AEW Dark Review - March 29, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Factory (Aaron Solo, QT Marshall and Nick Comoroto) def. Invictus Khash, Adam Priest and Gus De La Vega

Kicking off any show with The Factory is never a smart move. As I've said before, they're perfectly passable in the ring, but it's been a dead act since they were made to look like losers against Paul Wight last year. They took turns beating up their opponents, and that's pretty much all I can say because there was nothing else remotely interesting about it. Also, Solo using the Pedigree as a finisher is still so stupid.

Emi Sakura def. Leila Grey

Good on Grey for consistently getting experience in the matches she's been having on the Dark shows. She keeps getting brought back, so she must be doing something right. I've never been a Sakura fan, but she needs a win every once in a while so it's not completely meaningless when someone on the roster beats here. That was the only purpose this served and was nothing special otherwise.

Diamante def. Kelsey Heather

I will continue to advocate for Diamante being used on Dynamite and Rampage because she quite literally never gets television time. There's no excuse because she's as skilled as most of the division but doesn't get a chance to develop her character and cut promos. Sadly, she may reach a point where she just disappears from the shows like Big Swole did. This was brief and what it needed to be.

The Dark Order (Alan "5" Angels, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson) def. Jay Marte, Richard King and Alexander Zane)

This was pretty much every Dark Order match you've ever seen against a bunch of guys not on the roster. It essentially served as a showcase for them, and while it's nice for them to be racking up wins, they don't really lead anywhere because they're pretty directionless on TV these days. I appreciated that this was kept on the shorter side and that all three Dark Order members had their time to shine.

Frankie Kazarian def. Kaun

I've praised him in the past, but Kaun is a dude with plenty of potential. I'm happy to see him getting a look in AEW with all of these matches on Dark. I hope it leads to him landing a contract, but then again, there's plenty of people AEW uses in enhancement roles that don't get signed, so we'll see. Kazarian is the perfect person for him to be working with right now and they had a quality contest in the time they were allotted.

Tay Conti def. Shalonce Royal

Royal is the same woman who AEW continues to use as her singing gimmick stands out, but I find it insufferable. It consistently takes away from whatever match she's in and puts the focus on her as opposed to her opponent. This was a fine match to give Conti a victory and I was surprised to see her win with the piledriver considering that isn't a regular finisher of hers as far as I can remember.

The Dark Order (John Silver, Alex Reynolds and Preston "10" Vance) def. Foxx Vinyer, Brandon Bullock and Jameson Ryan)

Did we really need two Dark Order multi-man tag team matches on the same show? I know that was the norm a while back, but that was when the shows were still over two hours long. This was an unnecessary match, and the worst part is that lasted over six minutes. The best thing they could have done was keep it short and sweet, but instead they wasted time with three no-namers. While not bad, this was a waste of time.

Nyla Rose def. Kiera Hogan

Rose is in the midst of a feud with Thunder Rosa over the AEW Women's World Championship, which I personally couldn't care less about. Rose's in-ring work has improved over the years, but I hate how she's been positioned as one of the first challengers for all of the new champions because she hasn't won anything of importance since losing the title two years ago. That said, it makes sense to give her dominant wins before she challenges for the championship and that's exactly what this was. Poor Hogan.

Overall Show

This was filmed out of Daily's Place, but I don't think AEW has been in that venue since right before Revolution earlier this month. Was this old content they decided to finally air? Either way, it was the usual middle-of-the-road show from Dark. The main event being a glorified squash wasn't interesting, and there wasn't much star power outside of possibly Conti. Everyone else was a Dark regular for the most part. No need to seek out anything from this episode.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews