AEW Dark Review - February 18, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kris Statlander def. Diamante

Diamante has made appearances for AEW before and I'm stunned she hasn't been signed yet. She's a terrific talent. Her last match on Dark against Big Swole wasn't the greatest, but this was a much better bout as both women had solid performances. I was reminded that we haven't seen Statlander on Dynamite in a while, but at least she got back on track with a win here.

Best Friends def. TheHybrid 2

Wins for TheHybrid 2 are so far and few between that it's hard to take them seriously against anyone, though the commentators explained that this was designed to be a showcase of sorts for Best Friends ahead of Wednesday's number one contender's tag team Battle Royal on Dynamite. This was an enjoyable match while it lasted and I'll never get sick of the trio of Best Friends and Orange Cassidy. The act isn't for everyone, but I personally get a kick out of it.

Big Swole def. Christi Jaynes

Some of Swole's matches have been better than others, and while this outing in particular was perfectly fine for what it was, I honestly don't care much about Swole as a character. They gave fans a reason to care about her when she first got signed with that awesome video package, but there has been zero followup since then. It's great she wins most of her matches, but between her lack of direction and minimal appearances on Dynamite, these wins don't mean much.

The Young Bucks def. Peter Avalon and QT Marshall

I guess AEW didn't want to sacrifice an actual team to the Bucks, so they paired Avalon with Marshall for one night instead. Avalon was a heel and Marshall was a babyface the last time, but whatever. The outcome was never in doubt, but the crowd had fun with this. I don't think it needed to last as long as it did, but at least it wasn't a total waste of time.

Overall Show

I appreciate that Dark is back to having a straightforward format with four matches and doesn't exceed the one hour mark. None of these matches are worth going out of your way to see, mind you, but I didn't feel like I was wasting my time and all the right people went over. Dark has become the place where mostly secondary stars pick up necessary victories in a short-and-sweet matchups, but it's going to have be more than that once it eventually makes its way to TV (whenever that may be).