David Ali attempts a rare tongue escape - AEW (YouTube)

Pops & Botches: AEW Elevation & Dark – 4.26.2021 & 4.27.2021

AEW Dark Elevation Pops & Botches

 

Spring Festival? Easter? I don’t know about all y’all, but for me the year hasn’t really kicked off till we get our first Supermoon. Alas, due to the magic of internet, if you’re only reading about it now, you already missed it. Nevermind, Steel Ring Post got you covered for alternative entertainment. Here is our recap of April 26’s AEW Elevation and April 27’s AEW Dark. Spoiler alert, there is no Cameron Grimes content except for these two emojis: 🚀🌕

Last time on Dark…

Ref Bryce Remsburg collected his bonus from Ken Broadway. Ryan Nemeth heckled Max Caster, who went on to beat Alan Angels anyway. The DDT invasion continued, and it was amazing. Read up on all the pops and botches in our April 19/20 recap.

Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…

Hikaru Shida and Tay Conti put on an excellent title match over on last week’s Dynamite. Both of the Team Taz boys lost. In Dark-related news, QT Marshall and Billy Gunn went head to head in a battle that quickly degenerated into a Nightmare Family (feat. Gunn Club) versus The Factory brawl. QT got the win and Nick Comoroto got sold as a monster whose skull can splinter wooden deck chairs like matchsticks.

Being The Elite episode 253 gave us a deleted scene from Dynamite which explained how The Elite escaped their trailer before Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston rammed it. Unfortunately that busts the fan theory of Mox and Kingston accidentally trashing the wrong trailer, which would have been a much funnier storyline. Pretty Peter Avalon appeared in a bit implying he still misses former partner and librarian Leva Bates. The star of this week is Dr Luther, who Ryzin hunts down to deal with his priapism problem.

Sammy Guevara headed off to another con with Darby Allin in episode 317 of his vlog. And – in a vision of a happily-vaccinated future – to some MMA fight with a million fans, one of whom was an amusingly drunk Joey Janela. Cody Rhodes set up a “Friend-lympics” to fill his role of new best friend after Shawn Spears, MJF and QT Marshall all ditched him. It’ll be between KiLynn King, Fuego del Sol, Preston “10” Vance and Baron Black. Tune in next week!

I haven’t added Ethan Page’s vlog to my recap because it’s more of a traditional vlog without any storylines… But it’s worth watching last week’s From The Rafters episode, simply because it features a cute, kayfabe-busting scene of The Butcher’s vegan meal choice.

Let’s check out episode 7 of Monday Night Elevation.

BOTCH: Continuing the tradition of disappointing bouts

For the first time ever, I actually made it to this episode of Elevation in time to hear the YouTube premiere music. Huzzah!

Who have we got to open? It’s Rey frickin Fénix versus “The Kentucky Gentleman” (and Best Friend) Chuck Taylor. Fénix has a sweet new purple mask after Young Bucks heelishly tore off his old one a few weeks back.

The fight gets off to a slow start. Taylor is a fairly deliberate-paced wrestler, and it feels like Fénix is working a less flamboyant style to balance. Y’all know this is my least favorite kind of wrestling, and the snoozeworthy commentary doesn’t help to perk me up either.

Fénix ropewalks, but Taylor pulls him down and hits him with a piledriver. Alex Abrahantes walks out with a mic to run distraction, then Orange Cassidy arrives, then he’s kicked in the face by Penta el Zero M, then Fénix wins with a surprise roll-up. Wow. This match sucked.

MEH: Pretty Peter’s underwhelming return

Perhaps here to cheer us up is Ryan Nemeth “The Hollywood Hunk”. Pretty Peter Avalon is finally back with the gang – he’s been out with a tweaked knee. Cezar Bononi and JD Drake are here too. Nemeth’s opponent is Occult Pro Wrestling Star RYZIN, facing the handsome gents all on his own.

Unsurprisingly, the Pretty Stable cheat their asses off and Ryzin doesn’t even get a look in. The Unholy Reverend finally hits a body slam, then goes up to the high rent district to prepare something more exciting, but Avalon interrupts! As soon as Ryzin’s back on terra firma Nemeth hits his Rude Awakening instead.

There wasn’t enough story here, which is unfortunate, because all these characters can do better.

EH: Standard Orange squash

Third time lucky? We have Orange Cassidy versus Dean Alexander, who enters the ring this week with a huge fur coat, and it kinda works for him.

OC does his full hands-in-pockets routine, then hits the Orange Punch and pins Alexander.

POP: THE ACCLAIMED RAISE THE BAR

If this episode doesn’t get much better I almost want to give up on the whole thing.

Wait.

Hang on.

THE ACCLAIMED HAVE ARRIVED!

Max Caster’s entrance rap ends with a risqué unfinished rhyme, which Anthony Bowens interrupts with perfect timing. Bowens seems to have recovered from his injury, because this is a tag match! The dastardly duo are facing Adrian Alanis and Liam Gray, who’ve done some jobbing on NXT and 205 Live through Evolve.

Bowens starts it off with Gray and connects with enough stiff moves to show he’s fairly healed. Gray gets clobbered by both heels before hitting Alanis for the hot tag, and the visitor explodes with high effect.

Alanis shines bright, but he quickly burns out and tags Gray back in to eat the pin. Caster evolves his “creepily kiss the hand of the opponent after beating them” gimmick into a cheeky double-kiss, which is equally weird but a bit less creepy. Smart move.

POP: VSK gets Comoroto’ed

Nick Comoroto is getting a chance to smack his hard head into someone. Unfortunately that someone is VSK, one of the more solid indie wrestlers we saw during the darkest months of the corona era.

VSK gets first blood, but before long Comoroto removes his straitjacket and squishes, squashes and splatters the New Yorker.

QT Marshall perched up on the steel bleachers looks just as unimpressed as he did when Aaron Solow lost last week. What a meanie! Comoroto tries a second finisher to impress his stable dad, but he just gets another grimace.

POP: Hey hey it’s the anikis

“Legit” Leyla Hirsch got a long bio segment this week, which she managed to pull off in a way that didn’t bust too much of her kayfabe badass amateur persona. She is once again paired up with brother from another mother Ryo Mizunami this week, as the anikis take on Diamante and Amber Nova.

Nova is in first and eats some offense to let both our faces warm up, then Diamante comes in to drop some hard chops and strikes on Mizunami. Nova has a bit of trouble getting herself in position for Mizunami’s big chop party, but eventually they sort it out and Nova almost gets pinned.

It gets pretty chaotic toward the end, as each of the tagged-out partners try to block the other from breaking up the pin. Eventually Hirsch submits Nova with her arm bar.

Diamante looks mad after losing the match, but we’re told that Hirsch and Diamante will have the chance to settle the score next week.

POP: I don’t wanna boop

Coming up next is Kris Statlander versus Tesha Price. Statlander has a (new?) vocoder entrance song that sounds suitably alien-y.

Price really goes all out with her losing loudly gimmick, which is quite entertaining. Statlander tries to boop her, but Price will have nothing of it. Statlander’s offense is looking stiff as all hell, and it’s a credit to Price that she keeps on fighting after having her head bounce sharply off the turnbuckle.

Statlander hits her piledriver finisher and then jokes around with the Best Friends while Price lies limp in the ring. Brutal. Best Friends are surely some of the stiffest-hitting guys (and gal) in the promotion right now. I’m starting to think they might secretly be heels!

POP: Sky and Ego break free

Earlier in the night Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page cut a fun promo trying to figure out whose name should go first in their tag team name. Good to see they’re focusing on the big issues. They’re facing the unusual Dark Order pairing of Alex “3” Reynolds and Alan “5” Angels.

Sky evades some of Reynolds’ offense then struts around a bit, which is exactly the kind of heel that he should be. A Wil Wheaton styled baddie! Sky and Page have such personable characters, it’s a waste to make them generic angry heels.

All Ego tags in and gets beaten down by little 5, till Sky pops up from the apron and gives his partner a hand. Someone gets a “you still suck” chant. Page tags back in and switches to full slow-motion heel mode. Ah well, it was good while it lasted.

I will say, though, Angels fighting his way out of the beatdown was a heroic effort – one of the best face comebacks I’ve seen recently. Reynolds gets the hot tag and smacks the shit out of the heels, then it all breaks down.

Eventually Sky pushes 5 off the top ropes, which gives Page the opening to hit his Ego’s Edge and get the win. Not just the win, but the first match of theirs that I consider POP-worthy, and – believe it or not – my match of the night! Good work all round.

POP: Can they coexist? Rose says no

Next up we have more women’s action – Nyla Rose and Madi Wrenkowski. Vickie Guerrero interrupts Justin Roberts’ ring announcement, then with fiendish eloquence totally buries Rose’s tag partner in favor of her golden child. It is a masterfully heelish intro.

Big Swole and Red Velvet strut on in ready to kick the shit out of these assholes.

Swole and Rose have a solid opening. Wrenkowski calls for the tag, so Rose lifts her over the ropes and slams her into the ring like she’s been getting tag team tips from Luther and Serpentico. Wrenkowski gets back up, only to get throttled by Swole and Velvet. Eventually she turns it around, but then Rose stalks into the ring and powerbombs her partner! What the F! Rose is even more bitter than her manager!

Velvet goes with it and takes the easy pin.

POP: Unexpectedly técnico

For our main event we have the fan fave goodness of Joey Janela versus Matt Sydal.

Sydal and Janela start it off with some nice, technical mat wrestling. It’s almost a shock to see Janela do these clever escapes. Usually he acts more like the guy who spends his time hitting himself over the head with a trash can for the lulz.

Paul Wight spends a bunch of the match putting himself over, meanwhile in the ring Sydal and Janela are putting on a barnburner. They each take hits on the apron, bounce off the ropes and collide in the center, then twist one another back around into painful-looking holds. It’s a técnico masterclass.

Janela hits a Death Valley Driver then goes for the Asbury Park elbow drop, but Sydal quickly counters into the Lighting Spiral for the win. Excellent main event.

Pretty decent episode of Elevation, there. For some reason I’m finding that the opening matches don’t often work for me. I’m not sure if it’s because it takes me a few matches to get into the groove, or if they do just suck. What do you all think? Let me know on Discord or in the comments.

For me, although the highs of Elevation are higher than Dark, the lows are lower. I really think this is down to the commentary not being able to bring the sort of baseline entertaining banter that Taz and Excalibur provide.

Admittedly, I am especially uninterested in Paul Wight putting himself over. Big Show was never a wrestler I paid attention to even when I did follow the WWE main roster, so his war stories and humblebrags go over my head. Now, Ricky Starks going off on some tangent about armadillos, at least that’s independently amusing, and it doesn’t bury the in-ring talent by immediately one-upping their own achievements and experiences.

Anywho, moving on to episode hachi roku (86)…

Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.

POP: All days should start with The Acclaimed

We get things started with vlog superstar Fuego del Sol and everyone’s favorite centurion D3. They’re teaming up to take on The Acclaimed!

After getting thrown off his intro by Taz being a smartass, Max Caster spits an edgy rap that references hospitals in Italy. Too soon? It’s never too soon to heel on current events! I am immediately entertained, and nobody even threw a punch yet.

D3 hits some low kicks to try knock Caster over. He’s doing okay till Bowens tags in and neckbreaks him over Caster’s knees… Combo back-and-neckbreaker? Painful! Del Sol gets the hot tag and manages to duck past Bowens, dropkick Caster, unleash an enziguri, then Tornadoooo… no Tornado. Bowens counters and powerslams our vlogger, then Caster’s elbow drops him.

1, 2, 3 and… It’s time for Caster to massage Del Sol’s thighs?! Is it homoerotic? Is it creepy? I can’t decide!

DEVELOPMENTAL POP: Tutorial with the Sydals

Matt and Mike Sydal are getting their wins up versus a couple of random jobbers who we haven’t seen in a little while – David Ali and Aaron Frye.

Ali, Matt and Mike bring us a nice técnico start with lots of arm drags and cartwheels. After watching his partner suffer a double bow-and-arrow from the yoga bros, Frye gives up waiting for a tag and tries to run in, which only results in both him and Ali getting thrown to the outside.

Frye eventually gets a legal tag and scores a few hits on the yoga bros, but before long he’s wiped out with a tandem meteora and Lightning Spiral. Not gonna lie, this was a pretty messy match by Sydal standards. But I’d rather have messy than boring, so it earns an elusive developmental POP.

POP: Dante keeps on flying

Dante Martin has another solo fight this week, this time versus the hyperactive indie champ Andrew Palace.

Palace hams up the fairly standard opening exchange. He eats a bit of springboard offense, then drops Martin on his back and proclaims “I’m a highflyer too!” Well, we all know what that means. It means he’ll miss a Janela-esque bellyflop and get elbowed in the face, then kicked in the head, then clotheslined, then dropkicked, then… Woah! Martin’s offense is 2 fast 2 recap!

Martin hits a 450 for the win and winks at the camera, finally showing a bit of character beyond Aerial Wunderkind.

BOTCH: Manes not given much to work with

Hey, it’s the Varsity Blonds! Their hair metal theme song always puts me in a good mood. Their opponents are two new faces: “Dangerous” Duke Davis and Ganon Jones Jr “Jones”, who also tag as The Mane Event. But. Like. A different Mane Event from Jay Lyon and Midas Black. Indie wrestling! Clap clap, clap clap clap!

Jones is a pretty big guy, at least compared to Brian Pillman Jr. (Yes, it’s junior versus junior.) Griff Garrison tags in to bring a brief spurt of offense, but then it’s back to Pillman getting methodically clobbered by Davis and Jones. They’re not really an exciting duo.

Garrison gets the hot tag and sets up the pin for Pillman.

POP: Nostalgia hit

Here it is! The rumors are true! Marty Casaus – better known as Marty “The Moth” Martinez from Lucha Underground – is here in AEW! He was out with a spine injury for a couple of years, but he resurfaced a few months back and now he’s booked in a match versus fellow Lucha Underground alumnus “The Machine” Brian Cage.

Casaus leans in to the same “creepy bastard” character he had in Lucha Underground, and Brian Cage goes full lucha with his leapfrogs and dropkicks. What a delight! Could we even see one of Cage’s patented mechanical 619s? Well, we at least get one of his Death Valley Drivers.

Casaus was never the best wrestler on Lucha Underground, but he was able to sell a character, and that’s exactly what makes this match work. Casaus hits the usual bunch of crossface strikes, a suplex or two, a soft dropkick and even a tope con hilo, but he’s definitely lacking the conditioning of Cage who fires out explosive kicks to the end. Drillclaw, and it’s a clean win for the machine.

POP: Hirsch takes care of business

“Legit” Leyla Hirsch is back in action today with a solo match versus Renee Michelle.

Hirsch ducks under Michelle’s attack and brings her straight to the mat. After missing a crossbody, then slipping out of a juji gatame, Michelle leverages off the ropes to drive some strikes into Hirsch’s arms.

It’s not enough. Too Legit comes back with a quick knee strike, then arm bar submission for the win.

POP: Murdering St Patrick

Jake St Patrick made the big time! He’s getting to fight “Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer!

St Patrick’s been doing his homework, and he knows Archer likes to kill people before the bell, so he turns the tables and attacks Archer during the star’s entrance. It doesn’t go well for him. Chokeslam on the ramp.

Archer calmly gets into the ring and lets his music play out. By the time St Patrick crawls in and the bell rings, he’s as done as he would’ve been if his head had gone through the ceiling in the locker room. Talk about a backfire!

Archer utterly clobbers the Illinoisan. St Patrick connects with a few kicks, but this is squash central.

DEVELOPMENTAL POP: The second

Diamante returns tonight for a singles match versus debuting Texan, Raychell Rose.

Rose’s moves have some style when they connect, but there are some slower sections where it feels too much like she (or Diamante) is waiting for the next spot to happen. There’s a trick to maneuvering into the setup without making it look like that’s what you’re doing, and Rose isn’t quite there with Diamante.

Diamante hits a Code Red to take this Very Developmental bout, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Rose again.

POP: Nice to have the old Shotty back

It feels like forever since we saw “Big Shotty” in a solo fight. In his last match he paired with QT Marshall, and we all thought the dude was turning heel! If the break was intended to have us forget that angle, you’re welcome. He’s facing Texas indie talent Will Allday.

Allday and Johnson give us a swift and slick opening, with some clean takedowns and explosive high-flying maneuvers. Johnson sure is a lot more fun to watch as a face. Allday hits a moonsault from the top, but Johnson strikes back with an ushigoroshi and the win.

Wait! That match was too short! QT Marshall runs in to kick the shit out of Johnson after the bell, but Dustin Rhodes breaks it up. Tune in to Dynamite for the resolution!

BOTCH: Wrestling with pronunciation

Superbad girl Penelope Ford has been racking up the wins since she got back in the ring. Today she’s facing local jobber Ashley d’Amboise.

D’Amboise has followed the Dark jobber tradition of not wearing a hair-tie, and therefore getting her hair caught in her own mouth. Which Ford calls out, like a heel. D’Amboise gets a bunch of forearms to the face as punishment.

Justin Roberts, Excalibur and Taz, every single one of them pronounce the rookie’s name something like “dam-bwouse” (rhymes with “house”), which is the most awkward French I ever heard. Since everyone’s pronouncing it in this flop way, maybe it’s just one of those weird Americanisms like pronouncing Des Moines so it rhymes with “loin”.

Anyway, just like Taz, I’ve digressed. I guess it’s because this match isn’t too thrilling. Ford hits her fisherwoman’s suplex for the win. I don’t even know if Ford has ring rust or not, because she hasn’t really had a serious match since facing Leyla Hirsch back in January. Perhaps her clash with Kris Statlander on Dynamite will be more fun?

POP: Karter loses again

Cole Karter has jobbed for a bunch of up-and-comers over the past few weeks, and looked alright doing it. He’s got Colt Cabana this week.

Cabana takes it easy to start, toying with Karter and letting him tire himself out. It’s a clever opening, but once Karter connects with a dropkick it’s all over: Flying Apple, whip into the turnbuckles, then superman pin.

Short match, but a good one.

POP: Dark angels

KiLynn King meets “Mean Girl” Dani Jordyn! It’s a very pandemic era matchup. Jordyn’s left her Burn Book at home and is bringing a tiara gimmick to the ring this week.

Both of these two have worked Dark since May last year, but they’ve never faced off in AEW. Nonetheless, they look very comfortable together, sliding from one move to the next like pros.

King shows some grit when she catches Jordyn’s flying crossbody and flips her back onto the ground at ringside. Back in the ring Jordyn connects with a thrust kick and DDT. Jordyn stays competitive for a while, hitting a nice neckbreaker off the top, but King comes back with a big German suplex and Kingdom Falls for the win.

This is a great showcase of the Dark homegrown talent, and my match of the night.

POP: The pinnacle of American-style wrestles

Liam Gray and Adrian Alanis are back today pulling double duty versus SCU who are 10-0 in 2021.

Christopher Daniels and Gray to open. Gray knocks CD down with a couple shoulderblocks. He starts to feel a bit big on himself, till CD cuts him back down to size with an arm drag and some old-fashioned slams. Alanis comes to save his bud, but Frankie Kazarian isn’t having any of that and makes sure to put SCU back in charge.

Man, watching SCU in motion you realize just how good these guys are. They hit the Best Meltzer Ever for the win, after some very slick tag team action.

POP: Remsburg becomes a main character

Matt Hardy cut a promo earlier in the night against Dark Order, blaming them for his losses versus Darby Allin and Adam Page. He then reminded us that the Dark Order are “idiots” and his young children are more intelligent than they are. It’s a tremendously petty promo, but it’s also not wrong, given the stable’s juvenile antics on BTE. Anyway, the promo was all a big setup for Evil Uno, Stu Grayson and Preston “10” Vance versus The Blade and Private Party. Uno responded with a fine promo of his own, et voilà, it’s our main event.

10 and Blade hoss it up out of the gate. Blade wrestles 10 to the corner and Private Party pummel on him while the ref is distracted. Isiah Kassidy tags in for the Hardy Family Office, and promptly gets merked by the whole damn Order. Somehow there is another ref distraction, which allows Marc Quen to run in and drag Uno back to the Hardy corner for a beatdown.

Uno manages to break free by spinning Quen’s leg into the hands of ref Bryce Remsburg, then hitting a neckbreaker before anyone figures out what’s going on. I’m not a fan of this Hardy Party trend of constantly doing ref spots, but this was a very good one. Trust Uno to be the one to execute, eh! But before Uno tags out, Blade rushes to the other corner and wipes out everyone. Very smart heel work. Remsburg is distracted yet a-fucking-gain, allowing Bunny to stomp Uno into the fetal position.

Eventually Remsburg has had enough and sends the whole Hardy Family Office packing. Rightfully so! This better be setting up a cage match or something.

Anyway, some more shit happens, it devolves into chaos, then Blade taps out to 10’s Full Nelson. Good match, if a little heavy on the schmoz.

Another fun week of wrestling here. Two 1.5 hour YouTube shows is much more manageable than letting either of them stretch to 2 hours. With the wealth of talent AEW has signed there’s definitely room to book all of these matches – and leave some room for indie try-outs too. I’m glad for it – I often find myself enjoying these YouTube shows more than Dynamite, even if we’re not going to get any MOTY candidates down here on the B-shows.

Speaking of MOTY candidates, Dynamite this week is going to have “The Machine” Brian Cage versus “Hangman” Adam Page and the Sydals versus The Young Bucks, both of which should be fantastic. For Dark fans we have another mini blow-off featuring Dustin Rhodes, Lee Johnson and Billy Gunn versus QT Marshall, Aaron Solow and Nick Comoroto. Cool to see our lower card guys get some time up on the network show. I’ll fill you in all the results next week. See you later, folks!

     

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