AEW Dark Review - July 12, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Miyu Yamashita def. AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa in an AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Match

The only exposure Yamashita had on AEW programing prior to this was on a random Dark show in early June where she and Skye Blue lost a tag team match. This was filmed at Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling and from what I understand, Yamashita is one of the best they have. I mean, I can believe it after the strong showing she had here. This turned into a wonderful match once they picked up the pace and they had terrific chemistry. Rosa losing clean is certainly questionable, but this does set up what should be an equally excellent (if not better) rematch for the title down the line.

Private Party def. Bear Country

I feel like we haven't seen Private Party in forever. One (or both) of them might have been hurt, but they've barely been featured since turning on Matt Hardy. Then again, it's not like they were on TV that often when they were in The H.F.O., so I suppose not much has changed. What's weird is that this lasted as long as it did. I like Bear Country and it was a well-wrestled match, but Private Party are the ones facing The Lucha Brothers this Friday on Rampage and should have had a more straightforward showcase.

"Captain" Shawn Dean def. Conan Lycan

Any time Dean is in action, I always bring up how AEW will dust him off once in a while and then we don't see him for a long time. Well, I'm going to bring it up again here. What bothers me is that he's talented and should be used more than he is, though I realize he has other backstage duties and may be too busy with those. Nonetheless, this was a perfectly passable match and Dean was able to pick up a rare win.

Jericho Appreciation Society ("Daddy Magic" Matt Menard and "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker) def. Jake St. Patrick and Sage Scott

As I've mentioned in the past, 2point0's matches have been infinitely less interesting since they joined Jericho Appreciation Society. Congrats to them on being pushed up the card, but I don't know if I can possibly view them as a threat to the tag titles. They've been more serious lately (as seen here), but they come off as lackeys more often than not. This was meant to get them back on track following their loss in Blood and Guts.

Willow Nightingale def. Mila Moore

Between the wins she's racked up on the Dark shows and her appearances alongside Athena and Kris Statlander, Nightingale has been all over AEW programming as of late and rightfully so. She's one of the best female babyfaces anywhere in wrestling right now and should be locked down to a deal if she hasn't been already. She was beloved by this crowd and it was a short and sweet outing.

Rohit Raju def. Baron Black

Raju got some mic time earlier on backstage, so that made the outcome fairly obvious. That said, I'm happy with Raju going over because he deserves the spotlight, as seen by his work in IMPACT. He had a really fun run as Impact X-Division Champion and his character work was what made him stand out, and while he'd absolutely get lost in the shuffle in AEW, he's a perfect fit for Dark right now. This was an average outing with the right result.

Angelico def. Logan Laroux

Angelico was barely on TV when Jack Evans was still with AEW and he's been featured even less since he's been gone. I have no idea why Tony Khan would bother to renew his contract unless it hasn't expired yet. No disrespect to Angelico who is always a blast to watch, but he's been branded as a loser from the get-go and nothing is going to change that. It was wise to keep this on the shorter side.

Dante Matin def. Nick Comoroto

I vaguely remember these two having a match at one point (though it might have been a while ago) and it being very good. Comoroto works well with the smaller stars like Martin, but I'm not sure his development is where it should be considering how long he's been on the roster. As long as he's with The Factory, it will be impossible to care about him. For a second straight time, though, these two had a nice match. Fuego Del Sol made the save for Martin and Matt Sydal afterward when The Factory attempted to attack them.

AEW All-Atlantic Champion Pac def. Shota Umino

This took place at a recent Rev Pro event. The timing couldn't have been more perfect coming off Umino's breakout performance at Forbidden Door late last month, so AEW viewers were familiar with him coming into this contest. It was on that same show that Pac became the inaugural All-Atlantic champ, so while I didn't think he was dropping the belt already, this was very entertaining and Umino looked great in defeat. This is exactly what I want to see done with this championship going forward.

Overall Show

While I usually loathe any edition of Dark that exceeds the one hour/90-minute mark, I'm willing to make an exception in this case because of the matches that opened and closed the show. That isn't to say this was my favorite edition of Dark in recent memory, but those two special matchups made this show more worthwhile than usual and I'd strongly recommend checking them both out if you missed them. Everything in the middle was the standard stuff you see on Dark, so this averaged out to a solid show. They could have trimmed off several minutes by eliminating the pointless preview stuff at the end.

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