Aubrey Edwards tries to stop "Superbad" Penelope Ford from choking Robyn Renegade - AEW (YouTube)

Pops & Botches: AEW Dark – 7.13.2021

AEW Dark Pops & Botches

 

It’s the start of a new era! Do you feel different? I’m not feeling any different. Maybe if we do a few sets of burpees we’ll notice something? Get the blood flowing. Chug some electrolytes. Nope, no different. Pleasingly, neither was July 13’s AEW Dark. Read on for the recap.

Last time on Dark…

I reflected on a year of wrestling writing. Fuego del Sol won a match. (Asterisk, it was a tag match.) Wheeler Yuta arrived to snatch a win. We all said goodbye to Daily’s Place. Read up on the many pops and botches in our July 7 recap.

Elsewhere in the AEW Arcadia…

Last week we also got to see the first Dynamite back on the road since the pandemic disrupted everything. QT Marshall and Cody Rhodes put together a mildly entertaining opener, but it was all downhill from there. Andrade el Idolo continued his disappointing debut in a lackluster outing versus Matt Sydal. Then we were asked to buy some bizarre logic that even though it’s fine for people to leak a pint of blood from their foreheads on primetime television every week, a man executing even a single wrestling move on a woman would be a bridge too far. With those rules, why even bother doing a mixed tag match at all? To close, we got 20 minutes of The Young Bucks plodding around in slow motion. Superkick party? More like bingo night with a few gimmicked tables.

Being The Elite episode 264 opened with some good, old-fashioned travel vlogging, peppered with heelish snipes at the marks. Kenny Omega correctly pointed out it was “another week, another boring Dynamite”. Ryan Nemeth debuted a surreal bit featuring smash cuts and cream. Leva Bates and Pretty Peter Avalon’s story of heartbreak got telenovela-ed. Fun episode.

Fuego del Sol’s win got a quick recap on episode 328 of Sammy Guevara’s vlog, then it jumped into a Dark Order invasion storyline… Which Fuego interrupted! I popped. Classic wrestling angle, no wrestling necessary. Cody Rhodes set up a lightning round for his Friendlympics, and – surprise – it is wrestling-related! KiLynn King, Baron Black and Fuego del Sol are all booked in matches with an “if you win, you’re in” stipulation.

So, what happened in those matches? All three aired on Monday Night Elevation, which would’ve taken the wind out of the vlog’s sails if I had actually watched Elevation. KiLynn King was beaten by Yuka Sakazaki, Baron Black was beaten by Powerhouse Hobbs and Fuego del Sol was beaten by Matt Hardy. The Friendlympics continues..?

Back on vlog-related happenings, vlog star Charlie Ramone appeared on the AEW Unrestricted Podcast, and it was one of the most interesting episodes yet. Full disclosure: I haven’t listened to them all, but I’d also recommend Allie/The Bunny for another “leave your kayfabe at the door” chat that added depth to the character we know rather than just rehashing it.

Let’s see what episode 97 has in store.

Dim the lights, it’s time for Dark.

POP: Jah-C takes us back

Opening our two hour show is the traditional 2 minute squash: veteran Matt Hardy versus Iowan newcomer Jah-C.

Or not!

Jah-C gets Hardy into a hammerlock and hits a string of oldskool moves. I think Hardy must be enjoying working against a younger guy keen on doing this style of offense, since he even lies down to eat a leaping elbow drop.

The elbow drop is about it, though. Hardy comes back with a couple of Side Effects and the Leech submission finisher.

After the match he calls over a reluctant Jora Johl (who apparently joined the Hardy Family Office on Elevation) to towel him off. He might regret the decision to give Johl a towel when he faces Christian on Dynamite…

Speaking of, later in the show Hardy cuts a solid promo on Christian, pointing out that both times they have met in singles action over the years, Hardy won. I’m not usually into old man fights, but these two still seem up to take a few bumps, so it could be a dark horse for match of the night.

EH: There’s our squash

Our next match is “The Machine” Brian Cage versus debuting star “Firework” Foxx Vinyer.

Vinyer looks like he might be fun contender, but Cage drillclaws him and it’s over barely after it started. Guess they moved the opening squash to the second match to keep us guessing. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see more of Vinyer, though!

BOTCH: Not the infantry

The Acclaimed are back! Max Caster cuts a hilarious military-themed rap asking his opponents where the WMDs were at. Epic 2003-era burn, right there. Who is the heel here anyway? The other team is Derek Pisaturo and Roman Rozell.

Rozell has an ॐ on his military gear, which doesn’t work for me. Douchey yoga bros like the Sydals I can get. Ex-Green Beret who also does yoga? It might be based on a true story, but it’s not a character I have a good reference for. I can’t help but miss Carlie Bravo and Shawn Dean’s short-lived military-themed team who felt a bit brasher and more traditionally oorah.

Rozell and Pisaturo are a pretty tedious duo. They have that Good Brothers style that is not really my taste to begin with, but it’s compounded when facing a team that also has a similar style. The Acclaimed normally save it for me because they mix some strong character work in with their classic spots, but that didn’t really happen this time.

The Acclaimed win.

POP: Diamante’s still in it

Seeing Diamante this week makes me very happy, since I was worried we’d never see her again after she wasn’t at the last Daily’s Place show. Turns out this entire episode is from the last Daily’s Place show, so they must’ve filmed a good chunk of wrestling to keep Dark going for a while.

Anyway, Diamante is back, and overlaid her entrance with a heel promo aimed square at Big Swole. Guess they’re going to keep her around for a little while longer! She is facing Harlow O’Hara, who has an eye-catchingly witchy look.

O’Hara and Diamante have a pretty smooth exchange, both using a lot of that bounce-off-the-ropes-and-hit-ya offense that makes wrestling look much more fun than any other combat sport. The highlight is Diamante’s splashing plank, which I am not sure if it has a name yet. That sets up the standing sliced bread and half straightjacket submission for the win.

BOTCH: Page treads water

“The other guy with a vlog” Ethan Page (last seen working out with Brian Cage) is in action tonight versus Ryan Mantell, who got killed by Lance Archer last week.

Page gets straight into some heelish hits, and Mantell gives it right back. This is a slow, heavy slugfest that ends with an Ego’s Edge.

Mantell earned a pop from me last week doing the same thing he did this week, but the problem here is Page. Archer having to work a little bit for his win was developing the character. Page beating another jobber isn’t.

DEVELOPMENTAL POP: Swole and Sahara spar

Keeping up with Diamante, Big Swole has a match too tonight. She is facing an old friend from the indies, billed from Cairo, Egypt – Sahara Seven!

Seven has the height and strength advantage on Swole, but gets snapmared out of the opening. Swole looks unimpressed with her opponent, but – after being a little too cocky – eats a sliding uppercut to the face. There is a bit of back-and-forth here, although it’s a little hesitant and not as crisp as it could be.

Swole puts Seven into the Clearwater Cloverleaf to get a submission victory. After the match she cuts a response promo back on Diamante, hitting every unsigned talent where it hurts (gloating over the All Elite contract). It’s not bad.

POP: Dante Martin jumps around

Next up we have Dante Martin versus indie legend Ricky Shane Page aka RSP! How many damn wrestlers named Page are there anyway?

Martin jumps on him immediately. I can buy that this kid knows he is getting into a fight with a Big Name Indie Guy and needs to get that first blood. He comes with a flurry of strikes, but eventually the big man slows it down to his own lazy clobberin’ pace. He straight-up throws Martin across the ring. Martin sells all the hits, then comes back with a springboard crossbody, dropkick, enziguri, moonsault – let’s go!

RSP tries to squish Martin with a senton, but there’s nobody home. Martin dances around all over the show pulling out acrobatic spots like the ring is lava, then wipes the legend out with his front-flip stunner.

Dante Martin is awesome. This feels like the right way to spice up a match with a brawler. The Bucks should’ve taken notes from this match instead of putting me to sleep during their bout versus Eddie Kingston and Penta el Zero M in Miami last week.

POP: Watching expert losers lose

Dark Order is in action! The original duo of Evil Uno and Stu Grayson are getting some tag action versus Sean Maluta and “Greek God” Papadon, a veteran out of New York.

Maluta quickly gets merked, but Papadon comes in like a boss and survives strike-for-strike with Grayson. Eventually Uno and Grayson get the better of him, nailing a sequence of tandem maneuvers that leave him with ringing ears and perhaps even a bruise or two.

Maluta comes back and wins a glorious headbutt-battle with Uno. He goes up to finish it with a massive splash, but Uno rolls away and Maluta bellyflops nothing. It’s an awesome miss, putting Maluta up there with Dark’s worthiest jobbers. That’s the beginning of the end for our job team, and the Dark Order take it with a slick PK and piledriver combo.

A surprising entrant as my match of the night!

POP: Cue anime fight music

Oh, joy, we still have some Wingmen matches! Ryan Nemeth is here to face Marcus Kross who looks like an anime character come to life.

Kross’ bleach blond coif is about a foot tall, and Nemeth – heel that he is – almost immediately musses it up. Kross comes back with a couple of acrobatic shots, but inevitably he’s fought out of the ring and the Wingmen come at him with their comb and spray bottle. Except instead of a misting they just pour water over his head instead. Guess with that hair you need to step up the zhuzhing.

Back in the ring, Kross doesn’t let it get to him, and chains together some nifty attacks, including an accelerated hadouken wind-up that doesn’t go anywhere, then charges straight into a neckbreaker and Nemeth wins.

POP: Choke ’em if you got ’em

“Superbad Girl” Penelope Ford is in action tonight versus Robyn Renegade.

Ford does a great job being an epic heel this match. She keeps Renegade tied up in the ropes and tangled up in various chokes. Ref Aubrey Edwards valiantly tries to count the 5-second break, but then Ford is straight back into applying another choke. It looks violent as hell.

Renegade recovers with a backstabber and double knees in the corner, but that just pisses Ford off more. After exchanging some forearm strikes, Ford hits the gut buster and picks up a solid win.

POP: Kaz mixes it up with someone new

Frankie Kazarian in his Elite Hunter gimmick hasn’t really done much for me yet. He’s a great technical wrestler whose talents seem to get lost in this “I’m really angry, you guys” schtick. Anyway, he is facing big man Austin Green, accompanied by Diamond Sheik. The Sheik is a Nightmare Factory grad, but I’m not sure who Austin Green is. He looks like an Author Of Pain.

Kaz is straight in with a billion hits to try take out the big man. Green is shaken, but not beaten. He tosses the Elite Hunter across the ring and slows it all right down. Green hits all the big man moves, slams and clotheslines galore. Kaz tries to fight back, but then the Diamond Sheik trips him up!

A swift kick to the face ends the interference, then it’s a crossface chicken wing and end of the line for our jobbers. They were pretty cool jobbers, though! And having Kaz react to the Sheik forced him to do a little more than just grumpily beat on his opponent, which is a nice change. I’ma pop this!

POP: Anderson gets some more training

The Nightmare Family’s newest duo are getting a shot tonight. “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson and “Arn Anderson’s kid” Brock Anderson are teaming up to take on jobbers Mark Davidson and Aaron Frye.

Frye faces off with Johnson. They have a fast, technical exchange, then Anderson tags in to deliver a tandem clothesline before heading back to the corner to take notes. Unfortunately that leaves Johnson to get killed by both Frye and Davidson. Anderson comes in to try save his partner, but he misses a couple of spots. Hey, it’s only his second (or third?) match, I forgive him.

Anderson’s botches serendipitously set it up better for when Lee Johnson comes in to actually save the day. Johnson hands it back to Anderson so he can hit his spinebuster for the win. I can kinda buy these two as a wholesome Austin and Colten Gunn type duo.

POP: Hart gets some training too

Hey, it’s Dark fave Madi Wrenkowski! I didn’t think we’d see her around again. She will be fighting Julia Hart.

Wrenkowski milks as much as she can from her jobber entrance, then backs Hart into the corner. Hart powers up from the J-U-L-I-A chants and keeps up with Wrenkowski’s chain wrestling before hitting a hiptoss. Wrenkowski dumbly runs into Hart’s boots then hangs around to eat the dropkick too.

Something about this match feels sweet, almost like Wrenkowski is just giving Hart a chance to feel like a real wrestler. Hart hits her splits finisher, then a standing moonsault, but Wrenkowski kicks out! The second splits leg drop does the job. It all feels a bit soft (as in, the opposite of stiff), but outside of kayfabe it makes sense in the context of Dark, and knowing that Hart is developmental. I’m not expecting any more just yet.

POP: Letting the other guy get over before the squash

Getting back to serious wrestles, we have The Blade in action! His opponent is “Mother Lover” Jake Tucker, who impressed us last month with his antics.

Tucker waves his groin around a bit, but Blade’s not having any of it. He invites Tucker to take a few free hits, and shrugs them all off. When The Blade finally decides to start fighting, it’s a kick to the midsection, hang-up on the ropes, powerbomb, the end.

This was a fun way to put together a squash.

POP: Private Party back on top

After a brief promo interlude (more on that in the main event), Private Party groove into the ring. They are facing Joeasa and Deonn Rusman, who have been tagging together on and off for a couple years.

Rusman and Joeasa aren’t letting themselves get surprised by two of our top aerial guys. They string together a quick sequence of hits that instantly has me excited to see more. Private Party under Matt Hardy have been leaning more on dastardly tricks to win, and that’s no exception here. Marc Quen distracts ref Mike Posey a couple times to allow Isiah Kassidy to stomp Joeasa illegally. Their tricks don’t pay off, though, as Joeasa reaches his corner and Rusman comes in with a hot tag to clean house.

But ultimately it’s a quick set of stereo corkscrew kicks that knock Rusman out. It’s cool to see Private Party win it clean with a neatly choreographed aerial spot, reminding everyone why they were top guys from the start. This cheating gimmick is just a bonus, they don’t need it, and some day they’ll realize that and turn face again.

POP: Hobbs gets a squash in

Po-po-po-powerhouse! It’s Will Hobbs! His victim today is Travis Titan, who doesn’t even get to be announced before Hobbs jumps him.

By the time the bell rings, Titan is crawling on the floor in pain. Spinebuster. 1, 2, 3. The bell rings again. Squash city.

POP: Unintentionally amusing

Hooray! More Wingmen! It’s the daddies representing – JD Drake and Cezar Bononi. They’re facing daddy and son Billy and Colten Gunn.

Bononi takes Billy. Drake takes Colten. When the brawl comes back inside, the bell rings with Billy and Drake in the ring. Billy subdues Drake and sets up for his son’s clothesline and dropkick. Billy comes back in for the Famouser, but Drake escapes and Bononi tags in for some hot daddy-on-daddy action. Bononi is rough as hell, but he looks so dashing with that mo’, you can’t hate him. It’s beefy. Billy tosses the Brazilian into the guardrail, then slowly crawls back into the ring to tag Colten.

Colten goes hard on both Wingmen, and it almost seems like he’ll win it for the Gunns, but Bononi takes out Billy on the side then the Wingmen double-team and… almost get the win! I was sure that Drake’s cannonball senton was going to be it. Best near fall of the night, that one. Drake misses his Vader bomb, so Bononi tries to drag him back to the corner, ripping his boot off in the process! It’s a botch, but it’s funny as hell.

When Bononi does eventually get in, he eats the Colt 45.

POP: THIS MATCH IS EVERYTHING

Earlier in the night Wheeler Yuta cut a pretty aces promo on Angélico. Angélico came back with some obnoxious dancing and full-out arrogance, talking up his unparalleled submission skills, even as tag partner Jack Evans put over the opponent. It’s a great character for him. I barely even remember the guy who jumped 20 feet off the roof of Dario Cueto’s office to hit a dropkick.

Yuta gets a proper musical entrance for this main event.

Oh, this opening is poetry in motion. Locks, holds, submissions. Angélico makes the rope break. Full nelson, snapmare, chinlock, snapmare. Someone get that spray bottle because this is match is sexy AF. Yuta pulls out a cheeky escape and launches Angélico out of the ring.

Back in the ring, Angélico gets heelish with some stomps. He slowly – painfully slowly – sets up the Navarro Death Roll, but Yuta kicks him in the face instead. The wrestlers layer counter on counter and it is so much fun to hear Excalibur completely tongue-tied trying to figure out what kind of obscure holds and made-up body contortions these two are coming up with.

This is such a good match. This is better than match of the night. It’s too bad the only crowd we’ve got is the jobbers, but they sure got a treat watching this clinic. Angélico finally takes it with his Death Roll, but it could’ve gone either way. Excellent, excellent wrestling.

So that was it, a great antidote to a Dynamite that fell flat for me – more Dark from Daily’s Place! AEW have still kept fairly quiet about what direction Dark will be going in, but there is some internet chatter about it getting a fixed location and continuing as a developmental show. That would tickle me pink. Either way, this was another solid episode still squarely in the pandemic era mold. What will we see next week? Who knows!

I have adjusted my hopes for Dynamite down a few notches after last week. Fyter Fest Night One looks to have four (count ’em) brawler matches lined up. Fortunately there was a late announcement of Wheeler Yuta versus Sammy Guevara, which should bang. Yuka Sakazaki will be back on TV too, so that will be fun to see. Whatever happens, I’ll meet you back here next week for more celebration of the undercard. Till then, wrestle fans!

     

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