AEW Dark Review - August 3, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Wheeler Yuta and Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) def. The Wingmen (Ryan Nemeth, Cezar Bononi and JD Drake)

I think the idea is that Yuta is supposed to be a protégé of Best Friends, but we'll see if he remains a regular on AEW programming. He's made a handful of appearances so far and has been impressive each time, and as I've said before, I'd love to see him stick around. This was a fun match on the whole and it was a smart choice to slot it as the opener. I'm not the biggest Wingmen fan, but they play their roles well. Yuta picking up the win for his team was a nice touch.

Pac def. Jack Evans

I was surprised to see this match go on so early in the show as it could have easily been the main event or at least the opener. Pac isn't in action on the Dark shows a lot, so this was a treat. Evans is exceptionally talented in his own right, so this was an entertaining encounter as expected and the best bout on the show. Post-match, Andrade emerged and teased getting physical with The Death Triangle before wisely backing off.

Tay Conti def. Kenzie Paige

Paige was also in action on Tuesday's edition of NWA Powerrr as part of the Champions Series they're doing, which is pretty cool. She's shown signs of potential whenever I've seen her compete, but Conti was the main focus here as she continues to garner strong crowd reactions and get more experience in the ring. She's clearly being built up with all these wins and I hope she's back in AEW Women's World Championship contention before long.

The Pinnacle (Shawn Spears and Wardlow) def. Fuego Del Sol and Shawn Dean

Spears and Wardlow have teamed up occasionally on the Dark shows as they're the odd men out in The Pinnacle at the moment. MJF is still feuding with Chris Jericho and FTR is going at it with Santana and Ortiz, so these two have bene left with nothing to do. Wardlow is fun to watch in the ring with the way he wrecks people, but Spears still bores me to tears. This was a standard squash with the babyfaces getting little to no offense. Jake Hager sat in on commentary again, apparently signaling that his feud with Wardlow isn't over yet.

Hikaru Shida def. Madi Maxx

I've mentioned this before, but I have no idea why we haven't seen Shida on Dynamite or heard from her since her loss of the title almost three months ago. I know she isn't involved in anything of note right now, but most of the women AEW tends to feature on Dynamite aren't, either. Nonetheless, this was a decent little match. Maxx, who made her AEW debut here, had a solid showing and Shida shined as always. Hopefully she'll get more television time once Rampage premieres.

The Lucha Brothers def. Chaos Project

It's no secret that Chaos Project do absolutely nothing for me, but leave it to Lucha Brothers to get me invested in one of their matches. This was all about Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix and their exciting offense. They recently reunited following Fenix's time off and it's like they never left. This was quite the sprint and Lucha Brothers had the crowd behind them from start to finish.

Matt Hardy, The Blade and The Acclaimed def. Varsity Blonds, Matt Sydal and Mike Sydal

It's a shame that Max Caster's tasteless pre-match rap overshadowed this entire match. I write all the time about how his raps are my favorite parts of these shows, but it's clear he doesn't get clearance for most of what he says because otherwise he wouldn't have said what he did here. Plus, how the hell did AEW not think to edit that out earlier, especially since this was in the can for almost a week? Inexcusable. The actual matchup was enjoyable. Acclaimed and Varsity Blonds got to further their feud and Jurassic Express making the save for the babyfaces afterward kept their rivalry with the H.F.O. alive, for better or for worse.

"Legit" Leyla Hirsch def. Diamante

Hirsch will be facing The Bunny on Dynamite in an "Eliminator," which I believe will determine the next number one contender to the NWA World Women's Championship. Even now that Thunder Rosa is done with the NWA and the title is no longer on Serena Deeb, I love that AEW is still working with them. This was a hard-hitting affair from Hirsch and Diamante that would have benefited from more time. The Bunny ran out toward the end to attempt to cost Hirsch the win, but Big Swole (given her own issues with Diamante) also came out to thwart her interference.

Jon Moxley def. Brick Aldridge

Moxley is another one of those guys that isn't on Dark too often (nor should he be), so it was cool to see him in action on the 100th episode. The audio was muffled for me during his entrance and I couldn't hear the crowd, so I don't know if everyone experienced that or if it was just me. Either way, this was a fairly basic squash for Moxley. I don't think it needed to be three minutes long, but the crowd certainly wasn't complaining about getting more of Moxley.

Penelope Ford def. Reka Tehaka

Much like I said about Red Velvet in my review of Monday's Dark: Elevation episode, Ford is the perfect person to be featuring on Dark. She's getting exposure in front of fans and has the chance to hone her skills as well. She was hardly a focal point in her act with Kip Sabian before he got hurt, so I like that she's been able to showcase her skills some more while he's been on the shelf. This wasn't the smoothest encounter, but it didn't overstay its welcome, either.

Eddie Kingston def. Dante Martin

Upon realizing that this headlined over Pac vs. Evans, I have no idea why AEW went with this as the main event. There wasn't anything remotely special about it. I was looking forward to it on paper because Dante has broken out as a singles star while his brother has been out injured (and it was awesome to see Darius at ringside for this sporting a knee brace by the way), and what we got was good, but it was criminally short. At least Kingston is always a crowd-pleaser and he sent the crowd home happy here.

Overall Show

This was the 100th edition of Dark and AEW went all out for it by featuring as many notable names as possible including Kingston, Moxley, Pac, Shida and others. That was appreciated and it made the episode more meaningful as a result. Sadly, I fear that the only thing this landmark show will be remembered for will be Caster's rap and the reaction it received online. Hopefully it leads to AEW doing a better job in the future of editing these shows ahead of time and cracking down on certain stuff. The rest of the episode was entertaining by Dark standards and the 90 minutes flew by, even though the crowd came off as exhausted for the most part (and I don't blame them seeing as how this was taped after last week's Dynamite).

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews