AEW Dark Review - January 28, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Nyla Rose def. Shanna in a Tables Match

Rose and Shanna have been feuding for the past month and I like that stories for the women exist outside of the title picture. I'm not the biggest Nyla Rose fan, but there's no denying she's been impressive in the last few matches I've seen her in, including this one. This was a solid Tables match, even if there were some awkward spots. That finish with Rose planting Shanna through a table at ringside looked brutal.

Kip Sabian def. QT Marshall

Marshall serves zero purpose on the roster other than to put other people over. He isn't terrible in the ring by any means, but I sense nothing special about him whatsoever. This merely existed to give Sabian a win before he faces Cody on Dynamite and to establish him as credible in his feud with Joey Janela, but the match lasted a few minutes longer than it needed to.

The Dark Order def. Sonny Kiss and Brandon Cutler

I've said this before, but The Dark Order have definitely grown on me lately with their #JoinDarkOrder vignettes. Their matches are still a bit boring, but as characters, they're much more intriguing as characters than they were when they started out in AEW. This wasn't much of a match at all as Kiss scored some offense but was largely dominated and beaten by The Dark Order in a matter of minutes. In fact, this was all about teasing Cutler joining the group since he never tagged in.

Overall Show

The pacing and layout of this episode was terrible. Two of the matches were taped two weeks ago at Bash of the Beach, while Sabian vs. Marshall took place on the Jericho Cruise last week. It was all over the place, not to mention how they saved all the hype videos for Wednesday's Dynamite for the very end instead of spacing them out. Worst of all, none of the matches are worth your time. Dark feels like it's slowly becoming the Main Event of AEW, especially as it gets shorter and shorter.