AEW Dark: Elevation Review - June 13, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Nyla Rose def. Max The Impaler

Impaler was used by Ring of Honor late last year before they closed their doors and they also popped up at NWA Alwayz Ready over the weekend confronting NWA World Women's Champion Kamille. This was quite the clash on paper because of their similar styles and it ended up being exactly what it needed to be: short, sweet and straight to the point. This was more competitive than most Rose squashes, which was refreshing.

Private Party def. Camaro Jackson and SK Bishop

Andrade El Idolo recently hinted at The Andrade Family Office being over during a vignette that aired at Double or Nothing, so Private Party may finally be back to being on their own for the first time in two years. The Matt Hardy alliance did them little favors on screen and The A.H.F.O. stuff was even worse. I'd love to think this win here will help them get back on track, but AEW will really need to put in the effort in building them back up in order to convince me of that. This was a solid step in the right direction despite the finish not looking great.

Ortiz def. Anaya

Ortiz had a rare singles match last week as well against Serpentico on one of the Dark shows because he'll be facing Chris Jericho in a Hair vs. Hair match this week on the Road Rager edition of Dynamite. I think Jericho is winning that one (I can't imagine Jericho having his head shaved bald), but it's nice that they're attempting to make Ortiz look like somewhat of a threat with a few wins before their bout. This was a quick and straightforward squash as it should have been.

ROH Women's World Champion Mercedes Martinez and Serena Deeb def. Miranda Gordy and Tootie Lynn

Gordy recently appeared in MLW and Lynn has been a regular in the NWA over the last year. Deeb and Martinez are two seasoned veterans, so them teaming up here was interesting. I'm curious if they'll continue to team together or if this was merely a one-off. I'd say I could get behind it, but I'd like to see Deeb and Martinez do more stuff on their own, especially with Martinez being the ROH Women's World Champion. If this leads to them facing each other, then I can get behind that. This likely served to establish tension between the two and was basically a elongated showcase for Deeb and Martinez.

Jericho Appreciation Society ("Daddy Magic" Matt Mernard and "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker) def. WARHORSE and Danny Adams

The Jericho Appreciation Society continues to be uninspiring. The former 2point0 are a talented team and I appreciate that they're showing more of an edge in their match (which is needed heading into Blood and Guts at the end of the month), but it's hard to take them seriously with this gimmick of theirs. The only joy I got out of this match was watching WARHORSE get his ass kicked because the guy is a goof. Sorry, not sorry.

Ruby Soho def. Heidi Howitzer

I don't know anything about Howitzer, but she gave off a very similar punk rock vibe to Soho. They worked well for the most part, but the second half of the match was strange. Soho started going after Howitzer in the corner at one point and the commentators acted like they didn't know what came over her before she put Howitzer away. It left me thinking that Soho might be teasing a heel turn following her many high-profile losses. That would probably be the worst thing for her considering the fans are still (somehow) behind her, but that's just my opinion.

The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Preston "10" Vance) def. The Factory (QT Marshall and Aaron Solo)

Apparently, a feud has formed between Dark Order and The Factory. Good lord, I couldn't care less. Does this mean we're going to get a bunch of matches between members of both factions in the weeks to come? Ugh. On the bright side, this was a quality main event. The crowd was into Dark Order and they thankfully picked up the victory after losing to The Factory in last week's eight-man tag team match.

Overall Show

As I've said before, I'm all for episodes of Dark and Elevation that are only around 40 minutes with five to six matches. That's perfectly acceptable in my opinion, especially when there's a little star power mixed in. The first six matchups all served a purpose and the main event was somewhat competitive despite not being the most exciting, so it was a solid show all things considered.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews