AEW Dark: Elevation Review - November 8, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Danny Adams

It still bothers me that Hobbs lost to an injured Orange Cassidy in the quarterfinals of the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament, especially since Hobbs lost to him in his debut over a year ago. Cassidy was losing in the semifinals no matter what, so it really should have been Hobbs in that spot. Thankfully, he got back on track with a dominant win over a Tony Schiavone-looking dude here, beating him in quick and decisive fashion.

The Butcher and The Blade def. Chuck Taylor and Wheeler Yuta

Blade announced on social media not too long ago that he'd be taking some time off to focus on his mental health, so I hope he's doing better if he's back already. I've made it quite clear that Butcher and Blade do absolutely nothing for me personally, but as I always say, I appreciate their intensity. This was a perfectly solid match and I liked that Butcher and Blade beat an actual team on the roster for a change instead of a pair of enhancement talents.

Riho def. Tootie Lynn

I'm familiar with Lynn from the work she's done in the NWA since the summer. Her ring name isn't the greatest, but she's definitely impressive in the ring and has potential. She'll only benefit from being in the ring with experienced competitors such as Riho. This was a nice little match while it lasted to give Riho another win as AEW continues to rebuild her. It seems strange considering she's a former AEW Women's World Champion, but I can understand it because she was gone for so long and there's no obvious spot for her on TV at the moment.

Matt Hardy def. Dean Alexander

Hardy went at it alone here without any members of the H.F.O. at ringside. Then again, it's not like he needed any help beating Dean Alexander of all people. The simple verbal exchange beforehand was well done as it established Alexander as the hometown hero and gave the crowd a reason to boo Hardy for beating him. There wasn't anything special about the match, but it did give Hardy a long overdue singles win.

Ruby Soho and Ryo Mizunami def. Emi Sakura and Nyla Rose

Soho and Mizuanmi were an interesting pairing and I'm sure Soho loved every second of it. Sakura and Rosa were quite the dynamic duo as well, though I'm more partial to the pairing of Rose and Diamante. I thought they had better chemistry together. It's no secret that these four women are all competent professional wrestlers, so this was a well-worked tag team affair. Kris Statlander saved Soho from the heels afterward as they'll be meeting in the next round of the AEW TBS Championship Tournament.

The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver and Alex Reynolds) def. The Acclaimed and 2point0

Dark Order are coming off a big win over The Elite in the main event of Dynamite (no matter how dumb the match was in my opinion), so it would have been booking malpractice for them to lose here. They always have enjoyable multi-man matches on the Dark shows and this was no exception. It went about as long as it needed to and all eight athletes got their time to shine at one point or another. The crowd was into the action and the closing stretch was fun.

Overall Show

You'll never get a complaint out of me whenever we get an edition of Elevation that's under an hour long and only features around five or six matches. Taping the show before Dynamite is smart because it ensures the crowd is still lively. There's also a nice mix of enhancement matches and competitive matches. No one match on this show stood out to me in a major way, but everything was either what it needed to be or better, so the episode flew by and served its usual purpose.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews