AEW Dark Review - August 24, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Thunder Rosa def. Heather Reckless

It feels like we've seen Rosa less and less lately on AEW programming, especially on Dynamite. That tells me AEW realized they don't want to have her go for the AEW Women's World Championship any time soon and thus she probably shouldn't be all over the show in that case, unless she kicks off a secondary storyline in the division. This was a fine showcase for Rosa as she was on offense the entire time and won in a matter of minutes.

Varsity Blonds def. Ren Jones and Brayden Lee

Varsity Blonds will face The Lucha Brothers this Wednesday on Dynamite to determine who will face Jurassic Express on Friday's Rampage in the finals of the AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament. They're obviously not winning, but I expect an entertaining affair. They're undoubtedly getting over by consistently appearing on AEW programming and improving with each outing. This gave them one final momentum boost before Dynamite. My only complaint is that they need a new tag team finisher because it doesn't look like it should finish a match.

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Shawn Dean

It's nice to have Hobbs back in action after he had to take time off due to the passing of his mother. That means he can resume his rivalry with Brian Cage, who he's bound to face off with sooner rather than later. Booking him in dominant fashion is key and that's exactly what happened here. He put Dean away quickly and decisively, though I would have liked to see a bit more from Dean as he's impressed me in the past.

Kris Statlander Saved Red Velvet From AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter

We haven't gotten many talking segments on the Dark shows in recent months, so this was a nice change of pace. It was a pretty basic promo segment done to hype up Hayter vs. Velvet for Wednesday's Dynamite as well as Baker vs. Statlander for the title at All Out. This was effective storyline progression, but as I've said before, AEW needs to heat up their women's division. Statlander has been undefeated since returning to the ring earlier this year, yet her against Baker doesn't feel as big as it should.

Dante Martin def. Alan "5" Angels

I'm glad AEW is trying to capitalize off that strong showing Dante had recently on Dynamite. His Top Flight partner Darius has been out injured almost all year, but at least he's been killing it in his absence. As for Angels, he's been having a handful of quality singles matches lately and this was no exception. This was probably the perfect length around five minutes and resulted in another win for Dante.

The Lucha Brothers def. The Factory (Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto)

What a weird time to be putting The Factory up against Lucha Brothers. If this was any other week, I wouldn't think it was anything out of the ordinary, but Solo and Comoroto were announced as teaming with QT Marshall on Wednesday's Dynamite to take on Gunn Club, so making The Factory lose one day before then was an odd choice. I'm not advocating they should have won here as that would have been asinine, but AEW probably should have fed another team to Lucha Brothers instead. Because they're so damn over, they made this decent.

The Dark Order (John Silver and Preston "10" Vance) def. Kal Herro and Isiah Moore

I could be wrong, but I don't think we've ever seen Silver and Vance team up before. They're an interesting pairing. I don't know why they teamed up on this show and it wasn't Silver with Alex Reynolds, but oh well. As I mentioned in my review of Dark: Elevation from Monday, Dark Order feel totally directionless at the moment due to their storyline with Adam Page being put on hold. This was a fine showcase for them and nothing more.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) and Wheeler Yuta def. Matt Hardy and The Hybrid2

How many damn six-man tag team matches have we seen between Best Friends and the H.F.O. lately? It's probably only two or three but it feels like a million. I like Hardy and Best Friends, but as I've said before, this faction war does absolutely nothing for me. The action in their matches has been enjoyable and this was easily the best bout on the show, but it feels like a placeholder program for everyone involved. Cassidy and Hardy will go one-on-one on Wednesday's Dynamite.

Overall Show

These sub-hour hour shows are such a breath of fresh air compared to the two-hour-plus episodes they've been doing for the last year in front of nobody at Daily's Place. The enhancement matches are kept short and sweet with the right people going over before their bigger matches on Dynamite and Rampage. The shorter the show, the more energetic the crowd is going to be. This was solid stuff and exactly what it needed to be.

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