AEW Dark: Elevation Review - March 7, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Lance Archer def. Cameron Stewart

Before the bout, Archer chased the referee down to the ring and threw Stewart onto the ramp from the tunnel. In other words, it was classic Archer. I love seeing him do that sort of stuff, but it's painfully apparent by this point that he's not going to get above a certain level in AEW. Hell, he'd be lucky if he ever holds gold again in this promotion. He's been overshadowed by all of the newcomers and he hasn't been featured on TV since his loss to Adam Page last month. This was a short and sweet squash, but I continue to question what the endgame with Archer is or if the company is content relegating him to the Dark shows.

Ruby Soho def. Session Moth Martina

I'm familiar with Martina from her time in Ring of Honor, though I don't believe she had many matches there before the pandemic hit and she was unable to return upon its relaunch in late 2020. I don't think she was there for Final Battle, either. She doesn't have a tough time connecting with crowds, but I'm still no fan of her shtick. She acted goofy here a little longer than she should have, but it was an average outing otherwise.

Daniel Garcia def. Ray Jaz

It feels like Garcia has been in the same spot in AEW since he arrived last year in that he's always impressive but never wins whenever it matters most. That was apparent when he faced Bryan Danielson in the main event of Dynamite two weeks ago, so at least he was able to get back on track with a win here and a decisive one at that. Garcia was on offense for a majority of the match before putting Jaz away in about a minute as he should have.

Scorpio Sky def. "Captain" Shawn Dean

I'm a fan of Dean and am always hoping AEW will feature him more. I know he has a role behind the scenes that he's very good at, but I wish we got to see more of his in-ring work because he's certainly skilled. This was a quality contest, but it was a weird time to have Sky be competitive with someone who is largely positioned as an enhancement talent considering he'll be contending the AEW TNT Championship on Wednesday's Dynamite. It doesn't help that a majority of fans don't see him as a threat to the title whatsoever.

Kris Statlander def. Emi Sakura

Statlander is coming off a loss to Leyla Hirsch on the Revolution Buy-In, though this was taped prior to that. I typically don't care for Sakura, but she and Statlander had a pretty good match here. That bump Statlander took on the outside of the ring was brutal, hopefully she's okay. They made the most of the time they had by having a super physical match. This was probably one of the best matches I've seen Sakura have in AEW despite being so short.

Wheeler Yuta def. Aaron Solo

I realize Yuta appears fairly regularly on AEW TV and is a young prospect worth keeping an eye on, but I could've done without Aaron Solo of all people being featured in the main event. Despite boring me to tears as a character, the dude is a decent wrestler and thus this was a well-wrestled affair. Thankfully, QT Marshall walked down to ringside halfway through and was quickly thrown out when Yuta tricked the referee into thinking Marshall attacked him. This was serviceable stuff.

Overall Show

The fact this edition of Elevation only ran 36 minutes was the best part about it. That prevented me from getting bad flashbacks with the show returning to Daily's Place for one week after those marathon shows we used to get in that same venue last year. In all seriousness, this was a perfectly solid show with a nice mix of competitive matches and straightforward squashes. Throw in a lively crowd and this episode was a breeze.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews