to play the virtuous paladin, Ryzin gets to play the evil cleric, and – wearing a dressing gown, draped over a mattress – Pretty Peter Avalon is heckling their every move. It’s brilliant.
Cutler wins number three!
POP: Sign Hirsch!
Our second women’s match is a clash of the freelancers – jobber Tesha Price versus amateur wrestling badass “Legit” Leyla Hirsch.
I’ve only seen her, like, twice, but Hirsch is already my favorite women’s wrestler and AEW should sign her immediately. Everything she does looks “real”. When she rolls out of holds, when she flips her opponent, it all looks powerful. She’s a delight to watch.
Price puts up a noble fight, but she’s no match for my new fave.
POP: Double trouble
Jurassic Express are back tonight to face brothers TNT. Some TNT trivia: Terrence and Terrell Hughes are the twin sons of tag team legend D-Von Dudley.
Terrell and Jungle Boy kick it off with the Jungle Boy’s typical acrobatic and generous exchanges. Terrence comes in, only to be clobbered by Luchasaurus, but then we get a twin gimmick! Terrence rolls out of the ring, then Terrell sneaks out from underneath and they pull a switcharoo!
I mean. They were right in their own corner. They could’ve just tagged. But that wouldn’t have been as fun, would it? Twins gimmick!
The shady business doesn’t really help TNT, though. Jungle Boy smashes them both with consecutive clotheslines, Luchasaurus hits them with a simultaneous pair, then it’s dino chokeslam, JB crossface, and the twins tap out.
POP: D3 finds some magic potion
D3 and Angel Fashion are two of the most lovable jobbers we have in Dark, and this week they’re being set up to take the fall to Max Caster and Anthony Bowens – The Acclaimed!
Caster cuts another funny diss rap, and Bowens hams it up with the Supa Hot Fire reaction gif faces. They need to get these guys up on Dynamite.
Fashion and Bowens get started, and both of these dudes are good. Caster gives Fashion a little more punishment and for a moment it seems it’ll be all over before we even get to see the little Roman in action!
But Fashion makes it back for the tag! D3 is in! He’s hot! Uppercut! Neckbreaker! DDT! We never seen him this hot before! Woo!
Well, that turned around quickly. D3 eats the pin. Maybe next time, cucciolo.
POP: La Sicaria is back, baby
Ivelisse is finally getting another singles shot after some dirtsheet rumors about her being a bit of an ass during her match with Thunder Rosa back in September. Her opponent is Alex Gracia.
La Sicaria leans into her bad girl rep, trash talking Gracia straight at the bell. Gracia manages a bouncing off the rope arm drag thingy, but then Ivelisse drops her, distracts the ref and Diamante doles out a cheap shot. From there Ivelisse is in control for pretty much the whole match, minus a short flurry of pretty in pink lucha offense that culminates in an awkward 619. Gracia’s got all the right moves, but her smoothness isn’t quite there yet.
Ivelisse takes the win with authority.
POP: Thunder is coming for her belt
Thunder Rosa is slumming it this week on Dark, getting a workout against local jobber Lindsay Snow. Snow is all tattoos and white girl dreads, with a random nuclear sign on her trunks. Post-apocalyptic viking? I’m intrigued.
Snow isn’t bad in the ring either. She’s a little slow, but her offense is hard-hitting. Thunder Rosa is predictably good, hitting some flying offense, slinky holds and rapid strikes.
Thunder Rosa wins this quickly and immediately calls out Serena Deeb, who recently won her NWA title. Even still, Snow looked pretty strong in the loss.
POP: PPA and his peach
DARK EXCLUSIVE
It's PPA All Day as Pretty Peter Avalon (@PAvalon) can take your car-sharing experience from amazing to get me the hell out of here.Watch #AEWDark NOW via our Official YouTube Channel ➡️ https://t.co/I73dSNIMP4 pic.twitter.com/6wk4kMvHEF
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) November 18, 2020
It’s a new PPA bit! This time Peter Avalon is sitting in a cab. In a dressing gown. He offers his peach some airplane cab sav, a saltine and corn nuts. I mean. This is genius.
Kicked out. #AEWDark #PPAALLDAY pic.twitter.com/IDljWsXxPh
— Peter Avalon (@PAvalon) November 18, 2020
Developmental POP: Women’s wrestling
Our women’s main event is KiLynn King versus Big Swole! King plays a cute mark, unable to stop herself dancing to Swole’s entrance music.
It’s all serious when the bell rings, though. This is a well-choreographed fight, with action in the ring, out the ring, trash talk, hard bumps, evasions… Neither of these women are quite at the top guy level yet, but this bout never stops being interesting.
Swole wins it by submission.
BOTCH: Main roster invasion
Darby Allin comes in with a “spiked suit jacket” – another suckful wrestling spike! The thumbtacks he glued to his gear don’t do much to make the coffin drop more threatening, but hey, maybe the kids like it.
Allin calls out Ricky Starks, who comes to the ring with Brian Cage for backup. Cody Rhodes! It’s Cody Rhodes everybody! He runs in with a chair to save Allin, then everybody leaves.
This was a perfectly cromulent little segment to build to the fight later on Dynamite, but as your faithful undercard correspondent, I can’t possibly POP for a fight where Allin is teaming with Cody instead of our man Will Hobbs.
POP: The old man and the jackass
The SCU/TH2 feud continues! Jack Evans is getting a solo shot against Christopher Daniels.
Evans immediately starts abusing one of our front row jobbers before he even gets to fighting. Oh, Jack, if only AEW fans would get how fun you are.
They start out with submissions and holds like the vets they are. As the fight gets more physical, CD starts to falter a bit. I can’t tell how much of this is the old man storyline he’s been telling this year and how much is shoot injuries or fatigue, but that’s probably a testament to how smart the story is.
Despite getting punched in the face by Kaz earlier in the match, Angélico manages to sneakily interfere toward the end, allowing Evans to pull CD into a backslide for the win.
This was a pretty good episode of Dark. For me there wasn’t really a match of the night. The good matches were fine and the bad matches weren’t awful. Following in the recent tradition of Dark being a wrestling college, this week’s lesson was all about trash talk. Trash talk winner is Ivelisse.
Hope y’all enjoyed it too! What’s your favorite wrestling-related spike? Let us know in the comments or on Discord. I’ll see you next week with more Dark. In the mean time, don’t forget to tune in to Dynamite to see Top Flight in action versus the Bucks!
