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Pops & Botches: AEW Dark – 12.29.2020

 

It’s been a tough year. This week the wrestling community came together to support one another as 2020 dealt out another loss. Let’s take a couple hours to escape the blues as we watch and recap December 29’s AEW Dark.

Last time on Dark…

SCU cut an impassioned promo on The Waiting Room. Matt Sydal pushed Serpentico to new heights, before pinning him. Pretty Peter Avalon kicked off his pageant. If you missed it, catch up in our December 22 recap.

Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…

The saddest wrestling news of the past week was the passing of Jon Huber, aka Mr. Brodie Lee, Dark Order’s Exalted One. It seems he was universally loved, as wrestlers from AEW, WWE and beyond sent their condolences. Huber is survived by his wife and two kids, one of whom appeared last week on Dark as Dark Order’s littlest minion, Negative One.

Being The Elite episode 236 is a Brodie Lee clip show with some shoot framing from grieving Dark Order members. Sammy Guevara’s vlog is on break.

In last week’s Dynamite, both Top Flight and The Acclaimed lost, but looked fantastic doing it. Shawn Spears got a brief promo too, where he seemed to retire the black glove gimmick and go back to his chip on the shoulder journeyman thing. Not sure if that means the Scorpio Sky feud is off… Also, Alex Gracia got killed by Hikaru Shida.

Let’s cue up episode 68 for some wrassle fun.

Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.

POP: Look what the cat dragged in

We open with a card and moment of silence commemorating Brodie Lee, then it’s straight into the show with the debut of Vary Morales. He’s facing Rey Fénix, and immediately we get a reminder that this show was pre-recorded, as Excalibur puts over “tomorrow’s” match with Kenny Omega, which will now be pushed out a week for a Brodie Lee tribute episode.

Morales looks like an 80s hair metal frontman with his bandana, eyeliner and leather. He’s come straight outta Juárez to sing power ballads and kick ass, and he’s all out of ballads.

Morales puts up a good fight and sells himself as a character I’d definitely like to see again, but Fénix easily takes this one with his trademark aerial maneuvers.

POP: Ford takes care of business

Next up we got techno viking Lindsay Snow versus “Superbad” Penelope Ford.

Snow really plays a punching bag here. She lets Ford kick the shit out of her before coming back with a monster uppercut.

Ford is rattled, but not for too long as she finishes it with a cutter.

POP: The Captain’s new mate

Shawn Dean has himself another random tag partner today – Tyson Maddux. They’re facing Dark Order’s John Silver and Alex Reynolds.

Reynolds and Dean get us started with some solid choreography. Dean shoulder tackles Reynolds before tagging out to the debuting Maddux who shows off a solid powerslam and delayed vertical. Silver comes to his partner’s aid and Maddux eats most of the tag offense before diving back to hit Dean for the hot tag.

Dean has a brief comeback, then sends Maddux back in to eat the pin.

I wish they’d give Dean a bit more, he’s definitely proven himself this year.

OKAY: 99 grinding her stats

Next up is some more Dark Order – Anna “99” Jay representing versus Jazmin Allure.

This match is over almost as soon as it starts. They exchange a few holds, Jay hits a few soft kicks then it’s “queen slayer” chokehold and our jobber taps out. It’s okay.

FUN: Scribbling on Cody’s face

“Everyone smile!” Rebel welcomes us to another instalment of Britt Baker’s The Waiting Room. After the monologue we greet today’s guest: Matt Sydal!

Sydal and Baker work well together, as he effortlessly babbles his hippie schtick and she continues to diss him. Eventually they bond over a mutual hatred for Cody Rhodes.

Doesn’t quite hit as hard as the SCU promo last week, but still a fun little segment, and a good way to build storylines on Dark.

POP: “We beat ass”

Here is a weird jobber trio – Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN, Nick Comoroto and James Tapia versus Team Taz – Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs and “The Machine” Brian Cage.

Comoroto and Hobbs lock up. I stan the crazy man, but Hobbs is our local hero and makes enough room to grimace at the hard cam. Ryzin tags in only to get destroyed by Cage and Starks. Tapia comes in and then it all breaks down.

This match is wild. By the end it’s not clear who is tagged in, but it sure is a brutal beatdown. Hobbs and Cage don’t disappoint. This is our first time watching Team Taz in action as a trio, and they rock ass. More, please.

POP: Griff’s a monster!

Fuego del Sol is facing Griff Garrison in an epic face-off of Sammy Guevara’s YouTube buds. Pretty Peter Avalon pointlessly joins us on commentary.

Del Sol tries to get some offense in here, but Garrison knows him too well! Most everything gets countered, peaking with some trickery that reverses a tornado DDT into three consecutive back breakers.

Garrison dominates in this outing. Del Sol gets clobbered so bad I almost feel sorry for him. At least he has the holidays to rest up.

POP: New York throwdown

Terrence and Terrell Hughes – TNT – join us again this week versus the proud, the powerful, Santana & Ortiz.

Santana and Terrell kick it off with some standard holds and tie-ups, and they sell it straight outta the gate with dramatic flourishes and trash talk. Masterful work.

Terrence comes in to eat the hits from both Santana and Ortiz. Terrence finally stalls Ortiz with a belly-to-belly, Terrell gets the hot tag, and it’s a clothesline party! Powerslam! Hook the legs…

Ortiz kicks out! Proud and Powerful wrap it up pretty quick after that. TNT look polished as hell. It’s my match of the night!

POP: “Never phone it in with me”

Next up we have a pretty boy fight, Aaron Solow versus Sammy Guevara.

Guevara and Solow start it out with some smooth grappling. Solow tosses his hair in Guevara’s face, only to get flipped off in a comeback taunt. Guevara dodges a flurry of strikes then powers up and it’s time for aerial attacks!

Both these guys get caught in the face on different spots coming down from the turnbuckle and it’s bad as hell. Guevara hits a springboard moonsault to the outside! What a treat for a Dark episode! He talks shit to the jabronis in the crowd! … Then he misses the 450 finisher! D’oh!

Solow comes back briefly before falling to the GTH. It’s my second match of the night!

POP: It’s chaos!

Next up we have two new debuting wrestlers – Ariel Levy and El Cuervo de Puerto Rico! They’re our random jobber duo versus Chaos Project. El Cuervo is wearing a frickin’ plague doctor mask! Yeah!

Random thought: if this El Cuervo es de Puerto Rico, donde the other ones?

Anyway, he and Serpentico open it up. They don’t get up to much, as Luther and Levy switch in to bring the meat and potatoes hits. True to form, Luther eventually picks up Serpentico and uses him to batter the debuting Chilean. It’s hilarious.

El Cuervo comes back to save his bud and kick Serpentico in the head. Chaos Project has the last laugh, though, hitting their finisher for the W.

MEH: Leva being Leva

Madi Wrenkowski is back this week with some awesome synthpop entrance music apparently stolen from Vertvixen’s TRS-80. She’s facing The Librarian Leva Bates.

Bates gives Wrenkowski a Young Bucks book, and – heel that she is – she tears pages out of it, then throws it back in The Librarian’s face!

This match seems more about exchanging taunts than fighting. “You illiterate bitch!” “Oh, look at me, I’m a librarian!” Superkick to the face, small package and our hero ekes out another win largely due to the magical wrestling power of Being A Face.

Bates is totally over for me as a character, but I want to see her technical skills improve too. There’s only so long a match can go without being able to pull off a sharp chain of moves. It’s more noticeable when she’s up against a contender who also isn’t quite there yet.

POP: Weekly dose of serious wrestles

It’s serious wrestles time! Danny Limelight versus Matt Sydal. They both had excellent matches last week, can they top it this week?

I mean, sure. Almost. These two are pros. This is exactly the match you would expect it to be. Clean. Crisp. Well-paced. Sydal gets the win.

POP: Conti earning her keep

Tay Conti is here to face Vertvixen!

Conti quickly puts Vixen to the ground and sets up a whole sequence of rolling near falls. It looks like Conti is just toying with the visitor as she counters everything and effortlessly tosses the taller woman around the ring.

Vixen connects with a few kicks, but Conti has this in the bag.

BOTCH: Gunns off their game

We have another random jobber trio now – Royal Money, Baron Black and Mike Verna versus Gunn Club.

Billy Gunn opens it with the Man of Steel. Verna manages to get a few strikes in on daddy Gunn! Black tags in for all of two seconds, then it’s over to Money for his debut clobbering. The Gunn kids hit their dunk spot and it all breaks down.

Before you know it Colten pins Money, Austin grabs a mic to say some shit, and I dunno, this match just didn’t work. Too bad, because I love the Gunn Club and I love random jobber trios.

POP: Future on the line!

Our main event tonight is SCU versus TH2. If last week’s promo is to be believed, this is a must-win for SCU! If they lose, Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels will split!

Angélico and Kaz tie up. The two technicians work a bunch of great holds and submissions, neither one quite getting the upper hand till Kaz goes back to basics and hits a clothesline. Evans and CD get some time in, but a lot of this match feels like a continuation of the epic Angélico/Kaz battle from a few months ago.

Evans pops in to try submit Kaz, but Kaz hits a clothesline and makes a hot tag to CD. CD cleans house! This is a war of escalating clotheslines! Kaz swipes his arm at Angélico’s face, but no!!! Angélico evades! Kaz takes out his tag partner instead!

It’s a nail-biter of a finish. There are some legit gasp-worthy near falls here, and it really seems like SCU is donezo… but at the last minute they pull out the win. The Acclaimed run in! The Young Bucks run in! Wow! Now this is a tag team division, y’all.


Another pretty good Dark this week. If they keep this up I’ll have to adjust my POP/BOTCH calibration to stop giving developmental bouts a pass!

Dynamite this week is going to be a Brodie Lee tribute episode, with all the Dark Order minions (bar Alan “5” Angels) getting ring-time with various superstars in out-of-continuity dream battles. Warm up your purple heart emojis! 💜 Should be a fun watch. I’ll be checking for Anna “99” Jay and Tay Conti, reunited to beat down on Britt Baker and Penelope Ford.

One thing this year has been relentlessly reminding us is that life can turn on a dime. Hug someone close to you, or send them a message if you’re stuck isolating. Let ’em know you care today, because who knows what tomorrow will bring? Here’s hoping 2021 will be a better one. See you next year, wrestle friends!