AEW Dark: Elevation Review - May 23, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

"All Ego" Ethan Page def. J.D. Griffey

Dan Lambert accompanied Page to the ring, though Scorpio Sky wasn't present. I honestly don't remember the last time Page was in action without looking it up because all the focus has been on Sky lately, and even his reigns as AEW TNT Champion have been botched in my opinion. This was a straightforward singles win for Page as it should have been. Like Sky, I'd like to see Page branch off on his own since the Men of the Year stuff wore thin for me a while ago.

ROH Women's World Champion Mercedes Martinez def. Hyan

According to reviews I've written, Hyan appeared on Dark twice last year. For some reason, I thought I've seen her before in Ring of Honor, but maybe not. Unfortunately, this wasn't as clean or as crisp as Martinez's title defense last week. Hyan's clearly inexperienced and they didn't have great chemistry. On the bright side, I'm a fan of the ROH Women's World Championship being defended regularly on the Dark shows for now.

The Butcher and The Blade def. Varisty Blonds

This is the type of match I want to see more of on the Dark shows. Both of these teams are established, but no one would have cared had it happened on an episode of Dynamite or Rampage. Varsity Blonds are a talented team, but they've been dragged down by their never-ending angle with House of Black and Julia Hart's attitude issues. This was a well-wrestled affair, though I would have rather seen Varsity Blonds win.

Lee Moriarty def. Alex Reynolds

Moriarty has been doing a whole lot of nothing lately, so I'm all for him getting more of a singles spotlight. Reynolds is very good in his own right and they had a very enjoyable outing. Reynolds has won his fair share of (random) singles matches on the Dark shows lately, so Moriarty winning was a pleasant surprise. I hope he can capitalize off this and do something of note one of these days.

Nyla Rosa and Emi Sakura def. Skye Blue and Yuka Sakazaki

Sakazaki and Blue work well as partners, but it doesn't change how I feel like I've seen a variation of this tag team match many times before. Rose has teamed a ton with Sakura lately and I know it's because AEW has nothing else for her to do, but from a storyline standpoint, why would she continue to team with someone she loses with more often than not? This was a decent match, but it followed the same formula as almost every other women's tag team matchup we've gotten with these women on Elevation. The finishing sequence was cool, though.

Anthony Ogogo def. Mysterious Q

I've mentioned this before, but AEW's handling of Ogogo has been bizarre to me. He returned from his hiatus/injury many months ago but has done nothing but compete on Dark and has next to no momentum because his appearances aren't consistent. Meanwhile, I know absolutely nothing about Q. He was fine but was just in there to get squashed by Ogogo, so I can't say he left a lasting impression. This served its purpose in giving Ogogo a dominant win, but I'm not sure why it was positioned as the main event if there was nothing particularly interesting about it.

Overall Show

I'm always down for a quick and painless six-match card, especially one that runs under 45 minutes. I don't know why that Ogogo showcase had to go on last, but the rest of the show had a nice pace and I liked that we got more matches than usual with established talent against established talent. The ROH Women's World Championship defense was also appreciated and it's a smart way to keep it relevant if it's not going to be defended on TV all that often.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews