AEW Dark Review - March 6, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Natural Nightmares def. Peter Avalon and Cezar Bononi

Nick Comoroto, a pupil of The Nightmare Family, accompanied Natural Nightmares to ringside. Both of these teams have been announced as participating in the Casino Tag Team Royale at Revolution and this served as a momentum boost for Natural Nightmares, who picked up a few key wins last year but have fallen off the face of the earth in recent months. Did Dustin Rhodes or QT Marshall get hurt or something? Avalon and Bononi are a fine undercard act, but it's hard to take them seriously as a threat to these bigger teams.

Chuck Taylor def. JD Drake

As I've said before, I've been thoroughly impressed with Drake's recent Dark appearances and this was no exception. Taylor does nothing for me on his own, but this worked as a warm-up for him before he faces Miro and Kip Sabian alongside Orange Cassidy at Revolution. As for Drake, I really hope AEW looks into signing him to a deal, though I fear he'd get lost in the shuffle with all of the talent the roster currently boasts. This was going well into that terrible-looking finisher from Taylor. They really should have called an audible and done it again. At least Miro and Kip Sabian attacking Best Friends afterward effectively furthered that feud (even though I wish it was over already).

Penta El Zero Miedo def. Azriel

This marked Miedo's first match in nearly two months as visa issues kept him off AEW TV for a brief bit. I've always been a big fan of Miedo, so it's awesome to have him back, just in time for Revolution where he'll compete in the Face of the Revolution Ladder match (he's my current pick to win, actually). This was fun while it lasted. I'd love to see Miedo do his own thing for a little while if Pac and Rey Fenix are going to be representing Death Triangle in the tag team ranks.

Big Swole Addressed the AEW World Women's Champion After Revolution

Swole said that she had to miss the AEW World Women's Championship Eliminator Tournament due to dealing with Crohn's disease, which she has been public about in the past. She also said that the tournament was unnecessary because she should've been the number one contender from the get-go. I'd argue Britt Baker should automatically gotten the title shot at Revolution because her recent win streak, but Swole wouldn't be far behind. This sounded like a heel promo and she did well with it. She doesn't talk often enough, so this was some great character development for her.

Lance Archer def. John Syler

Archer killing dudes with ease is one of my favorite things about AEW. It feels like he real momentum right now for the first time since he arrived in AEW a year ago, and even if he doesn't win at Revolution, I hope he'll challenge Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at some point. This was a straightforward squash from him, but the real highlight was hearing from hearing from him and Jake Roberts post-match. Roberts is outstanding and Archer doesn't speak often, so that was a treat.

Team Taz (FTW Champion Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) def. Fuego Del Sol and Angel Fashion

Cage and Starks have their Street Fight against Sting and Darby Allin coming up at Revolution. They're an excellent duo and Team Taz has been a recurring highlight on Dynamite for the better part of the past six months. They can never seem to win whenever it matters most and I don't know if Sunday will be any different, but this was a solid outing for them before then as they made short work of their opponents as they should have.

Jack Evans def. Jake St. Patrick

Even though The Hybrid2 are still booked like glorified enhancement talent, it's interesting that Evans has been featured a bit more prominently lately thanks to his alliances with Matt Hardy and apparently Max Caster of The Acclaimed (who he helped win on Wednesday's Dynamite). This gave him a necessary singles win and was well-wrestled while it lasted. I'm not sure where Angelico was, though.

Gunn Club (Colten and Austin Gunn) def. D3 and M'Badu

I don't believe Gunn Club have formally wrestled on AEW pay-per-view yet as a tag team, but they will at Revolution in the Casino Battle Royale. Of course, they don't have a chance of winning, but good for them. This match was made more bearable by the fact that their dad Billy wasn't involved and wasn't even at ringside. I know it always sounds like I hate Billy whenever I review a Gunn Club match. I don't hate the guy, but I don't need to see him on every episode of Dark or him wrestling as often as he does.

Thunder Rosa def. Tesha Price

Price has been impressive in most of the appearances she's made on Dark and thus she especially shines whenever she's up against an equally talented competitor. Thankfully, that was the case here as she took on Rosa. Rosa come off like a total star since coming to AEW, though you have to wonder how often she'll be appearing in AEW going forward with the NWA set to resume tapings next month. She's been one of the best things to happen to AEW's women's division since the summer. This was a nice little match.

Bear Country def. RYZIN and Cameron Stewart

Is there a reason why RYZIN keeps getting put into random tag team matches? The dude stands out more than most of the other enhancement guys AEW use on Dark, yet he is rarely given an opportunity to showcase his skills in singles match. Nonetheless, this was another standout showing from Bear Country. The Butcher and The Blade attacked them afterward, so it looks like they're headed for a feud. If means getting more of Bear Country, then I'm all for it, even though Butcher and Blade typically bore me.

The Dark Order (Alan "5" Angels and Preston "10" Vance) def. Vary Morales and Labron Kozone

Dark Order is going to have a huge presence in the Casino Tag Team Royale at Revolution with three different teams within the faction competing. Admittedly, 5 and 10 are my least favorite duo of the three, but they still work well together and the dynamic is different. I'm happy they're basically babyfaces now because fans have been ready to cheer them for a while. This was decent for what it was.

Tay Conti def. Leila Grey

With Anna Jay out injured for the foreseeable future, it seems like Conti will be taking over her role in Dark Order, even though she's still not technically a part of the group. I say because she was accompanied to the ring by -1, so it's cute that they're continuing that even without Jay around. I praise Conti every week, but she's well on her way to super stardom and performances such as this one will only help her cause.

Mike and Matt Sydal def. Chaos Project

I thought Matt teaming with his brother Mike a few weeks ago was going to be a one-off, but it looks like they'll be a permanent team going forward. They aren't bad by any means, but they're fairly bland and aren't going to get above a certain level in a bloated tag team division. The thing is, I don't know what you'd do with Matt by himself, anyway. AEW just has too much talent at the moment, more than they seemingly know what to do with. This was a perfectly serviceable main event albeit nothing special.

Overall Show

AEW tends to do an episode of Dark before the quarterly pay-per-views to ensure everything is up to date, hence why this wasn't saved for Tuesday. Not only was this edition in particular actually effective in hyping up the Revolution pay-per-view and giving certain stars victories they needed, it was also enjoyable overall and featured more promo work than usual. That was what stood out to me, as well as the shorter length. This show gets a thumbs-up for me, even though they still could have cut down on the amount of matches.