AEW Dark: Elevation Review - January 10, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jay Lethal and Sonny Kiss def. Jaden Valo and Chris Steeler

I continue to wonder what AEW's logic was behind signing Lethal when they did if they weren't going to have anything for him to do. He's appeared on Elevation a few times and teamed with Kiss for absolutely no reason here, the same Sonny Kiss that just lost to Joey Janela a week or two ago. They worked well together as partners and this was a decent showcase for them, but by no means would I want to see them form a full-time tag team.

Nyla Rose and Emi Sakura def. Skye Blue and Tina

Unlike Lethal and Kiss, Rose and Sakura have actually been teaming on and off for a while now, virtually exclusively on the Dark shows. I'm not the biggest Sakura fan, but it's a pairing that works. It doesn't mean much because it's not like Sakura accompanies Rose on TV, but oh well. Blue is still very impressive given her experience level and has a lot of upside. Both she and Tina looked good in defeat here.

FTR def. Pat Brinks and Myles Hawkins

There's nothing quite like a fun FTR squash. They always do a nice job of spotlighting their opponents (even if they're under contract to the company like Brinks and Hawkins) before winning decisively. They're a tremendous team and I hope they can find some direction following their feud with The Lucha Brothers. They maximized their minutes in this match and their offense looked crisp and clean per usual.

"Legit" Leyla Hirsch and Red Velvet def. Notorious Mimi and B3cca

I don't know if I would have formatted this show to have four straight tag team matches at the beginning. It wasn't a huge deal, but just a minor nitpick. Hirsch and Velvet is a totally random duo unless they've teamed before and I just don't remember. Velvet has shown signs of improvement, but I'm much higher on Hirsch and her potential, personally. She's been teasing tension with Kris Statlander for a while, so I'm not sure why she teamed with Velvet instead here. This was over in about two minutes.

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Ryan Clancy

Hobbs decimating dudes is always a treat, especially with Lance Archer out of action at the moment. He wasted no time in destroying Clancy and picking up the victory. This was done to reestablish Hobbs' dominance ahead of his outing against Dante Martin on Wednesday's Dynamite. I've been underwhelmed by how Hobbs has been used in the last several months, but hopefully 2022 will be better for him and he can start building momentum.

QT Marshall def. Zack Clayton

This wasn't your ordinary squash match and that's what I liked about it. I don't say that about many QT Marshall matches, but I have to give him his props here for giving Clayton a ton of shine. I mean, Clayton was honestly in control of a majority of the match and Marshall barely won with a roll-up in the end. I don't know if it was meant to be a one-off or if they actually intend to use Clayton more in the future, but I wouldn't mind him getting more opportunities like this one because he made the most of it.

Andrade El Idolo def. Avery Good

As I've said before, Andrade's AEW run has failed short of expectations so far. He's had a few standout matches here and there, but his booking has been abysmal. I guess it's good that he's racking up wins on Dark, but I don't think he'd be on Dark so much if AEW truly saw him as a top talent. This was a nice little sprint while it lasted. The promo he cut on AEW TV indicated Darby Allin will be his next feud.

The Acclaimed def. Kevin Matthews and Joey Ace

Kevin Matthews previously wrestled as K.M. in IMPACT. His run didn't last very long, but he did team with Fallah Bahh for a brief bit and had a character that strongly resembled Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. Max Caster even got an IMPACT dig in on Matthews during his pre-match rap. Matthews didn't come across like an ordinary enhancement talent here, but this was all about The Acclaimed and keeping their winning ways alive.

Dante Martin def. Action Andretti

As previously noted, Martin will be facing Hobbs this week on Dynamite. It's genuinely unpredictable as to who will win, mostly because both guys need wins. We haven't seen a whole lot of Martin lately, so this was nice to be reminded of what he can do. He has really come into his own over the last year and has become the breakout singles star no one was expecting (poor Darius). Now the key is AEW featuring him more because his current storyline with Team Taz has been poorly progressed due to barely being featured on TV.

The Dark Order (John Silver, Alex Reynolds and Preston "10" Vance) def. The Hardy Family Office (Private Party and The Blade)

I lost track a long time ago of how many matches members of Dark Order have had with members of The H.F.O. It's a faction war I never cared about to begin with and I certainly don't care about now. I know they technically aren't the same matches because different people are involved, but the layout of the matches are essentially the same and there isn't anything overly exciting about them. Fans are into Dark Order, but that was about the only thing this match had going for it because it was painfully average otherwise.

Overall Show

Elevation has been featuring around six to eight matches per week for the last month or two, so I wasn't too fond of them squeezing 10 matches into a 47-minute show this week. A majority of them were squashes, and while each of them served a purpose, the edition would have been slightly stronger without a few of them. This was a perfectly fine episode, but the main event being something we've seen what feels like a million times took it down a notch.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews