AEW Dark Review - February 22, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Varsity Blonds def. Marcus Kross and Guillermo Rosas

Kross looks a little less like a goof than he did previously, so that's a plus. He still has the bleached-blonde hair, but he doesn't look as much like he was pulled straight out of an episode of Dragon Ball Z anymore. This went longer than it needed to, but it served as a showcase for Varsity Blonds, nonetheless. Julia Hart is still teasing tension with Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison, so we'll see where that leads (if anywhere).

The Wingmen ("Pretty" Peter Avalon, Cesar Bononi, Ryan Nemeth and JD Drake) def. Rohit Raju, Karam, Sotheara Chhun and Caleb Tennity

The Wingmen were back in full force on Monday's edition of Elevation and I can't say I'm overly thrilled. Good for Avalon for continuing to make appearances, but I just have no interest in seeing him at this point. Given that they're a joke jobber stable, they probably don't need to be built up at all, but at least this was kept relatively brief. On the bright side, it was nice to see former Impact X-Division Champion Rohit Raju featured, though he should have been on his own and not thrown in there with a bunch of other random losers.

Skye Blue def. Ruthie Jay

Continuing to showcase Blue is obviously a smart call on AEW's part. I'm curious as to why she hasn't been officially signed yet, though. In the ring, she's a competent wrestler but still has a ways to go. This was a pretty basic bout, but it was all about Blue and giving her a rare singles win coming off a string of losses. I'm looking forward to seeing her develop her skills and improve, especially since she already seems to have a connection with the audience.

Nick Comoroto def. Lamar Diggs

We haven't seen Comoroto in action a ton over the last few months. I've always said he has potential, but he isn't going to learn much if he isn't in action enough. Being aligned with the dead-end Factory stable isn't helping, either. I was surprised they paired him off with another big guy because he'd look far more impressive tossing a smaller guy around the ring, but it ended up being decent hoss fight.

Preston "10" Vance def. Ben Bishop

Similar to Comoroto vs. Diggs, this was a big man vs. big man match as well. Vance was killing dudes on Dynamite last week before losing to Adam Cole on Rampage, so if they want to show off his strength and dominance, he should have squashed a smaller guy. Again, though, it was wise to keep this short and sweet. Vance has a Face of the Revolution qualifier coming up this week on Dynamite, so it was important to give him a win before then.

Fuego Del Sol def. David Ali

It's nice that Fuego is starting to wrestle a bit more recently after doing nothing for quite a while. He tends to work better when fighting from underneath, so I was fine with this going about four minutes. I assume the point of giving him a win is so it means more when other people beat him, but I actually enjoyed him more when he was losing on a consistent basis last year. He's felt like just another guy lately as opposed to the beloved underdog he was originally portrayed as.

Matt Sydal def. Serpentico

I don't know what I did to deserve so much of Chaos Project in the main event of Elevation and Dark, but I wish I could be put out of my misery already. Serpentico is certainly the more bearable of the two, the issue is that Luther is almost always at ringside and his constant screeching is absolutely awful. From an in-ring standpoint, their styles meshed well together and it was a well-wrestled main event with the right guy winning, of course.

Overall Show

I was stunned to see the show last under an hour with only seven matches, but that's an improvement for Dark. Unfortunately, it was a very middle-of-the-road episode with nothing special about it whatsoever. I instantly don't care about involving either member of Chaos Project, especially if it's in the main event, and the rest of the matches were pure filler. That much was evident when the damn Wingmen wrestled. There wasn't anything egregiously terrible, but it was definition of mediocre.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews