AEW Dark: Elevation Review - June 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Serena Deeb and ROH Women's World Champion Mercedes Martinez def. Tootie Lynn and Heather Reckless

Deeb and Martinez successfully teamed up last week on Elevation. I noted in that review that I'd like to see them building toward a one-on-one match for the ROH Women's World Championship instead of becoming an actual tandem. Don't get me wrong, they work well together, but what would an alliance between them actually accomplish other than relegate them to the Dark shows? This was a solid showcase for them and I'm curious when we'll find out where this is heading.

Andrade El Idolo def. Frankie Kazarian

Kazarian is coming off an in-ring appearance at IMPACT Slammiversary this past Sunday, though this was taped last week. I'm very happy this was more than a squash and Kazarian actually had a chance to show what he's capable of for a change against an established opponent. This was a really fun match between two talented athletes with the right result. It probably should have been positioned as the opener or the main event, though.

Nyla Rose and Marina Shafir def. Max the Impaler and Heidi Howitzer

Rose and Max recently had a singles match on one of the Dark shows that wasn't too bad for the time they were given, so it's cool they brought Max back to face Rose in tag team action. That said, this wasn't very good. I just find Shafir to be extremely boring, while Rose is stuck in a strange spot where she's almost always put in tag team matches because they don't want her at the top of the rankings by continue to winning singles matches. They really don't know what to do with her, and the fact she's had so many partners hasn't done her any favors.

Swerve In Our Glory def. Davey Vega and Mat Fitchett

Keith Lee was mega over in this match. I enjoy his partnership with Swerve Strickland as they work well together, but AEW's tag team division has enough teams as it is and I don't see them becoming champions any time soon, so I'd rather see them go at it in in singles competition. Thankfully, it looks like they're teasing tension after Strickland eliminated Lee from the recent Battle Royal on Dynamite. The match itself was what it needed to be.

Anna Jay def. Rebel

It's not often we see Rebel compete on her own, and that's because she's not very good. That said, they were wise to keep this short and sweet instead of making it any longer than it needed to be because both women's weaknesses would have been exposed. I assume this means Jay will be back to racking up pointless wins on the Dark shows now that she's unsuccessfully challenged for the AEW TBS Championship twice this year.

Tony Nese def. WARHORSE

I'm likely in the minority of people who find WARHORSE to be an absolute goof and have no desire to see him on any AEW show, but the saving grace for me is the fact that he's always used as an enhancement talent and gets his ass kicked. Granted, he scored a fair amount of offense here and the crowd was behind him, but Nese went over in the end as he should have. This match did nothing for me personally, but it served its purpose in giving Nese a rebound win following his tag team loss at Double or Nothing.

Ruby Soho def. Miranda Gordy

Gordy is obviously a second-generation talent and has appeared on the Dark shows before as well as MLW. Unfortunately, nothing I have seen from her in her several appearances has been overly impressive. She stands out, but it was probably for the best that this was kept on the shorter side. I'm glad Soho is using a new finisher because her last one (which she called the Riott Kick in WWE) was weak as hell.

Matt Sydal def. QT Marshall

Sydal was the hometown hero here as he's a St. Louis native. However, Marshall having the entire Factory at ringside with him didn't help Sydal's chances. I was worried that Marshall might win after beating Alan Angels last week, but I'm glad they gave Sydal the victory. This was a quality main event with an engaged crowd. Marshall's style of wrestling isn't the most exciting (much like his character), but he and Sydal had nice chemistry.

Overall Show

This was the longest edition of Elevation in some time, and I'm not a fan of the fact there were eight matches. They could have easily cut out some of the squashes that didn't feature the bigger stars, but all in all, this was a serviceable show. Andrade vs. Kazarian was by far the best bout of the episode and Sydal and Marshall closed it out with a well-wrestled affair. The rest of the matches featured nothing out of the ordinary.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews