AEW Dark Review - June 23, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Brian Cage def. Robert Anthony

Anthony has a history with Jon Moxley and recently called out Cage on Twitter for going after his longtime friend/foe. I'm glad we got a match with actual storyline significance and, better yet, that it was over in under a minute. This is exactly how Cage should be booked, though it is odd that it took Jon Moxley as long as it did to beat Anthony earlier this month. Either way, AEW is handling Cage the right way heading into his AEW World Championship clash with Moxley at Fyter Fest.

SCU (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) def. Musa and David Ali

It looks like Daniels and Kazarian will be the main tag team in SCU going forward while Sky branches out into singles competition. I'm surprised they didn't do that from the get-go, just because Sky has more to offer at this stage of his career than Daniels and Kazarian (who have always been a terrific team). This was a fun little squash that didn't overstay its welcome.

Shawn Spears def. Pineapple Pete

I said a few weeks ago that it was going to take a lot for me to take Spears seriously again after he was embarrassed by Dustin Rhodes at Double or Nothing. These wins are a step in the right direction, but he isn't in the clear yet. The glove that he won with here hasn't been explained yet and most viewers likely don't know of its history (I know I didn't before I saw someone bring it up recently), so that needs to be fully fleshed out for it to actually matter. This was a fine match, but until Spears picks up an important victory, it's difficult to care about him.

Lance Archer def. Griff Garrison

Lance Archer squashes are probably my favorite type of squashes. I can see the formula getting old with some fans eventually, but it hasn't for me yet. I love how he comes out, gets his stuff in, and wins with ease. That's how you book a monster heel. He suffered a setback with that loss to Cody at Double or Nothing, but he can bounce back if he can settle into another storyline soon.

Joey JAnela and Sonny Kiss def. The Dark Order (3 & 4)

Wasn't there a vignette that aired for Janela and Kiss on Dynamite explaining why they came together and it ended with "To be continued"? Whatever happened to that? They've been a nice addition to the AEW tag team division so far, but I honestly don't see them getting above a certain level with there being so many teams in the company who are better than them. Meanwhile, 3 and 4 (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) haven't been positioned as anyone important in Dark Order so far, so their loss here was hardly shocking.

Mel def. KiLynn King

I honestly forgot Mel was still employed by AEW until I saw her pop up in the audience recently on Dynamite. That Nightmare Collective crap was a complete flop and I don't see a role for her in the AEW women's division. Hopefully Britt Baker and Kris Statlander getting hurt doesn't lead to her getting more television time. The issue is that she's no good and this awful match exposed that. Would it be too harsh to say that she's the AEW equivalent of Tamina?

Scorpio Sky def. Lee Johnson

This was easily the most entertaining match on the show up to this point, even if it didn't last long. Sky is awesome and Johnson has impressed almost every time I've seen him in action in recent months. They worked well together and Sky got to shine. I can certainly see him accepting Cody's AEW TNT Championship open challenge eventually and giving him a run for his money.

Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt) def. Luther, Serpentico and Max Caster

Jurassic Express have been stacking up several victories recently on Dark, so hopefully they'll enter the AEW World Tag Team Championship hunt soon. They have a tendency to make anything they're involved in enjoyable, though I will say that one thing that really bothered me about this bout was Luther not shutting the hell up. I realize he's a heel and his job to make me hate him, but it was channel-changing material. As I've said before, I don't see what he brings to the table.

Orange Cassidy def. Peter Avalon

If AEW wants fans to view Cassidy as a threat to Chris Jericho at Fyter Fest, they're going to have him establish as much credibility as possible ahead of the event. Then again, he took on Pac in his singles debut back at Revolution and went the distance, so I don't think Jericho will beat him in a matter of minutes. Obviously, a win over Avalon isn't a game-changer (especially since he has yet to win a single match in AEW), but it doesn't hurt, either. Cassidy's antics made this thing entertaining, and as ridiculous as this was (which is why I can understand some hating on it), I was hooked for every second of it.

Overall Show

This edition of Dark wasn't quite as long as last week's (which exceeded the 90-minute mark), but it was still needlessly long at over an hour. Most of these wins won't mean anything if the only people the contracted wrestlers beat are enhancement talent. Don't get me wrong, a well-booked squash match can be effective, but AEW does them so often on Dark that they're no longer a novelty. They're just boring. By recent Dark standards, this show was a bit more bearable than usual, but nothing you need to go out of your way to see.