AEW Dark Review - March 28, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AR Fox def. Nick Comoroto

Yes, Comoroto is still on the AEW roster. The Factory broke up and it left Comoroto with a bad gimmick and nowhere to go. He isn't awful in the ring by any means, but I no longer see him as a future star because he's been spinning his wheels for so long. Fox, on the other hand, absolutely can be a future star  because he's that good. They had a nice opener and Fox winning was obviously the right result.

Skye Blue def. Queen Aminata

Aminata has a great presence about her, not to mention she's skilled in the ring. She'd be a quality addition to the Ring of Honor women's division specifically because she'd probably get lost in the shuffle in AEW. We see so much of Blue that I'm starting to grow tired of her matches, but I understand these matches probably exist to give her more reps. On the bright side, this was one of the better matches I've seen her have recently and it helped that it was fairly competitive.

Evil Uno def. Alexander Moss

I have no idea why we need to see Uno wrestle on his own, especially now that Stu Grayson is back and he can team with him again. If anything, I'd rather see Grayson spotlighted in singles competition because he has a higher ceiling and is more entertaining to watch. I know he recently took Jon Moxley to the limit on Dynamite, but this was still pretty pointless. At least it was kept on the shorter side.

Marina Shafir def. Steph De Lander

It was weird seeing De Lander in there as just another person for Shafir to beat following her standout performance against Jordynne Grace on IMPACT! Wrestling recently. She's also joined Matt Cardona's act in GCW in place of Chelsea Green. That said, De Lander scored more offense than most of Shafir's opponents and wasn't totally squashed. Shafir isn't as abysmal as she once was and therefore this wasn't terrible, so that was a plus.

Zack Clayton def. Schaff

This match would have been a bit more useful before Clayton lost a random tag team match on Monday's Elevation. He was racking up wins on the Dark shows for a while before completely disappearing until this week. The inconsistent television time has been an issue for many in AEW. This was okay, but if these singles wins aren't leading to anything significant for him other than losses in tag team action on the Dark shows, then they're a waste of time.

Top Flight def. Liam Gray and Adrian Alanis

Top Flight are a treat and I'm happy they've been all over AEW TV and ROH TV as of late. They've unsuccessfully challenged for the AEW World Trios Championship twice and have been involved in a feud with The Kingdom. They'll also be involved in the Reach for the Sky Ladder match for the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship at Supercard of Honor this Friday. This was basically a warm-up for them before then, though I don't think it needed to last as long as it did.

QT Marshall and Aaron Solo def. Austin Green and Vary Morales

You can break up The Factory, but it lives on with the duo of Marshall and Solo. Ugh. Personally, I think the QTV stuff absolutely sucks, but if you're digging it, more power to you. I just don't see how it benefits Powerhouse Hobbs at all. Them being at the undercard level is whatever, but anything above that is unnecessary. This was better than I thought it would be, but I still don't care about Marshall and Solo.

Brady Booker def. Serpentico

Booker getting a televised entrance telegraphed the finish. Then again, he won his debut on Dark several weeks ago, so it made sense that he won again here. I have no knowledge of him being under any sort of deal, but it certainly seems like we're headed in that direction. Serpentico was a logical person for him to work with and beat. They had a decent match and hopefully Booker can continue to progress.

Konosuke Takeshita def. Cole Karter

Karter is back to being dead in the water now that The Factory has disbanded. Then again, it wasn't as if he was on the fast track to super stardom as part of that faction, anyway. You have to wonder how long his current deal with AEW is and if/when he'll be able to return to WWE NXT where he reunite with Tony D'Angelo and Channing Lorenzo (yes, he was killed off in storyline, but we never actually saw his death and they can figure something out). At any rate, this was an enjoyable main event. I expect nothing less from Takeshita.

Overall Show

Any edition of Dark under an hour is automatically a positive in my book. Putting Takeshita in the main event added to my enjoyment of the episode, even though there wasn't much else worth getting excited about. The stuff in the middle was par for the course for Dark, but I appreciate that the show at least started and ended with competitive matches and not straightforward squashes.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews