AEW Dark: Elevation Review - August 30, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Daniel Garcia def. Tylor Sullivan

At first glance, Garcia looks like a generic dude, but the guy can go in the ring, as seen in his recent matches on Dynamite, Rampage and the Dark shows. That was once again the case here as he put Sullivan away in around two minutes. He's not a flashy competitor whatsoever, but that's what makes him stand out from most people on the roster. He's a submission specialist and matches up with competitors like Darby Allin (who he'll be facing again this Friday on Rampage) nicely.

Jora Johl def. Kal Herro

Is there a reason why we haven't seen much of Johl on AEW programming lately? I don't know if he's under a full-time deal to AEW, but he was being shown fairly regularly alongside the H.F.O. as a pupil of Matt Hardy before randomly disappearing. Hardy again accompanied him to ringside and Johl put him away quickly. It wasn't long enough for me to get a good grasp of what Johl is capable of. On a side note, Herro was beloved being a Wisconsin native.

Emi Sakura def. Ashley D'Amboise

She's been in AEW on and off for two years now and I still couldn't care less about Sakura. She's decent in the ring, but the king getup she walks to the ring with and her whole gimmick doesn't connect with me at all. I guess she's a heel now based on how she wrestled here, so there's that. D'Amboise is one of the better enhancement talents AEW uses for the Dark shows, so she played her role well here.

Nyla Rose and Diamante def. Big Swole and Julia Hart

This was a really fun match while it lasted. It got more time than most women's matches we tend to see on Dynamite and Rampage and the crowd was into it as well. Why can't we see more of this on the main shows? It also furthered the feud between Swole and Diamante with the heels picking up the win. Rose and Diamante showed great teamwork here despite not teaming often prior to this, if at all. Hart was the odd woman out in terms of experience, but to her credit, she had a fine showing.

Dante Martin def. Adam Grace

Dante is undoubtedly a star on the rise. While I miss Top Flight in action (and hopefully Darius is on his way back soon after being out for almost the entire year), Dante has made the most of every opportunity he's been given on his own. He's still riding that wave of momentum following that breakout performance he had on Dynamite a few weeks ago. He got to showcase his skills for a brief bit against Grace before beating him in under two minutes.

Thunder Rosa def. Laynie Luck

It doesn't matter where it is. Rosa receives loud reactions wherever she goes. If it wasn't already apparent, she absolutely has to be the one to dethrone Britt Baker as AEW Women's World Champion eventually. At last word, though, it won't be until 2022, so she has to maintain momentum in the meantime with wins like this. Rosa always gives her opponents some offense, which I respect, but I also like how her recent squashes haven't gone past two or three minutes.

Brian Cage def. Anthony Bowens

Bowens has his own singles entrance music, which he better get used to hearing if Max Caster is going to be off TV for another month or two. As I've said before, he's a perfectly competent wrestler, but I fully expect him to be a jobber to the stars until Caster comes back. Cage dominated him ahead of his upcoming match with Powerhouse Hobbs on Wednesday's Dynamite. Speaking of Hobbs, he and the rest of Team Taz laid out Cage afterward.

Hikaru Shida def. Heather Reckless

The funny thing about Reckless is that she isn't reckless at all, at least not compared to some other people in wrestling today. She scored some offense, but this was about Shida for the most part and was thus booked like a squash. I'm curious how many people are going to be shocked Shida is still on the roster when she competes in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out considering she hasn't appeared on Dynamite since losing the AEW Women's World Championship at Double or Nothing.

Sammy Guevara and Fuego Del Sol def. Chaos Project

Guevara got a mega star reaction when he came out. Although I'd prefer to see Guevara used as a singles star, I don't know who you pair him off with right now, and because of that, I had no problem with him teaming with Fuego for the time being now that their real-life friendship has been established on AEW TV. Unsurprisingly, they work really well together as partners. This was a short and sweet sprint, even though there was one botch from Luther (where Guevara was going for a springboard cutter) that was hilariously bad.

Overall Show

Kudos to AEW for keeping Dark and Dark: Elevation consistent these last few weeks and sticking to the same formula, which I very much enjoy. I suspect we'll go back to getting 90-minute-plus shows at some point, but for now, these sub-hour shows have been much more bearable and exactly what they need to be with certain stars building their win-loss records and others simply getting more experience and exposure. This was solid stuff. The crowd will be a lot livelier if the shows don't drag on longer than they should and that was evident with this edition.

SEE MORE: Dark: Elevation Reviews