AEW Dark: Elevation Review - September 3, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AAA Mixed Tag Team Champions Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo def. GPA and Laynie Luck (Non-Title)

As I've said before, AAA's mixed tag titles are completely pointless. They mean even less when you consider they aren't property of AEW, so Guevara and Melo carrying the belts makes them feel like props. However, that won't stop AEW from having them defended on the All Out pre-show in a rubber match with Ortiz and Ruby Soho. They have quality chemistry as partners and this was decent, but as an on-air act, Guevara and Melo have channel-changing heat with me.

AEW World Tag Team Champions Swerve In Our Glory def. Jah-C and Storm Grayson (Non-Title)

I almost want to call Swerve In Our Glory the ROH World Tag Team Champions because it feels like we barely see them on Dynamite. Yes, they've had a few matches on Rampage recently, but that show isn't nearly as important as Dynamite at this point. At any rate, this was a solid showcase for the champs. There's no denying they work well together, but I'd rather see the belts on an actual team like The Acclaimed or FTR so Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee can do their own thing in singles competition.

"Hangman" Adam Page The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) def. The Factory (Cole Karter, Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto)

Page almost never wrestles on the Dark shows and for good reason because he's above that. That said, I was fine with it in this case because they're going to be in the finals of the AEW World Trios Championship Tournament against The Elite on Sunday and this gave them some last-minute momentum. I understand giving this more than five minutes because The Factory are an established act but not much longer than that.

The Acclaimed def. Invictus Khash and JPH

Man, it's wild how over The Acclaimed over. Yes, they've always been over, but they've had red-hot momentum as babyfaces in recent months. Personally, I'd go ahead and pull the trigger on a title win for them at All Out, but I don't get the sense that's what will happen. There wasn't much to the match, but the crowd ate up everything The Acclaimed did. They're also now the most winningest team in AEW history, which is a cool accomplishment (even though a majority of those wins came on the Dark shows).

Ruby Soho and Ortiz def. Emi Sakura and Baliyan Akki

I'm pretty positive Akki is the same guy who accompanied Sakura to the ring for her recent title match on Elevation with Hikaru Shida. I've made it quite clear at this point, but I couldn't care less about Soho and Ortiz's feud with Guevara and Melo. I'm just ready for it to be over. Guevara and Melo won earlier in the episode, so it made sense to give Soho and Ortiz a win here.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Best Friends) def. Angelico, The Butcher and The Blade

I'm not going to bother classifying Angelico, Butcher and Blade as members of The Andrade Family Office anymore because I don't think that's been a thing for months, yet they continue to team together, anyway. This was a rebound win for Best Friends coming off their loss in the AEW World Trios Championship Tournament on Friday's Rampage. Their opponents were three losers, but I didn't mind this being a competitive contest because Butcher and Blade had credibility once upon a time. It ended up being an enjoyable outing.

Overall Show

It's been an annual tradition for an edition of Dark and Elevation to air over All Out weekend since Dynamite and Rampage were taped live in Chicago this past week (and I assume this was taped before Dynamite since most of these people wrestled on Rampage). By Elevation standards, this was a great episode and along the lines what I want to see out of Elevation and Dark more often. This had star power, the matches had adequate time, and the show was around 45 minutes long. In short, it checked all my boxes and gets an easy thumbs-up.

SEE MORE: Elevation Reviews