AEW Dark Review - December 14, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kris Statlander def. Marina Shafir

I'd say this was the best singles match I've seen Shafir have, but I'm pretty sure it's the only singles match I've seen her in. That isn't to discredit her performance here, however; she did extremely well. I'm impressed because from what I had seen of her alongside Jessamyn Duke in WWE NXT, she was fairly abysmal, but it appears she's improved. I appreciated that this was competitive and that Statlander gave her so much offense. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would going in. Shafir deserves more opportunities.

Nick Comoroto def. Dean Fleming

I'm genuinely curious what the endgame is with Comoroto. I've praised him before as the member of The Factory with the most upside beyond Anthony Ogogo, but his development feels like it's been stunted in recent months due to infrequent appearances on AEW programming (including Dark and Elevation). That said, he got back on track here with a decisive win over a no-namer. This was what it needed to be.

Riho and Ryo Mizunami def. Emi Sakura and Mei Sugura

This stemmed from the match Mizunami had with Sakura a week or two ago and Riho coming to her aid. Riho is currently in contention for the AEW Women's World Championship following her recent win over Britt Baker, so while there was no reason to think she was going to lose this match, I thought it was solid stuff. It started off as a bit of a mess with some spots I could have done without, but they eventually recovered and put together a quality contest.

Jade Cargill def. Valentina Rossi

Virtually none of Cargill's matches have lasted more than a minute or two since she debuted, and while it has definitely help established her dominance, it hasn't given us a good enough glimpse of what she can do in the ring. She's still limited and a work in progress from what I can gather, but the basics are there and she's really come into her own since the start of the year. I don't know that I would put a title on her just yet, though. This was a simple squash for her.

Angelico def. Invictus Khash

Angelico's tag team partner Jack Evans has been tweeting some weird stuff from Mexico lately, so hopefully he's okay and will be back soon. Until then, Angelico will have to fend for himself. He's exciting to watch in the ring, but he's been booked like the ultimate enhancement talent from the moment he arrived in AEW that it's difficult to care about the dude at this point. I don't think this needed to last as long as it did.

Tay Conti def. Heather Monroe

Conti is working her way back up the rankings with wins after failing to become AEW Women's World Champion at Full Gear. Her team lost on Rampage last week I believe, so this was a nice rebound win for her. Conti hit her signature spots and won with relative ease in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, Monroe played her role well per usual. It was brief but not too brief. This is how most of the squashes should be structured in my opinion.

Lee Johnson and Brock Anderson def. Tony Donati and Faboo Andre

Johnson and Anderson are really starting to gel as a team and it's cool to see. Johnson has more seasoning than Anderson, but I maintain that a team is the best use of these guys at this point and the Dark shows are where they should be getting their reps in. We heard from the babyfaces after so they could be interrupted by Gunn Club, who are beyond obnoxious. Look for that match to happen one of these weeks on Dark.

Chuck Taylor def. Ryan Nemeth

This was the first singles match I've seen Nemeth have in many months. That's probably for the better because he's fairly mediocre in the ring. I guess you can say the same thing about the Best Friends weak link Chuck Taylor, but I find him more interesting than Nemeth. I expected a longer match since Nemeth is technically on the roster, but I'm glad it was kept on the shorter side. I have no desire to see Best Friends feud with The Wingmen.

Shawn Spears def. Josh Woods

The new whistling intro for Spears' entrance music is pretty dumb, at least in my opinion. The great music (which is the best part of his presentation) is fine without it. Anyway, it was awesome to see Woods in action on this show. This was filmed earlier this month, meaning Ring of Honor must have given him their blessing to do it. He's actually still the ROH Pure Champion coming out of Final Battle last weekend. I'm happy this was more than a squash and he got to have a nice showing here before eating defeat. Woods would be a strong pickup for AEW given his background and upside.

Nyla Rose def. Zeda Zhang

We know Rose is headed to the next round of the AEW TBS Women's Championship Tournament to face Ruby Soho. We also know she is not winning that match. I mean, does anyone actually think the outcome of that is in doubt? I applaud them for their effort as far as trying to make Rose look like a beast before then and that accomplished that here by having her destroy Zhang in approximately 90 seconds.

Arjun Singh def. Tony Vincita

Singh has wrestled for AEW before but never in anything but an enhancement role, so why have him win now? It's not like there's anything overly special about him, though he isn't terrible, either. Perhaps it's so he can put someone else over sometime soon. Either way, this was fine for what it was. The outcome may have been more unpredictable had Vincita gotten a televised entrance as well.

Daniel Garcia and 2point0 def. The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds and Colt Cabana)

Garcia and 2point0 are in the midst of a feud with Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho at the moment, so it was safe to assume they were going to win this match. Dark Order has lost so much lately that I wasn't bothered by them losing here, especially since two-thirds of them have gotten their asses kicked by Bryan Danielson lately. This was an entertaining six-man tag team affair where they worked a energetic pace and everyone had their time to shine throughout the 10 minutes.

Overall Show

Although this was longer than an hour and featured over 10 matches, I thought this was one of the better editions of Dark emanating from Universal Studios. It followed a logical formula with several stars being spotlighted and there being some more competitive matches throughout the episode. Shafir and Woods making appearances were notable and I hope both of them are brought back. We also found out that Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela will finally finish their feud in a No Disqualification match in two weeks.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews