 Gunn Club (Colten and Billy Gunn) def. The Wingmen (Ryan Nemeth and JD Drake)The Wingmen do northing for me personally as it's just another undercard stable, but as I've said before, it gives those guys something to do, gives everyone else some people to beat, and they seem to be having fun with it. I care even less about Gunn Club (which has been well documented in these reviews), but it's a positive that they're finally facing more than just the usual enhancement/unknown talent. This was a perfectly passable outing to kick off the show. Penelope Ford def. Valentina RossiIt's funny that Ford hasn't been hurt at all from Kip Sabian not being in her corner while he recovers from surgery. I'm actually glad she's been flying solo because it's given her more of a chance to shine. She's still a work in progress in the ring, but she's coming along nicely. Rossi was also decent enough, so this was a passable outing. Ford won't be in the title picture any time soon, but it makes sense for her to be winning on the secondary shows for now. FTW Champion Brian Cage def. Serpentico (Non-Title)Cage is clearly headed for a face turn, but we're not quite there yet. He's still acting like a heel in his matches, though he is teasing tension with the rest of Team Taz. Serpentico is a heel as well, so this had a weird dynamic. Thankfully it was him and not Luther who is just awful. Serpentico sold well for Cage's offense before eating defeat. I still say it's too early to break Cage away from the group, but we'll see how it pans out. Karl Anderson def. Wheeler YutaThis was a pretty cool matchup considering Anderson is an IMPACT talent and Yuta has made a handful of appearance for Ring of Honor during the pandemic. I wasn't familiar with Yuta prior to that point, but he's very talented. Anderson is also better on his own than he is with Doc Gallows, at least in my opinion. Thus, this was an entertaining squash. I'd love to see more of Yuta on the Dark shows going forward. Dustin Rhodes, Lee Johnson and Brock Anderson def. Adrian Alanis, Liam Gray and Justin CorinoDustin teaming with some of his pupils each week and continuing to mentor them is an excellent use of him. He doesn't need to be wrestling as often as he was when AEW just started, but he can still go to a certain extent and is perfect for the Dark shows. Anderson and Johnson showed potential here. It was a well-wrestled six-man tag team match with Dustin picking up the win for his team. The Acclaimed def. PB Smooth and Matt JusticeThe Acclaimed are going to thrive in front of weekly crowds. This wasn't Max Caster's best rap (what was that weird Joe Biden line about?), but they never cease to entertain otherwise. Their matches blend together for the most part, but their trash talking and charisma help them stand out. This was a pretty standard squash with Smooth and Justice not getting much in before Acclaimed scored the win. Riho def. KiLynn KingRiho's appearances with AEW have been really infrequent this year. She obviously came back earlier this year after being gone due to the pandemic, had a few matches, disappeared, unsuccessfully challenged Serena Deeb for the NWA World Women's Championship at Double or Nothing, and then disappeared again. That said, this was a good match. King has been a Dark stalwart for the women over the last year and had an impressive outing against the former champ here. The size difference between the two of them also made for a unique dynamic. Varsity Blonds def. Aaron Rourke and Jake LoganBrian Pillman Jr. will challenge Miro for the AEW TNT Championship on Wednesday's Dynamite. I would have rather seen him get a singles showcase here, but this did serve to give Varsity Blonds another win and keep them high up in the AEW tag team rankings. Plus, it was kept short and sweet at around a minute long, so I can't complain. They still have a ways to go, but Varsity Blonds are turning into a strong team. Thunder Rosa def. Katalina PerezRosa has been getting great reactions any time she's been in front of fans lately. That means her push has been paying off in AEW and it's cool to see because she's a total star. Obviously, she hasn't been doing much of note lately, but that's because AEW is clearly killing time until she can rekindle her rivalry with Britt Baker, this time over the AEW Women's World Championship. In the meantime, she's been racking up wins on the Dark shows and I'm glad this didn't last long than it needed to. The Blade def. Chuck TaylorTrent revealed on Twitter last Saturday that he had to undergo neck fusion for spinal stenosis, which is awful news for Best Friends because it means he'll be out of action likely for the remainder of the year. That's in addition to him missing the first quarter of 2021. Not everyone is a Best Friends fan, but there's no denying they're a popular act and now it will be another year at least until they can get back into AEW Tag Team Championship contention. That also means more of Taylor in singles matches. Ugh. There wasn't anything terribly wrong with the match, but it wasn't all that exciting, either. Are we getting Orange Cassidy vs. Blade at some point? No thanks. Matt Hardy and Private Party def. The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, Alan "5" Angels and Colt Cabana)Six-man matches are probably where Hardy should be slotted to be honest, especially since he can help elevate Private Party. This was a solid affair with everyone having good showings. It never reached that next gear but was competent for the time it was given. Dark Order lost to the H.F.O. far more often than they win, but considering Hardy is being built up for a match with Christian Cage at some point, I can't say I was surprised by the outcome. Hikaru Shida def. Reka TehakaWe haven't seen Shida in action a whole lot since he lost the AEW Women's World Championship at Double or Nothing. I assume that's by design to knock her down in the ranking a bit so she doesn't immediately get a rematch against Britt Baker. I'm digging her new look, though, and I hope we get to hear from her about not being champion anymore one of these days. She proved before Double or Nothing that she can speak fairly decent English when given the chance. Tehaka wasn't on her game her, so this wasn't the smoothest encounter. Penta El Zero Miedo and Eddie Kingston def. The Hybrid2Damn, the H.F.O. was all over this show. If you're not a fan of the faction, you probably hated this episode. However, I like TH2, even though they're damaged goods at this point and tend to lose whenever it matters most. Penta and Kingston, on the other hand, have a really strong chemistry and had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands here. This didn't have enough special to be anything too special, but I thoroughly enjoyed it while it lasted. Overall ShowThere were more matches than I would've liked, but the key is that they were mostly brief and, more importantly, the show was only around 90 minutes. Thus, it breezed by. This episode had some actual fans in attendance and you can tell that weren't all that hot for the later matches, so maybe they should down on the amount once AEW returns to the road full-time starting next week. That said, having an actual audience in attendance is a huge helps and adds an energy to the show that wasn't there previously. Solid stuff this week.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
February 2026
|
RSS Feed