AEW Dark Review - January 3, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Christopher Daniels def. Brian Pillman Jr.

It was a pleasant surprise to see Pillman compete on his own for a change and an even bigger surprise to see Daniels in action. His matches have been far and few between in AEW over the last two years, so I love that the first Dark match of 2023 featured him and it was a damn good match at that. Daniels can clearly still go and Pillman is always impressive. They worked well together and I appreciated that it was a competitive contest before Pillman ate the loss. Unfortunately, it looks like Pillman is already headed back to the tag team ranks based on his backstage interaction with Arn and Brock Anderson later on.

Emi Sakura def. Jade Stone

All of Sakura's squashes are essentially the same, so I can't say this was anything out of the ordinary. Of course, I've never been the biggest Sakura fan, but I've come to appreciate her in-ring ability a bit more. As I've always said, these matches only exist to give her a few singles wins (against unknown opponents) so it means more when she gets beat by someone on the roster. At least these matches don't last longer than they need to.

Ryan Nemeth def. Dak Draper

I can understand giving Sakura several wins on the Dark shows, but building up Nemeth for anything just doesn't make much sense. He's merely passable in the ring and it's rare he wrestles singles matches nowadays, so I don't think any time should be wasted on him. What's worse is that Draper is much better and has done good work in Ring of Honor and recently the NWA. He has much more potential than Nemeth.

Blake Christian def. Sean Maluta

Although I have yet to see any real charisma from Christian in any of the promotions he's worked for, he can definitely deliver in the ring and that was evident in this outing. It was also cool to see Maluta back as well as he always stood out whenever WWE brought him in for the occasional enhancement match after working the Cruiserweight Classic back in 2016. This was a really fun sprint in the time they were allotted with both guys getting a chance to shine.

Ari Daivari def. Leon Ruffin

This felt like a match I'd watch on the dark days of WWE 205 Live in 2021 when hardly anyone was paying attention to the program, and I don't mean that as a compliment. The in-ring work was perfectly fine and Ruffin made this more enjoyable than your typical Daivari match, but Daivari still does nothing for me after all these years and this Trustbusters crap hasn't changed that. Speaking of Trustbusters, they attacked Ruffin afterward before Blake Christian and AR Fox made the save.

Rohit Raju def. Richard Adonis

Raju's been in a strange spot with AEW for months now where he'll have a strong showing either in the ring or on the mic and it won't amount to anything. He's never on AEW TV and hasn't been signed yet. Of course, it's probably one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations because he'd likely get lost in the shuffle, but if nothing else, he's winning matches on Dark, for whatever that's worth. This was a solid squash, but Raju's backstage promo later on was much better.

Jora Johl def. Jarett Diaz

Johl wrestling on Dark is consistently a surprise to me because I forget he remains on the roster. That isn't intended to be a knock on him at all, but he's barely used by AEW and has no clear character motivation or direction. He was aligned with Matt Hardy and/or Andrade El Idolo a while ago, but I don't remember there being any real follow-up with that. This was a match that happened and that's about all I can say about it.

The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) def. Axton Ray and Blanco Loco

Dark Order were just in action on Monday's Elevation, except this was a standard tag team match without Evil Uno involved. They're better off as a trio at this point since having any more members than that is pointless for what's basically a jobber faction. Dark Order practically means nothing at this point, but Silver and Reynolds are still fun to watch work. The sense of urgency in their matches ensures that they're never boring.

Varsity Athletes def. Liam Gray and Adrian Alanis

Varsity Athletes just wrestled on Monday's Elevation, so I have no idea what purpose this was supposed to serve. It would be one thing if they were being primed for a tag team title opportunity, but that doesn't appear to be the case. In fact, Tony Nese has a singles match against Bryan Danielson coming up on Wednesday's Dynamite, so it would have made more sense to give him a momentum-boosting singles win. This was decent albeit meaningless.

Kiera Hogan def. Kaci Lennox

It's bizarre to me that Hogan has been feuding with Jade Cargill for weeks and I don't think we've heard from her on the mic a single time. How are viewers supposed to care about her pursuit of the AEW TBS Championship when she never had an actual babyface turn aside from being betrayed by The Baddies? This was okay and designed to give Hogan a rebound win following her failure to beat Cargill for the AEW TBS Championship on Friday's Rampage.

The Trustbusters (Sonny Kiss and Slim J) def. RYZIN and Cameron Stewart

AEW has enough undercard groups that adding Trustbusters to the mix feels like a waste of roster space. They lost Parker Boudreaux to Swerve Strickland, so now they're even worse off. Kiss and Slim J are skilled, but the Trustbusters act immediately makes me not care about their matches. Meanwhile, RYZIN is cool, so him being involved in this made it slightly more bearable. From an in-ring standpoint, this was well worked.

"Captain" Shawn Dean def. Ariel Dominguez

Never forget that it was one year ago this week that Dean beat MJF by disqualification (with help from CM Punk) on Dynamite. He beat MJF by count-out a little while later. MJF never avenged those losses, and now that he's AEW World Champion, would it possible for Dean to have one more match with him on Dynamite so they can settle their score once and for all? This victory gets him one step closer! In all seriousness, this wasn't Dean's finest showing, but at least he starts the year once again with a win.

Top Flight def. The Workhorsemen

I'm grateful that despite the filler in the middle, this show had quality opening and closing matches. Top Flight's matches tend to be a blast regardless of who they're up against, but The Workhorsemen being their opponents guaranteed that this would be an entertaining encounter. Sure enough, it was a blast. The Workhorsemen never beat any of the established teams, but I appreciate that they're always made to look credible in defeat.

Overall Show

My disdain for the longer editions of Dark has been well documented over the last few years, and just because this was shorter than some of the two-and-a-half-hour episodes from 2020 and early 2021 doesn't make it much better. Dark has set a standard lately of being around an hour in length and featuring a maximum of 10 matches, but this was nearly 90 minutes and featured 13 minutes. A handful of these matchups could have been cut and it wouldn't have mattered in terms of the outcomes affecting anything in the long run. Make time for Daniels vs. Pillman and the main event but feel free to skip the rest.

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