It was a busy Tuesday in wrestling fandom, as folks frantically dug out their Wednesday night multi-monitor setups to follow two shows and a Twitter feed to ensure not a single twist or turn would be missed in the unprecedented, multiverse-busting, inter-promotion crossover that Kenny Omega hath wrought. In the end, AEW Dark continued in its YouTube bubble. Read on for our recap of the December 8 episode.
Last time on Dark…
Jungle Boy was first to 50 matches in AEW. Scorpio Sky stared down Shawn Spears. Serpentico got tossed around. It was a fun episode – catch up in our December 1 recap.
Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…
Last week’s Dynamite didn’t have much of interest to Dark fans, as our guys got eliminated quickly from the battle royale and Powerhouse Hobbs didn’t get to do much in his tag bout either. The most notable appearance was The Acclaimed, making their main roster debut in a backstage promo. Max Caster cut a short diss rap on The Young Bucks, then the champs were attacked by TH2.
On Being the Elite episode 233, “The Captain” Shawn Dean became number one contender for the BTE Championship by winning an Uno match, as a stand-in for Orange Cassidy! He truly is a Best Friend. In other Uno news, Evil Uno got Adam Page to break character by asking him to join the Dark Orgy.
Sammy Guevera’s vlog (episode 298) continued building the Fuego del Sol/QT Marshall feud. Will Hobbs also popped up to steal another phone and an energy drink. Dude’s gonna have a whole ammo belt of phones by the time this angle is done.
There was also another BTE/Sammy’s vlog crossover this week, setting up a Brandon Cutler/Fuego del Sol showdown! Let’s see what happens in episode 65.
Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.
POP: Rock-solid start
Baron Black is kicking off our show in a singles match with Sonny Kiss.
Black and Kiss work pretty well together. Kiss looks great doing his acrobatic take on the exótico style, and Black sells the hits well. Black gets some time to do a bit of submission work here too. This is the first time it really feels like The Empbruh has gotten a chance to shine in Dark, and he’s looking solid.
Kiss wins.
POP: The Machine in the limelight
Next up we have Danny Limelight versus Brian Cage.
Somehow managing to parlay a botch into a storyline, commentator Taz turns ring announcer Justin Roberts’ dead mic into a continuation of his “they’re silencing me” conspiracy from Dynamite.
Cage doesn’t care much for the storyline, he takes a few snazzy hits from Limelight, then destroys him with authority.
POP, then BOTCH: Nyla squashes, Vickie promos
Match number three is pretty in pink Alex Gracia versus “The Native Beast” Nyla Rose.
Rose starts by basically just letting Gracia attempt to clobber her. The hits bounce off. The Native Beast looks like a true beast here, and when she hits back, Gracia crumples appropriately.
After the squash, Rose’s manager Vickie Guerrero comes out to try get some audience heat. Somehow she feels less threatening than Rose. I still don’t get the value of this pairing.
POP: Choonage on The Reba Show
Hey kids, it’s episode 3 of The Waiting Room, Britt Baker’s talkshow which really we’re all secretly just watching for Rebel’s hilarious background antics.
After a quick monologue, we get Dustin Rhodes, appearing in facepaint and a suit. Dustin continues his uncomfortably condescending character work, but gets a pop from me for taking shots at Baker’s shoot boyfriend Adam Cole (over in NXT). He vows to take out the entire Dark Order, starting with number 10. Maybe that Nightmare Family/Dark Order feud from a few months ago is getting resurrected?
The big surprise of the evening comes as musical guest Marko Stunt turns out to be a legit singer.
Alright do I have an eye AND EAR for talent or what?! How great was @realmarkostunt on #TheWaitingRoom? @AEW @TheVoiceABSCBN @MaskedSingerFOX @AGT pic.twitter.com/0DJYHAz37S
— Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (@RealBrittBaker) December 9, 2020
Is this wrestling? Who cares! It is big time entertainment, and well worth a watch.
POP: Beefcake!
Dark Order’s Preston “10” Vance faces Aaron Solow, to warm up for his upcoming Dynamite match versus Dustin.
10 seems to be getting built up as big man recently, which by AEW standards I suppose he is. He leans into that with Solow, looking every bit the immovable object.
Solow doesn’t get much offense in, eventually eating the pin.
POP: Peter piper picked a peck…
Pretty Peter Avalon saunters in to face Bronx jobber Louie Valle.
Valle works well in a comedy style, pulling faces and selling exaggerated reactions to the wannabe playboy’s seedy, weedy offense.
Avalon gets it with the marti-knees.
It's Prety Peter's Pageant Provocation!
Watch #AEWDark NOW via our Official YouTube Channel ➡️ https://t.co/bEDfFSF6m3 pic.twitter.com/pgclU2FYzr— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) December 9, 2020
After the match he announces an “open” challenge where he gets to choose the opponent – Pretty Peter’s Pageant Provocation. The whole bit is incredibly awkward, in the best possible way. I’m PPA all day!
POP: AEW’s best fam
Cheery wrestling fam The Gunn Club is back this week as a trio versus the random jobber crew of “The Captain” Shawn Dean, Sean Maluta and Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN.
Colten kicks it off and quickly gets The Captain in the corner, where he and Austin set up a cute imaginary basketball dunk spot. The Gunns are so wholesome, you can’t possibly cry nepotism.
Maluta and Dean take turns beating up Austin, then it’s Ryzin versus Billy with the dual hot tags. Ryzin gets his ass kicked, and then it’s all-on-all chaos.
Billy pins Ryzin for the win.
POP: Jingle Bell Rock
Next up is Dani Jordyn – in a santa hat! – versus Red Velvet. Jordyn reenacts parts of the Jingle Bell Rock scene from the movie Mean Girls during her entrance, in a nod to her “Mean Girl” moniker.
“We’re doing a dance to this song-“
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Yeah you guys have heard of it?” #TheRealMeanGirl@MeanGirls #meangirls #aewdark pic.twitter.com/XwEo0XDOSs
— Dani Jordyn (@DaniJordyn) December 9, 2020
I don’t have much to say about this match, other than that both athletes look great. The hits are hard, the moves are fun to watch, there is some taunting… It’s just really good wrestling. Don’t miss it.
Red Velvet wins this one, which is my dark horse match of the night.
MEH: Could be better
Jurassic Express are facing a newly debuting team this week – masked luchador Falco and weird painter Mike Magnum. The twist? Jungle Boy is taking a day off – it’s Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt representing the Express here.
Falco and Stunt have a wonderful exchange to kick things off, with several high-flying, high-excitement spots. Magnum and Luchasaurus slow it down with some big man stuff.
It’s a decent match, but the finish is a bit clumsy and generally feels less slick than the usual Express. This wasn’t the greatest intro to these two new characters.
FINE: Kinda what we expected?
It’s time for the vlog showdown! Fuego del Sol versus Brandon Cutler, let’s go.
Cutler’s been paired up with opponents who work well with his gangly frame the past few weeks, but with del Sol it’s a little trickier to sell. After an awkward start the YouTube stars hit their rhythm, and we get a few nice spots and counters. It’s fine.
Cutler wins it.
POP: Back in my good books
Ivelisse is back in singles competition this week versus Skyler Moore.
I’ve been a bit disappointed with Ivelisse’s performance in AEW so far. She doesn’t seem to work too well against jobbers, which is a lot of what she’s been facing. The good news is that this is the first match versus a jobber where she really worked for me. Ivelisse goes hard against Moore. There seems to be real aggression, and Moore has a large enough frame that she can take the punishment.
Ivelisse gets the W in a good giant-killer match.
BOTCH: What is this, Wrestlemania?
Local jobber Lindsay Snow is back for the third week in a row to face Big Swole.
This is a match of two charismatic wrestlers who neither are very exciting in the ring.
It’s slow. It’s long. It feels like the worst kind of PPV match. Swole wins.
BOTCH: How to not build a championship match
TH2 are facing the random jobber duo of guy whose name you’ll never know how to pronounce just from reading it, Sotheara Chhun, and guy who’s just initials, VSK.
VSK gets the primary offense in for the jobbers, wiping out both Jack Evans and Angélico. After the initial flurry, our jobbers are basically just props in The TH2 Show.
This match is all about sending a message to The Young Bucks, who TH2 will face on the upcoming Dynamite. Sadly, we don’t even get a decent Evans promo out of it.
BOTCH: Not the best first solo step
Ivelisse has had a few singles matches over the past few weeks, but her Women’s Tag Team Cup co-champion Diamante has been AWOL for a while. Tonight she faces Tesha Price.
Diamante looks just as angry as her former tag partner, but Price is less of a good punching bag than Moore was. She takes a fair few hits, but this doesn’t really flow.
Diamante wins it with a code red.
OK: Enter the sasquatch
Alaskan wrestler Freya “The Slaya” States debuts this week versus Shanna.
States is a monster. She’s got like a foot on Shanna and looks every inch the badass. Shanna spends a bit too much time getting clobbered here, but I suppose it’s a good intro to our new blue-haired bigfoot.
Shanna comes back with a few big hits and gets the pin with a suplex.
SLIP, SLOP and POP: Caster oil goodness
After a run of mediocre matches, I’m almost ready to tap out. Fortunately, here come Jon Cruz and Michael Nakazawa! And The Acclaimed! Max Caster’s entrance rap this week takes a shot at Cruz/Serpentico and references cable channel TNT to finish a typically questionable rhyme. Then he quips something about “corporate synergy”, which is well-timed and very funny. It’s wacky. Nakazawa blatantly hides oil in the turnbuckle. This match is ridiculous before it even got started.
Naka and Caster kick it off. Oil goes everywhere. Somehow everyone still manages to make a decent fight out of it, despite the slippery, sliding comedy spots.
Cruz takes most of the punishment, before giving Naka the hot tag. Naka proceeds to utterly flub it, and it’s brilliant. Naka comes back long enough to try remove his underwear to go for the stink-hand spot, but he somehow gets tangled up with underwear around his leg and neck. It has to be seen to be believed, comedy gold.
The Acclaimed get the win, and Caster does his own weird, creepy “rub the loser’s hand all over my face” bit… Awesome. My other match of the night.
BOTCH: New name, new suck
Clearly hating on our “Flowing Manes” nickname of the past couple weeks, AEW has given Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr the official moniker of Varsity Blondes, presumably in a nod to Pillman’s dad’s old team with Steve Austin, The Hollywood Blondes. They’re facing Alex “3” Reynolds and Colt Cabana of Dark Order.
Pillman is in first, and he takes a bunch of heelish punishment from Cabana and Reynolds. Garrison comes in to save the day, but then he gets killed too. Aren’t the Blondes facing FTR on the upcoming Dynamite? Shouldn’t they be getting the win here? This is like watching a Darby Allin match.
In true Darby style, the blondes get the win by pulling a finisher outta nowhere, but they don’t look near as tough as they should.
This was a decent episode of Dark. In a departure from the tendency of recent episodes, it started strong and got weaker as it went on. Do check for Naka at the end, though! One thing that really thrilled me was getting more Waiting Room on Dark (and not Dynamite). Not that this kind of surreal stuff shouldn’t also appear on cable TV, but it’s nice to get something beyond just wrestling on Dark.
Coming up on Dynamite we have Varsity Blondes/FTR and TH2/The Young Bucks, so fans of the Dark tag roster have something to look forward to. Another YouTube goodie to look out for might be the new Kip Sabian/Sammy Guevara talkshow that started on Kip’s channel. I’ll let you know if anything of note happens. Stay tuned to Steel Ring Post for all the recaps and hot takes!
