AEW Dark: Elevation Review - February 13, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver and Alex Reynolds) def. El Dragon, El Cobarde and Vary Morales

It's been months since Preston Vance betrayed Dark Order, and despite how personal they tried to make it with -1 getting involved, I don't think what remains of Dark Order ever tried to get revenge on him, which is completely nonsensical from a storyline standpoint. Instead, they're toiling away on the Dark shows having the same six-man tag team matches every week. This was more of the same, and although the crowd was into Dark Order, I don't know if this needed to be as long as it was.

Big Bill def. Gino

Although this also was not a quick squash, I was fine with it being dragged out a bit because it was a case of Big Bill taking his time dismantling this jobber. He hasn't had many matches since signing with AEW (specifically on his own), but this was a small example of what he can do and what we got to see from him in IMPACT. To his credit, he did a nice job of generating heat from the crowd. Hopefully we get to see more of this from him soon.

AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill and Leila Grey def. Dulce Tormenta and DD Doom

Can Cargill and Grey be called "The Baddies" anymore if it's just the two of them? I like the idea that Cargill's foundation is gradually crumbling, which can only mean that her losing the TBS title is imminent. Hopefully Kris Statlander is cleared to return soon because she's the only one I can viably see finally beating her. At any rate, this was a total squash for Cargill and Grey. I like that we've seen Cargill in action more lately compared to a few months ago.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Brian Cage def. Jastin Taylor

It's hilarious how Cage went from barely being featured on AEW TV for over a year to now wrestling weekly. I'm not complaining, though. The guy can go and he's an asset to the roster. It's interesting he's been winning on the Dark shows but has been losing whenever it has mattered most on Dynamite and Rampage. Either way, he dominated his opponent here as he should have ahead of his rematch with Jack Perry on Wednesday's Dynamite.

Nyla Rose and Emi Sakura def. Skye Blue and Madison Rayne

The team of Rose and Sakura makes more sense to me than Rose and Sakura as they have stronger chemistry as partners, but that's just my opinion. I have no idea why Shafir wasn't present for this match, but I don't say that as a bad thing. This could have gone either way as Rayne and Blue have been established as allies and have picked up a few wins of their own, but it was not their night. It was a decently competitive match and even Vickie Guerrero got physical at ringside at one point.

Yuka Sakazaki def. Vertvixen

It's been apparent for weeks that Sakazaki has is being built up for a shot at Athena's ROH Women's World Championship, and because the ROH belts are basically exclusive to the YouTube shows for now, I assume it will be a main event on Dark or Elevation one of these days. That said, I would love if it was saved for the premiere of ROH TV on HonorClub, which is expected to be in a few weeks. This was a simple showcase and Athena's post-match attack on Sakazaki was vicious and well done.

Josh Woods def. Man Scout

I'll take any opportunity to watch Man Scout wrestle. As someone who's been following him since 2009, he's hilarious, though I know his shtick may not be for everyone. I'm happy he's ended up in a backstage role for AEW and gets to compete occasionally. Unfortunately for him, this was kept short and sweet with Woods dominating him. Woods is facing Mark Briscoe on Wednesday's Dynamite, so it made sense to give Woods a win before then.

Best Friends def. Aydan Colt and Frank Stone

While this wasn't exactly worthy of the main event spot, at least Best Friends are big enough names to justify this going on last. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the bout itself as it was less than three minutes, but the key is that Best Friends are winning matches. Maybe they can challenge The Gunns for their newly-won AEW World Tag Team Championship one of these weeks (though preferably not at Revolution).

Overall Show

By Elevation standards, this was an average edition. It was largely squash city, but I appreciated that most of the matches didn't overstay their welcome and thus the show was around 45 minutes long. None of the matches are worth seeking out, but the highlight of the episode for me was Athena attacking Sakazaki to add heat to their inevitable championship clash as well as the backstage promo with Matt Hardy apologizing to Ethan Page to further their storyline.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews