AEW Dark: Elevation Review - March 13, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Emi Sakura def. Zyra

Every Sakura squash is essentially the same, so while there wasn't anything particularly interesting about this, her matches have been much more bearable. She's largely been relegated to the Dark shows in recent years, but it helps that these wins have earned her matches on Rampage with Jamie Hayter and Riho in the last few months. Obviously, she'll only ever be utilized as a stepping stone, but at least this served its purpose in giving her a singles win.

Jake Hager def. Levi Shaprio

It's been a bit since we last saw Hager wrestle (almost two months to be exact when he lost to Ricky Starks on Dynamite) and his absence from the ring was not noticeable. I was disappointed he returned to action here because it merely serves as a reminder that he's still on the roster. His hat gimmick is incredibly stupid. Thankfully, this was relatively brief and the crap with the bucket hat was kept to a minimum.

Marina Shafir def. Mighty Mayra

Shafir went at it alone here and wasn't accompanied by Nyla Rose or Vickie Guerrero. Speaking of Vickie, she recently revealed that she will not be sticking around in AEW when her contract expires this summer and that she will not be used on any of the shows for the remainder of her deal. Hey, I'm not complaining, though it would have been nice had she been definitively written off with Rose and Shafir walking out on her or vice versa. Either way, this wasn't the worst Shafir match I've seen, so there was that.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Brian Cage def. Jack Cartwheel

Much to my chagrin, it looks like Cartwheel will be making more appearances going forward with this marking his third AEW match in the last week or so. I'm not a fan of his acrobatic act and thought it was questionable for this match to be all about him rather than Cage, but whatever. This wasn't my cup of tea, but it had a nice dynamic, if nothing else. All signs point to Cage wrapping up with AEW/Ring of Honor at Supercard of Honor, but nothing is stopping him from returning and re-signing soon after.

The Butcher and The Blade def. Vinnie Massaro and Midas Kreed

I remember Massaro from Lucha Underground where he portrayed a lazy bum. Maybe that's his actual gimmick, but I haven't seen him pop up on a major stage since then. He primarily wrestles in the west coast I believe, so it makes sense that he'd be on this show. He and Kreed were solely in there to eat the loss and nothing more. Butcher and Blade had a dominant showing as they should have, but I still can't bring myself to care about them.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Inder Mundi in an ROH Women's World Championship Proving Ground Match

I've officially reached a point where I'm tired of seeing the same Athena squashes on the Dark shows. Yes, it's entertaining whenever she beats up the local athletes and roughs them up afterward, but she's definitely overexposed on the Dark shows and it doesn't help all the matches are basically the same thing. She should be wrestling on Dark or Elevation once every few weeks and compete primarily on ROH TV. She won with a Black Hole Slam here and it didn't look great.

Best Friends def. Starboy Charlie and Olumide

You'd think Best Friends would be prime candidates to challenge for the AEW World Trios Championship with Orange Cassidy, but with Cassidy being busy as AEW All-Atlantic/International Champion, they're left spinning their wheels. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing them back in the chase for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, but would anyone honestly take them seriously? If nothing else, I liked that they were more aggressive in this outing.

The Lucha Brothers def. The Wingmen ("Pretty" Peter Avalon and Nick Nemeth)

I'm definitely down for Lucha Brothers wrecking people in the tag team division if Death Triangle is on ice for the time being. The Gunns vs. FTR is the direction AEW is headed in for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, so that does make me curious where that leaves Lucha Brothers. The Wingmen are obviously a joke team, so I'm glad this was kept short and sweet with Lucha Brothers picking up the decisive victory.

Overall Show

This was your average edition of Elevation that didn't feel like a chore to sit through because it was only 45 minutes but won't be remembered a week from now. You get what you get from Elevation and pick out the highlights and the occasional "star power," such as Lucha Brothers wrestling in the main event. Nothing else about the episode stood out, but other than the Jake Hager match, there wasn't anything worth complaining about.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews