AEW Dark: Elevation Review - August 23, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Dante Martin def. Anthony Bowens

I said a few weeks ago that Bowens is going to suffer big time from his partner Max Caster being suspended for the time being and I stand by that. He's a competent enough worker, but I'm glad they're not giving him singles wins. It's not like he'll ever be taken seriously on his own, so I have no problem with him being used in an enhancement role for now. Dante, on the other hand, turned a lot of heads with his recent performance on Dynamite, so it's great they're capitalizing off that. This was a nice opener with the right guy going over.

Varsity Blonds def. Warren Johnson and Zack Mason

Varsity Blonds will face The Lucha Brothers this week on Dynamite with the winners facing Jurassic Express this Friday on Rampage and the winners of that facing The Young Bucks in a Steel Cage match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship at All Out. Varsity Blonds have been really impressive lately, but I don't see them becoming the next number one contenders. This was a solid showcase for them.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) and Wheeler Yuta def. The Blade and The Hybrid2

I'm sorry but I couldn't care less about the H.F.O. feuding with Best Friends. We saw a similar six-man tag team match to this a week or two ago between Best Friends and the trio of Matt Hardy and Private Party, and although this was also well wrestled, they're trading wins back and forth for seemingly no reason. The matches have been delivering, but there's no reason to get invested. Orange Cassidy will face Matt Hardy on Wednesday's Dynamite.

Tay Conti def. Promise Braxton

Braxton (no relation to WWE's Kayla Braxton) previously performed on AEW programming and lost to Abadon. She scored more offense here than I was expecting and it was a competitive contest, but Conti won as she should have and the match didn't overstay its welcome. Conti got her stuff in, showcased her skills, and won in a matter of minutes. It was exactly what it needed to be. This is how you book an effective squash match.

Death Triangle (Pac and The Lucha Brothers) def. The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Colt Cabana and Alan "5" Angels)

Uno, Cabana and Angels were a really random trio for Death Triangle to face. That was probably done by design so the group didn't lose a lot of credibility with the more important members getting beaten. Although Dark Order feel lost in the shuffle at the moment with Adam Page being off TV, this was a blast of a bout with everyone playing their roles well. It was non-stop action and showed that Death Triangle are a cohesive unit ahead of Pac's clash with Andrade El Idolo at All Out. I have no idea where the tension teased within Dark Order is going.

Overall Show

Five matches in under an hour? Who kidnapped Tony Khan? Seriously, though, this was a massive upgrade over the usual format for Dark: Elevation. I absolutely hate how they tend to do around 10 matches (and then some) on each of these episodes, and while I understand it's done to get as many people on the show as possible, it burns out the live crowd before it's over. This five-match format was way more practical. We got two squashes and then three competitive, well-wrestled matches. I'd love if Elevation followed this formula every week.

SEE MORE: Dark: Elevation Reviews