AEW Dark Review - February 14, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jericho Appreciation Society ("Daddy Magic" Matt Menard and "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker) def. Fuego Del Sol and Leon Ruffin

Most matches Menard and Parker have at this point are short and sweet, but this one was not. I was actually okay with that since Fuego and Ruffin are likable underdogs. They scored a fair amount of offense before losing. It was a fun little opener for the time allotted. As I've said before, I'd like to see Menard and Parker positioned as a more serious team on AEW TV and eventually work their way up to an AEW World Tag Team Championship opportunity.

Mei Suruga def. Hyena Hera

Suruga is a part of Emi Sakura's mini faction. There's nothing special about the guy in the group as see recently on Dark, but Suruga has potential based on the showing she had in this match. I could do without the biting nonsense, but otherwise, she's skilled. This would have been a more effective showcase for her had she beaten Hera quicker than she did. AEW needs to do a better job of profiling these people on Dark.

Varsity Athletes def. Allen and Kameron Russel

Was it ever explained why Tony Nese teamed with Ari Daivari for a few weeks instead of Josh Woods? You'd think it was because Woods was busy doing singles stuff, but nope. They wrestled as a team here despite Woods having a Dynamite match set for this week against Mark Briscoe. This was well worked, but I have no idea why it needed to last as long as it did considering their opponents were two unknown enhancement talents.

Kip Sabian def. Gravity

I'm not sure if Gravity is established elsewhere, but similar to Suruga, he would have benefited from some sort of introduction. As it is, Sabian taking an eternity to put him away isn't very impressive. They had a well-wrestled match and made the most of the time they had, but it was a few minutes longer than it arguably should have been. Didn't Sabian challenge Orange Cassidy for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship not too long ago? And now he's struggling to defeat some dude we've never seen before?

Zack Clayton def. Dan Adams

Clayton still comes off as extremely generic, and no amount of matches he has on the Dark shows are going to help with that. He's a good hand in the ring, but he hasn't evolved his act at all and thus he's just another undercard competitor on the roster (and AEW already has plenty of those). This match solely existed to give him a win so it means more when he gets beaten by someone on the roster. Meanwhile, Adams is a comedy character. I didn't care for his shtick, but then again, that's coming from someone who loves Man Scout.

Brock Anderson and Brian Pillman Jr. def. The Trustbusters (Jeeves Kay and Sonny Kiss)

I'm a bit bummed that Pillman and Anderson are continuing to team. They decent chemistry as partners, but I feel like it's lazy to pair them up solely because of their fathers being in The Four Horsemen together. Yes, Anderson needs more development and is right where he belongs on Dark, but Pillman is ready for the next step and should be in line for a singles push. Trustbusters were a slight step up in competition for them, but not much. This was fine but boring.

Christopher Daniels def. Serpentico

I probably would have enjoyed this more had Luther not been screaming at ringside for a majority of it. Good Lord, he's awful. I can deal with Serpentico in the ring, though, and he was in there with one of the best. This was solid stuff, but I wish Daniels would be used in a more meaningful role in the twilight of his career instead of facing Serpentico on Dark. His matches in AEW feel like they're far and few between, so using him sparingly against opponents that matter would be ideal.

Ari Daivari def. J. Spade

Daivari promised in a pre-match promo that he'd pay everyone attendance a thousand bucks each if Spade won. It was never going to happen, obviously, but that's certainly one way to get the crowd to cheer for a jobber. Unfortunately, it didn't work and the crowd still sat on their hands. I don't blame Spade for that as much as Daivari, who is as exciting as watching grass grow. Spade didn't even come close. This was lame.

Diamante def. Ultra Violette

I'm a Dimanate fan and want to see AEW do more with her. However, it's been years and she remains in the same spot she was in when she first joined the promotion. We've reached a point (assuming we hadn't reached it a while ago) where it's impossible to care about her matches knowing she'll never win when it matters most. It was a basic bout that didn't overstay its welcome. Diamante winning with something other than her usual finisher was the only thing worth noting about it.

Dalton Castle and The Boys def. Larry Lazard, Terry Yaki and Jay Lucas

Hopefully the fact Castle and The Boys have had more Dark matches lately means they'll be a big part of ROH TV as well. Their act still has juice. I'd be nice if they challenged for the AEW World Trios Championship before heading back to Ring of Honor, but I'm not expecting it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about this outing as it was pretty standard stuff for Castle and The Boys, ​but I'll never complain about getting the chance to see them compete.

Konosuke Takeshita def. Bronson

This was the second straight week that Takeshita has headlined Dark. I'd be worried that he was becoming a Dark regular, but he just took AEW World Champion MJF last week on Dynamite in what was an excellent match. I guess that also begs the question of why this lasted as long as it did. Bronson's a big guy, but Iron Savages/Bear Country haven't appeared on Dynamite or Rampage in ages, so Takeshita theoretically should have steamrolled through him. Nonetheless, this was a good main event.

Overall Show

What a slog of a show this week. Dark has typically done a better job this past year of keeping the shows under an hour, but the 90-minute runtime this week meant matches were getting more time than they should have. The lack of star power hurt this episode as well. I'm not expecting Jon Moxley or Adam Page to wrestle weekly, but Takeshita and Daniels were the only names to stand out to me and the match quality on the whole was average at best. This must have taken place at the end of a long taping because this crowd at Universal Studios was quiet as could be.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews