Aubrey reacts to some daredevil ropework - AEW (YouTube)

Pops & Botches: AEW Dark – 12.22.2020

AEW Dark Pops & Botches

 

The solstice has passed, the days get longer, the nights grow colder, and the chap who freaks out probably just moved to Canada. This tuque-wearing chapette is staying rugged up and physically distanced for the holidays, with only the glare of an LCD for warmth. Join me with my YuleTube log of AEW Dark, and this December 22 recap.

Last time on Dark…

Bear Country arrived and inspired a string of bear emojis. Anna Jay out-meaned the mean girl. Tay Conti took down an Alaskan beast. All this and more, in our December 15 recap.

Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…

Last week’s Dynamite wasn’t too exciting. Brandon Cutler got cut from the big 14-man, but Top Flight still showed up and put in a decent effort alongside Varsity Blondes and Best Friends. Joey Janela and Angélico both got beaten up. The main Dark-related development was The Acclaimed beating SCU and lining up a match with the Young Bucks.

Being The Elite (episode 235) is a bumper Christmas special. The main plot thread is a lore-drenched retelling of A Christmas Carol with Frankie Kazarian in the role of Scrooge. The B plot continues selling Dark Order as AEW’s bestest of friends. Also, Matt Jackson snuggled with Pretty Peter Avalon. Heartwarming stuff.

Sammy Guevara’s vlog this week is not just a Christmas vlog, it’s also episode 300! Brandon Cutler gets a retcon for being cut from Dynamite – his neck was broken by Fuego del Sol! He and Sammy snuggle on Pretty Peter Avalon’s ringside bed during Fuego’s appearance on Dark. Powerhouse Hobbs steals a santa hat. Cody runs around like a dork.

If BTE this week was the slightly awkward yet ultimately wholesome Christmas dinner with extended family, Sammy’s vlog is that raucous work party that ends up with Isiah Kassidy collapsed in a bush and your closest colleagues getting all sentimental up on the rooftop.

AEW, bringing that festive joy to all of us whose holiday gatherings got cancelled.

Let’s see what they have in episode 67.

Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.

POP: Dinos and bears, oh my!

Opening the show this week it’s last week’s debuting heroes Bear Country versus fan fave Jurassic Express.

Jungle Boy sets the mood by unleashing a basket of dropkicks on Bronson. Luchasaurus tags in to brawl with Boulder and his ursine bud.

It’s not quite as strong as their debut, but still a lot of fun. Jurassic Express get the win.

POP: Return of the beast

Not mentioned in my Arcadia roundup was the very funny third episode of The Kip & Sammy Show. Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose hijack the boys’ poorly-organized talkshow in a way that puts themselves over as exactly the sort of arrogant yet lovable heel duo that Kip and Sammy aspire to be.

Anyway, back here in the ring, facing Tesha Price, Rose is in full-blown beast mode.

Price makes a few noble moves, but everyone knows she’s just here to get killed. It’s a massive squash of the like Rose hasn’t done in ages, and it’s awesome.

MEH: Y’all can do better

What’s this? Sonny Kiss versus Miro? On Dark? Miro yŏu pyro lah!

This is the second week in a row where there has been a “main event” in the third slot, which seems to point toward these first three matches being legit dark matches with the Dynamite crowd still in attendance. But the crowd – if it’s there – doesn’t really pop for this, despite fan fave booking.

Not having a pop hurts this match a bit. Kiss gets some cool escapes and Miro is appropriately brutal once he catches up with the Jersey boy, but it feels like the match never really takes off.

POP: Worst Year Ever blowoff

Britt Baker’s talkshow The Waiting Room is back this week. The monologue features a bunch of main roster burns that are pretty funny this time around. Rebel is once again delightful as the sidekick whose reactions make the whole bit. Special guests are SCU.

Holy shit, y’all. Frankie Kazarian takes the mic and unleashes a furious promo delving into all of his insecurities and disappointments of the past year. Christopher Daniels is almost moved to tears as they tease a breakup, then he takes the mic and pours his heart out too. It ends with Kaz giving CD an ultimatum: we win the next match, or we break up. Wow! I’m not crying, you’re crying!

This has to be one of the top pathos promos we’ve seen on AEW all year. Must-watch segment.

FINE: I kinda missed it

Whew, I need a cigarette after that promo.

The cooldown match is debuting jobber Jazmin Allure versus former NWA champ Thunder Rosa.

Allure just gets destroyed here. I can’t even tell if she’s any good. Thunder Rosa looks angry as hell after getting into it with Britt Baker on Dynamite last week, so this seems more like a performance to send a message to her new nemesis than an actual match.

POP: Lee’s back, baby

Lee Johnson is a Dark fave who we haven’t seen in solo action for a while. He’s up tonight against Dark Order’s Stu Grayson.

These are two underrated talents. Johnson is an exciting young high flyer and Grayson has big Li’l Ciampa energy. The baddest ass combo is Grayson going from a dragon suplex into some kind of bicycle kick to the face, then a springboard 450, then it’s 1, 2…

Big Shotty kicks out! They exchange a few more blows and action goes outside!

Grayson smashes Lee into the turnbuckle, then rolls him back into the ring for a backbreaker and the pin. Nice.

UH… Nobody expects the Texas inquisition!

“The Pink Dream” Alex Gracia is back this week to face Dark hero KiLynn King. This match is high stakes – the winner will face Hikaru Shida for the title!

King starts out with the upper hand, but Gracia makes an area code escape before coming back. They exchange some chops, and this plays to the strengths of the bigger woman (King). Gracia hits a few scruffy luchador spots, but King comes back with a brutal suplex that leaves the Pink Dream laid out flat. Somehow, groggily, she comes back and gets a surprise win!?

This is a swerve. Guess we got Gracia/Shida to look forward to.

POP: Straight outta your fantasies

Pretty Peter Avalon saunters out in his dressing gown to introduce the first challenger in Pretty Peter’s Pageant Provocation – “Man of Steel” Mike Verna.

PPA has set up an arbitrary rule for the PPPP “open” challenge – all the challengers have to be especially good-looking. Verna is, admittedly, pretty darn good-looking, with his Sonny Crocket five o’clock shadow and sexy Clark Kent coiffure.

Dude’s also good in the ring, completely dominating PPA. Our lovable loser does manage to come back when he slows the match down to focus on tangling up the Man of Steel in some sneaky holds and submissions.

This is an incredibly cheesy match, but they’re both such charismatic and funny characters that it’s entertaining anyway. PPA somehow wins it with the marti-knees.

POP: Velvet gets some sparring in

Another debuting talent this week is Vertvixen. She’s facing Red Velvet.

Vertvixen has cool synthpop entrance music. She isn’t quite there in the ring yet, missing a few spots and transitions, but Velvet is so damn good that it doesn’t really matter. She has a great sequence here where she ducks and slips Vixen’s punches, and it is tight as hell.

Velvet wins, in a showing that cements her position as top of the mountain in women’s talent on Dark.

POP: Darkiest match of the night

It’s a random jobber trio! Aaron Solow and Ray Jaz join Fuego del Sol to face off with Dark Order’s Alan “5” Angels, Preston “10” Vance and Colt “Unnumbered” Cabana.

Cabana and del Sol kick it off, and del Sol gets his ass kicked. 5 and Solow are next, switching the mood from comedy wrestling to serious pro graps. 10 and Jaz then bring the big man power moves.

Jaz is debuting this week and I can’t find much about him online, so he’s a legit jobber! He gets hammered by everyone before reaching del Sol for the hot tag. Del Sol takes out the entire Dark Order, but just as he goes to hit the tornado DDT on 10, he’s countered, then passed around the whole gang for a clobbering.

Dark Order gets the win. Fuego still eats the pin, even with a debuting jobber on his team. It’s perfect.

Sidebar: Brodie Lee’s kid, Dark Order minion “Negative One”, briefly appears in the crowd. Will the Exalted One return soon..?

POP: Legit.

Another debuting star from the Texas indies is Madi Wrenkowski. She’s here to get merked by “Legit” Leyla Hirsch.

Hirsch immediately takes Wrenkowski to the mat. Hirsch’s amateur wrestling style is lightning-fast, masterful and just damn refreshing in this Olympics-less year.

Too Legit nobly allows her gangly opponent to escape here and there, just to give her a sporting chance. Wrenkowski’s offense is a bit clumsy and doesn’t pose much of a threat.

Once Hirsch is tired of toying with the Texan, it’s arm bar time, and she gets another submission win.

POP: Second generation showdown

Terrence and Terrell Hughes are back this week to face Austin and Colten Gunn. Who would’ve thought 20 years ago that D-Von Dudley and Billy Gunn’s kids would be going at it in a tag match on YouTube?

Well, YouTube didn’t exist 20 years ago, so… no one. But still!

TNT work a little better together than the Gunn Club, tagging more quickly, separating Austin and setting up some good combos. Colten gets the hot tag and surprisingly wins it with his Colt 45 finisher, but TNT were the real stars of this bout.

POP: Slacklining, except fun

Rey Fénix gets a whole shit-ton of pyro for his entrance tonight. He’ll be facing Kenny Omega for the title in a couple weeks, but tonight he has a warm-up versus Danny Limelight.

These two athletes are both really slick. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it kind of a match as they cycle through a bunch of excellent spots and counters.

The highlight is an awesome tightrope sequence. There are a few stumbles, which is understandable given the difficulty, but watching two guys both balance on the ropes and exchange chops, then hit some springboard offense is the kind of lucha we all need in our lives.

Fénix wins.

POP: Sydal extracts the venom

In our headliner tonight, Serpentico has a solo outing versus Matt Sydal.

We get a couple of funny exchanges to start as Serpentico’s tag partner Luther compares his forehead-pointing taunt to Sydal’s. Battle of the third eyes!

Except it’s Serpentico who’s booked for the match, and that’s all the better. He has the agility to go toe-to-toe with Sydal, moving quickly around the ring and hitting some nice escapes and counters. Luther makes an excellent manager, shouting from the sidelines and occasionally interfering in a dastardly fashion.

Serpentico gets a bunch of near falls, but ultimately Sydal comes back for the win. This is a much better match than I thought it was going to be, and it’s my match of the night.

This was a really clean, sharp episode of Dark. All the matches were good, although there was definitely some green-ness or nerves hitting our guesting Texans. If you only watch one thing, make it the Waiting Room segment – that SCU promo deserves to be shared far and wide. Sydal pushing Serpentico to be better than he’s ever been was great to see too.

Dynamite will air after the NBA tonight, which means most of us will watch it tomorrow. Whenever you watch, keep your eyes peeled for Top Flight and The Acclaimed in tag action versus the main roster heroes, and of course Alex Gracia who earned her title shot versus Hikaru Shida.

For those who celebrate it, I wish you a merry Christmas. For those who don’t, enjoy the day off and stay safe. In the spirit of Dani Jordyn and Powerhouse Hobbs, here’s a festive emoji: 🎅. Catch y’all next time on Dark.

Faboo!

     

Share this post:

You May Also Like

Image: Smackdown on FOX
Pops & Botches Smackdown WWE
Pops & Botches: Friday Night Smackdown – 8.28.2020
Allie gets a lift - AEW (YouTube)
AEW Dark Pops & Botches
Pops & Botches: AEW Dark – 9.1.2020