AEW Dark Review - July 7, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Shawn Spears def. Brian Pillman Jr.

I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long for AEW to utilize Pillman in an official capacity. Granted, he was a part of the Casino Battle Royal back at Double or Nothing 2019, but other than appearing in the audience at recent shows, he hasn't competed for the company since. I believe he's currently under contract to MLW because otherwise he'd be an easy signing and a great get for AEW. Although this didn't last long, he was able to impress even in defeat and have a memorable showing. This was a fun little opener.

Big Swole def. Rache Chanel

This was my first time seeing Chanel in action and nothing she did made me want to see her brought back. This was the exact opposite of the opening match in that it felt like it dragged on and was sloppy at certain points. I understand it was designed to be a showcase for Swole, but if that was the case, then there was no reason for this to last as long as it did. At least Swole and Britt Baker furthered their feud by exchanging looks at ringside.

Frankie Kazarian def. Luther

It's already been established that Scorpio Sky is branching off into singles competition while still a part of SCU, but I like that Kazarian got to fly solo here as well. Granted, Luther wasn't the most exciting opponent for him to have, but the match was decent albeit a bit boring. Luther's screaming makes his matches almost insufferable and I'm not sure why Kazarian needed a roll-up to beat Luther, who I don't think has won at all yet in AEW.

The Lucha Brothers and The Butcher & The Blade def. Brady Pierce, Faboo Andre, Joe Alonzo and Tony Donati

The Lucha Brothers and The Butcher and The Blade will be taking on The Young Bucks and FTR in an eight-man tag team match this week at Fyter Fest, so this served as a nice preview of that. I normally couldn't care less about The Butcher and The Blade, but they worked well with The Lucha Brothers (who made this infinitely more interesting with their involvement) here. This was exactly what it needed to be and had a ton of energy for a short and sweet squash. It's awesome to have The Lucha Brothers back.

Orange Cassidy def. Will Hobbs

This marked Hobbs' AEW debut. He had a super impressive physique and looked like a killer. Unfortunately, I don't see him competing again for AEW after being beaten by Cassidy in roughly 10 seconds here. I mean, he could, but no one would be able to take him seriously. It was completely unrealistic for Cassidy to win as decisively and as quickly as he did, but I guess they need to make him feel like a threat to Chris Jericho at Fyter Fest somehow.

Michael Nakazawa def. Shawn Dean

Nakazawa's gimmick may be appealing for some, but personally, it does absolutely nothing for me. His match at Fyter Fest last year was bad enough, but the worst part is that he's still doing the stupid shtick even though it just isn't working. Dean has had some enjoyable matches as AEW's go-to jobber this year, but this was not one of them. This was about five minutes too long and had no business happening in the first place.

Scorpio Sky def. Serpentico

Of all the matches on this show to receive an ample amount of time, I'm glad it was this one. My only complaint is that it wasn't positioned as the main event. They maximized their minutes and produced an entertaining outing. Sky continues to impress on his own and this was probably the best bout I've seen Serpentico have in AEW to date. Really solid stuff from these two.

The Dark Order (Stu Grayson & Evil Uno) def. Peter Avalon and Brandon Cutler

Grayson and Uno were at one point ranked number one in the AEW World Tag Team Championship power rankings before quarantine happened, so it makes you wonder if they were being built up to take the tag titles from "Hangman" Adam Page and Kenny Omega at Double or Nothing. On the bright side, they're working toward getting that momentum back and this win helped with that. It was a serviceable main event even though the outcome was never in doubt. Hopefully Uno isn't injured, as he was seen holding his wrist by the end and didn't factor into the finish at all.

Overall Show

Another week, another edition of AEW Dark that needlessly exceeded the hour mark. I don't understand what the allure is of an hour-plus show featuring nothing but squash matches. Don't get me wrong, this show wasn't a total lost cause as there were a few well-wrestled matchups that I liked and people are at least picking up necessary victories, but the format Dark has been going with lately has been played out. It's been a chore to sit through for a month or two now and doesn't offer much of anything that is worth going out of your way to see.