AEW Dark Review - February 11, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW Women's Champion Riho def. Shoko Nakajima (Non-Title)

Where the hell has Riho been on Dynamite lately? She's barely defended her AEW Women's Championship in recent months and no rivalry has been built up for her heading into Revolution later this month. I know Nyla Rose is going for the gold on Wednesday's episode, so maybe Rose will take the title and then a rematch will be held at the pay-per-view. However, I can't say that overly excites me. Nonetheless, this was a very good match. I wouldn't be surprised if they brought back Nakajima in the future after the strong showing she had here.

Jimmy Havoc def. Sonny Kiss

Havoc has been off Dynamite and Dark for a few months and the commentators acknowledged his absence. I'm glad he's back as he's actually grown on me. Kiss is very talented in his own right, but I feel like we still know nothing about his character. This was a strange clash of styles, but they made it work. Havoc winning was the right call, but it would have helped if there was a reason for these two facing each other. It was a cold match as it was.

Hikaru Shida def. Cassandra Golden

Maybe this is just me, but I wish Shida was in the spot that Riho is in right now. She seems to be around a lot more often, and although she received a solid push off the bat, she hasn't been focused on much in recent months. I'm not familiar with Golden at all, but I thought she held her own nicely here. Shida wins more often than not, now she just needs to get back on Dynamite in a regular role.

The Dark Order def. Jurassic Express

Dark Order bored the hell out of me when they debuted in AEW, but I love how their gimmick has been fleshed out with the #JoinDarkOrder campaign. I'm actually interested in them for a change, but their matches still need work. Jurassic Express are one of the most popular acts in IMPACT, but the crowd apparently couldn't bring themselves to care. My question is, why did Luchasaurus wait until afterward to come out and save Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt? He was joined by SCU, including Christopher Daniels who has been teased as The Exalted One over the last month.

Overall Show

I appreciated that the layout for this show was much more consistent than other episodes recently and that it was around the hour mark. None of the matches stood out as being special, mind you, but at least they were all well-wrestled. The crowd was flat for the most part, but I did like the opener and thought it was the best bout of the night. On the whole, you really aren't missing anything if you don't tune into Dark on a weekly basis.