AEW Dark: Elevation Review - February 21, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tay Conti, Anna Jay and Red Velvet def. Freya States, Angelica Risk and Arie Alexander

I remember States appearing in that NWA show The Circle Squared trying to land a contract with the company. That was two years ago, but it feels like an eternity ago. At any rate, this was a standard showcase for the babyfaces. I don't remember Conti or Jay ever being aligned with Velvet, but I guess Velvet needs new friends now that Big Swole is gone and Kris Statlander hasn't been featured in a few weeks. Conti and Jay maintaining momentum is never a bad thing.

Daniel Garcia, 2point0 and Gunn Club (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn) def. Dean Alexander, Dominic Garrini, Chico Adams, Ariel Levy and Kevin Ku

Garcia and 2point0 along with Gunn Club are the two midcard heel factions that win a ton of the Dark shows but rarely on the main shows. They're entertaining enough, but they severely lack credibility. I have no clue what purpose this was supposed to serve, but they filled the time well with all of the heels getting time to shine. 2point0 and Gunn Club will be in the tag team Battle Royal on Wednesday's Dynamite, but needless to say, they have zero chance of winning.

The Bunny def. Kaitland Alexis

The Bunny has an AEW TBS Championship match with Jade Cargill coming up on Wednesday's Dynamite, so it made sense to give her a win before then. Of course, I have no clue what she did to deserve it considering she wins whenever it matters most, but oh well. It's another established name for Cargill to beat, I suppose. I believe this marked Alexis' AEW debut and she didn't impress at all. This was wisely kept on the shorter side.

A.H.F.O. (Andrade El Idolo, The Butcher, The Blade and Private Party) def. Shawn Dean, Carlie Bravo, Baron Black, Jameson Ryan and Chandler Hopkins

This A.H.F.O. stuff is completely ridiculous. The group already sucked, not to the fault of Matt Hardy whatsoever. They've just always been positioned as losers and the people they've thrown in there haven't benefited at all. I don't think Andrade taking the reins from Hardy is going to help much, either. The Butcher and The Blade are there to fill a spot at this point while Private Party deserve better. This was essentially an elongated squash. I wish Dean was showcased on his own and not put on a team with four no-namers.

Ruby Soho def. Haley J

Soho consistently receives strong reactions from every crowd she competes in front of despite not being on Dynamite or Rampage a whole lot lately. I said this as soon as she lost to Cargill in the finals of the AEW TBS Championship Tournament, but I honestly don't know where she goes from here. Hell, she lost to Nyla Rose a few weeks ago and that was never followed up on, either. This was a nice little match while it lasted to give Soho a needed singles win.

Lance Archer def. Joey O’Reily

This was Archer's first appearance on AEW programming since his brutal Texas Deathmatch with Adam Page for the AEW World Championship on Dynamite two weeks ago. He came across as more intense and frustrated than usual, so I liked that attention to detail. He absolutely annihilated O'Reily both before the bout and during the bout. This is the type of squash I'd like to see more of, but then again, no one does it better than Archer.

"Legit" Leyla Hirsch, Emi Sakura and Nyla Rose def. Skye Blue, Kiera Hogan and AQA

For those who missed it, AQA (who debuted two weeks ago in a loss to Cargill on Dynamite) is officially "all elite." Yes, she got the "all elite" graphic before either Blue or Hogan. That's wild to me, but to her credit, she's talented. However, this was all about the heel trio. Sakura does nothing for me and Rose is currently directionless, but I've been enjoying Hirsch's heel turn and would like to see her rivalry with Statlander get a proper payoff.

Jay Lethal, Matt Sydal, Frankie Kazarian, Lee Johnson and Brock Anderson def. Chaos Project and The Wingmen ("Pretty" Peter Avalon, Cezar Bononi and JD Drake)

Good lord, what a mess this match was. There were so many people involved, probably because AEW doesn't know what the hell else to do with them. Arn Anderson will likely be featured as the manager for his son and Johnson going forward, but it's a definite downgrade for Cody Rhodes, that's for sure. Plus, Avalon was in the wrestling news last month when his AEW was rumored to have expired, but apparently he's being kept around on a pay-per-appearance basis. This was what it was. I'm not sure what else can be said about it. The wrestling was solid, but they tried to cram so much into such a short span of time that it was difficult to care. Get Lethal away from this crap, please.

Overall Show

This was far from my favorite edition of Elevation in recent memory. The excessive amount of multi-person matches was pure overkill. Of the eight matches we got on this show, only three of them were singles matches, and the rest of them weren't standard two-on-two matches. One or two is fine, but doing more than is not necessary. None of them were remotely competitive and nothing was given enough time to breath. The short length of the show was the only good thing about it.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews