AEW Dark Review - March 1, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Lee Johnson def. Darian Bengston

I can see some thinking that Johnson will be negatively affected by Cody Rhodes' departure, and while that could end up being true, he may benefit from getting Arn Anderson all to himself. That said, I don't believe Anderson (Arn or Brock) joined him at ringside for this, nor did he need them. This was a brief showcase for him, and although he's technically sound, we still don't know much about his personality.

Sonny Kiss def. Ashton Starr

We hardly ever hear from Kiss, but he got a pre-match video package discussing his song on the Who We Are album and it was really interesting. It'd be nice if we got to hear from him more often. At any rate, I'm familiar with Starr from following him on Twitter for so long, not to mention he appeared on Dark once before in late 2020 if I remember correctly. They had a fun little match in the time they were allotted.

The Acclaimed def. B. Jack and Donovan Izzolena

The Acclaimed squashes are always enjoyable, if only because of Max Caster's raps beforehand. Both of them failed to qualify for the Face of the Revolution Ladder match, so it looks like they're back to spinning their wheels for the time being. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this, but The Acclaimed did their usual shtick and the crowd was into it as always, so I can't complain.

Marina Shafir def. Danielle Kamela

I feel like it's been a while since we last saw Shafir in action, but she's been winning more often than not, so if she hasn't been officially signed yet, I'm sure she will be soon. As for Kamela, she was formerly known as Vanessa Borne in WWE NXT. You should recognize her if you watched NXT from 2017 through 2020, though she was never used in anything meaningful. Both women were impressive here and I hope we get to see more from Kamela in the future.

Dante Martin def. Jack Evans

I honestly forget Evans is still employed by AEW until he shows up for the occasional match on Dark. I don't think he's been in action in months. Martin gives me young Jack Evans vibes, so it was wise to pair these two together. Evans got to remind people of what he's capable of while Dante got to do his thing. They had the in-ring chemistry you'd expect them to have and it was a fun match while it lasted, giving Dante a singles win over an established name.

Abadon def. Sahara Seven

I'm starting to think Tony Khan only keeps Abadon around because she thinks she looks cool. Seriously, what has she done in the last two years since AEW signed her? Absolutely nothing. In fact, her matches have largely been relegated to the Dark shows and it's not like she's improved drastically. It's pretty much the same song and dance every time. On the bright side, her matches never last longer than a few minutes, so at least there's that.

Diamante def. Vipress

Diamante is in a similar spot as Abadon in that she's virtually never on AEW's main shows, but the biggest difference is that I actually want to see more from her. Maybe she can reunite with Santana and Ortiz once they officially break away from Inner Circle? There wasn't a ton to this due to being so short, but then again, there was no reason for it to go any longer than it did. Vipress has been a regular on Dark in the past, but this was all about Diamante as it should have been.

Kiera Hogan def. Kelsey Raegan

We don't see enough of Hogan in AEW, but at least she's been staying busying in the NWA as of late. I was high on her in IMPACT and still am, but AEW has yet to show they have any plans to push her. The fact she hasn't gotten an "all elite" graphic yet makes no sense to me. This was much like the Diamante squash in that Hogan was on offense for a majority of it and it was kept relatively brief. Her charisma helps her stand out, which is why she needs more mic time.

Daniel Garcia def. Josh Woods

I think Woods has a ton of potential and wish he'd get signed already. Ideally, he'd be a nice fit in AEW, but I'm almost positive he'd get lost in the shuffle unless they were really committed to him. He tore it up at the end of his run in Ring of Honor, so here's hoping someone sees the upside in him soon and locks him down to a deal. This was easily my favorite match of the night and I appreciated how competitive it was. They worked really well together and I'd be down for both of them joining this new faction Bryan Danielson might be starting up.

"Captain" Shawn Dean def. Will Austin

Like Sonny Kiss, Dean got the vignette treatment beforehand to discuss his new entrance music on the Who We Are album and it's pretty damn good. Dean is the same guy who beat MJF by disqualification on the first Dynamite of 2022 and it's strange to me AEW hasn't attempted to capitalize on that at all. I'm a fan of his and I was happy to see him score a rare singles win here in what was a fairly basic bout.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Wheeler Yuta) def. The Factory (Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto)

I simply do not care to see The Factory being featured in main events on any show, but this was serviceable. Thankfully, Cassidy is over enough that the crowd was somewhat invested, even if the action itself wasn't very exciting. In fact, it felt like it dragged on. Having this go almost 15 minutes was certainly a choice, but it was decent enough, even if the goofy parts did nothing for me. For what it's worth, Comoroto has gained nothing from being The Factory and would be better off on his own.

Overall Show

Dark was back to being over an hour this week and almost clocked in around 90 minutes. There were 11 matches in total and all of them except for the main event were squashes. Unfortunately, the main event was largely a bore (at least to me), so there isn't much that's redeeming about this edition of Dark. However, Martin vs. Evans was entertaining for what it was and I especially enjoyed Garcia vs. Woods. Spare some time for that one.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews