AEW Dark Review - March 31, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sammy Guevara def. Matt Sells

Sells was in action on last week's episode. He scored more offense here than I thought he would, but Guevara went over in the end as he should have. He's a blast to watch in the ring and continues to shine even without a crowd. He was also able to show off his personality, which made the five minutes entertaining. I'm looking forward to his rematch with Darby Allin in the first round of the newly-announced AEW TNT Championship Tournament,

Shawn Spears def. Shawn Dean

Tully Blanchard did not accompany Spears to ringside. I guess he was deemed "non-essential" and wasn't brought in for the taping. At any rate, Spears has been looking for a tag team partner for months, but he put his search aside for one week to focus on singles competition. This was a fine match that gave Spears a much-needed win before he clashes with Cody in the first round of the title tourney.

Darby Allin def. Preston Vance

Similar to Guevara, Allin was really getting over with the audience before AEW had to start filming in empty arenas, but at least he's been maintaining momentum with wins in recent weeks. This wasn't much different than any of the other squashes on this show, but it was fun while it lasted, mainly because Allin is an exceptional performer. As previously noted, Allin vs. Guevara II should be terrific.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley def. Faboo Andre (Non-Title)

Before making his entrance, Moxley was shown working behind one of the cameras, sending the message that AEW really is working with limited staff these days. In all seriousness, this was exactly what it needed to be. It would have been a complete joke for a local athlete to look competitive against the AEW World Champion, so keeping it short and sweet was for the best and I liked how Moxley won with a modified STF for a change. Jake Hager attacked afterward to further their feud.

Overall Show

It was announced at the start of the show that it will be Cody vs. Spears and Allin vs. Guevara in the first round of the AEW TNT Championship Tournament, which I believe is set to kick off next week. Speaking of Cody, he sat in on commentary with Tony Schiavone and did an excellent job. The matches weren't anything special, but it's nice that AEW is giving independent wrestlers a paycheck during these trying times. Plus, there were more notable names on this edition of Dark than usual. The half hour flew by.