AEW Dark: Elevation Review - May 9, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, Alan “5” Angels and Preston "10" Vance) def. Ryan Mooney, Diego, Jose Fuller and Brandon Scott

This marked the first week of Dark Order without Stu Grayson, whose contract legitimately expired at the end of April and apparently he chose not to re-sign. This also marked the first time I've seen Anna Jay interact with Dark Order on AEW programming in quite a while, likely because Tay Conti has since ditched her for Sammy Guevara (though the end of their alliance was never addressed or explained on screen). This was a pretty straightforward showcase for Dark Order, though I don't think it needed to be four minutes long.

Abadon def. Emi Sakura

Personally, I couldn't care less about either of these women, but this match made for an interesting scenario since Abadon nearly never faces contracted talent and nearly never loses (unless it's on television). Sakura is more of a stepping stone at the end of the day, so Abadon winning made sense. This was a perfectly fine match that didn't overstay its welcome. That's about the best thing I can say about it.

Sonny Kiss def. "Pretty" Peter Avalon

Bless Avalon for continuing to work with AEW on a pay-per-appearance basis when virtually everyone else whose contract expired left all together. Hey, he has nothing to lose and it's not like any other promotion is knocking on his door, so can you blame him? We don't seen nearly enough of Kiss, so I was happy to see him back in action. This was a pretty bland bout, though I'm curious if that miscommunication between Kiss and Avalon at the end will eventually lead to them splitting.

John Silver def. Tony Deppen

Silver will be facing CM Punk in Silver's native Long Island on Wednesday's Dynamite, so it was logical to give him the singles spotlight before then. Silver is always a treat to watch. Although I understand wanting to make him look dominant, I wish we got a bit more from these two because this could have been really fun. Deppen is a former ROH World Television Champion and shouldn't have been treated like your average enhancement talent, but oh well.

Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland def. The Factory (QT Marshall and Nick Comoroto)

Can we please move beyond Lee and Swerve having matches with members of The Factory? While we're at it, can we see Lee and Swerve branch off on their own as well? As much chemistry as they have as partners, both guys should really be singles wrestlers in the long run. This was a solid main event and at least the crowd was into the babyfaces throughout. I'm just ready for Lee and Swerve to be involved in something more meaningful.

Overall Show

With this being a five-match, 40-minute show, I can't complain. Sure, it wasn't the most exciting episode and none of the matches overly interested me, but I appreciated that the in-ring action was more competitive than usual featuring contracted AEW talent we don't tend to see a lot of. It was a serviceable episode, though it felt like they killed more time than usual with commercials. Then again, I'd rather have that than a squash match going longer than it should.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews