AEW Dark: Elevation Review - May 24, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

QT Marshall def. Robo

Kicking off the episode with Marshall was an odd choice. I know he's been pretty prominently featured on AEW programming lately, but despite all AEW has done to build him up, I still couldn't care less about him, especially as the leader of a faction. That said, this was a perfectly solid match. Marshall is a competent wrestler, but as I've said time and time again, there's nothing about him that stands out as special. He's just as bland as it gets.

Abadon def. Leila Grey

A QT Marshall match followed by an Abadon match? What crime did I commit to deserve such a cruel punishment?! I kid, I kid... kind of. I just don't understand the appeal of the character and she hasn't many (if any) memorable matches since coming to AEW. Thus, I'm not complaining over her not being featured on Dynamite at all since failing to win the AEW Women's World Championship from Hikaru Shida earlier this year. If nothing else, at least this was kept on the shorter side.

Thunder Rosa def. Ashley D'Amboise

D'Amboise has shown signs of potential in the handful of matches she's had on the Dark shows in the last month or two. She's definitely inexperienced, but working with seasoned wrestlers such as Rosa will only help her cause. Rosa let her get in an ample amount of offense and has been working with all of the fresh female faces. I assume she's building up her win-loss record before she gets her eventual shot at the NWA World Women's Championship.

Lee Johnson def. Daniel Garcia

Johnson's role in The Nightmare Family has been interesting recently. He isn't the focal point whatsoever as The Factory continues to target Gunn Club and Cody Rhodes specifically, but that might be for the better as Johnson continues to get reps in. Garcia was good in his role here and Johnson is making progress, so this was a win-win situation. As I've said several times, though, I just wish we heard from Johnson more and got to know him a bit better.

Nyla Rose def. Robyn Renegade

It's becoming a trend that Vickie Guerrero will come out, complain to Justin Roberts and announce Rose herself, and all of that will take longer than the match itself. Less of Vickie would be wonderful, but at least Rose is in monster mode any time she's in action on the Dark shows as she should be. It's a shame AEW can't find anything of note for her to do at the moment, but if nothing else, she maintains her dominance with wins like this one.

"All Ego" Ethan Page def. Alex "3" Reynolds

Page and Scorpio Sky took turns facing members of The Dark Order in singles competition on this episode. Spoiler alert: They won, which shouldn't come as any surprise considering it's now official that they'll be facing Sting and Darby Allin in a tag team match at Double or Nothing. I feel like we haven't seen a ton of Page on his own since he signed with AEW, so this was a nice change of pace and the match was well-wrestled.

Tay Conti def. Queen Aminata

Aminata was last seen on Dark a month ago when she lost to Diamante. She's decent, but Conti is the one with all the momentum at the moment. Although this was relatively brief, I didn't expect Aminata to get in as much offense as she did. Props to Conti for being giving, but there's nothing wrong with her steamrolling through the competition if they're unknown enhancement talent. She's one of the stars on the rise in that AEW women's division. Her against Britt Baker would be a fun feud eventually if Baker leaves Double or Nothing as champion.

Penta El Zero Miedo def. Mike Sydal

I don't really care about the Sydal brothers as a team because AEW already has an abundance of teams, but Mike holds my interest even less whenever he flies solo. Thankfully, I'm a big fan of Penta and I always find his matches to be a treat. I would have preferred for Penta to annihilate him in a matter of minutes, but I'm fine with it taking a little bit longer for him to win because Mike's been around for a while.

Scorpio Sky def. Alan "5" Angels

What I said about Page's match earlier can basically be applied here as well. I thought Sky was coming into his own as a singles star before losing his feud to Shawn Spears and disappearing for a few months with an injury, but I'm glad he's been able to develop strong chemistry with Page (even though I don't think the tag team division needs them). Angels is very talented in his own right, so this was an enjoyable sprint as well.

Matt Hardy def. Fuego Del Sol

It's cool that Hardy seems to be a regular on the Dark shows, helping out the up-and-coming guys who are both contracted and uncontracted. He shouldn't be wrestling all the time, but when he does, it should feel special like it did here. He had the perfect opponent in Fuego, who is always making his opponents look great. He played a big role in making this as fun as it was before Hardy put him away.

Ren Narita def. Royce Isaacs

A quick Google search told me Narita has been a "young lion" for New Japan Pro-Wrestling since 2017. I've never heard of him, but it's cool that we're slowly but surely getting more and more NJPW talent on the AEW shows. He needs more seasoning, but he had a fun outing here. I'm honestly surprised this lasted as long as it did. I would have given Narita a more straightforward showcase in his first outing for AEW.

Rocky Romero def. JD Drake

Romero had a hell of a Monday between making his in-ring debut for AEW here and also competing on an episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling that dropped earlier in the day. I'm pretty sure he's under a New Japan Pro-Wrestling contract at the end of the day (and he's also appeared for IMPACT recently), so props to him for making the rounds. I'm glad they saved his match for the main event and that it was give more time than anything else on the show. Drake was impressive as always and it was a quality main event. The Roppongi Vice reunion at the end of the show was very cool.

Overall Show

Any edition of Dark or Dark: Elevation that clocks in under two hours gets an instant thumbs-up in my book. I'm completely serious when I say that because there's no reason for these shows to be longer than that, especially when it's mostly the same stuff and the matches toward the end almost always drag. That wasn't the case this week as the show seemed to fly by, at least for me. It featured a ton of middle-of-the-road stuff with nothing too notable, but the shorter length made it more bearable. On a side note, I've never been a fan of Gunn Club, but that video package promoting the three of them was very well done.