AEW Dark Review - November 30, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Pinnacle (Wardlow and Shawn Spears) def. Bear Country

The longer they drag out Wardlow teasing tension with Spears and the rest of The Pinnacle, the more it's going to mean when he inevitably breaks away from them as a babyface. It's coming, folks, and it's coming soon. I liked that the show kicked off with an actual match instead of a squash and that Bear Country got to look credible in defeat, they're always a treat to watch. This was good stuff and they made the most of the time they had.

KiLynn King def. Renee Michelle

I feel like we were seeing King on AEW programming on a near-weekly basis, but her matches on the Dark shows have been far and few between as of late. It's interesting that she'd make her return with a win, so maybe that means AEW has more in store for her on Dark. Michelle is passable, so it was probably for the best that this was kept on the shorter side. King is much better in the ring, but nothing else about her is all that interesting.

Santana and Ortiz def. Gus de la Vega and Brandon Gore

Even after all this time, the face paint that Santana and Ortiz wear still make them look like total badasses. Now the key is AEW giving them more of a sustained push in the tag team division and wins like this will help their cause. There wasn't nothing notable about the match itself, but Santana and Ortiz had a dominant outing as they should have. I feel like it's been a while since we last them in a truly competitive match.

Skye Blue def. La Rosa Negra

I'm all for Blue making more appearances on AEW programming. As I've said before, she has a huge upside as a performer and has already shown signs of improvement since I first saw her wrestle many months ago. I don't know what her contract situation is, but here's hoping she lands a full-time deal with AEW soon. This was a nice little match, but I wish it got more time.

​Alan "5" Angels def. Mike Reed

After getting pinned in a random multi-man tag team match on Monday's Elevation, Angels got back to his winning ways here. No one honestly believes he's beating Bryan Danielson this Wednesday on Dynamite, but you need to at least attempt to make the guy look like a threat and I thought this accomplished that. The match needed to be brief because it would be laughable if he struggled to defeat a no-namer before he faces Danielson, so at least this had that going for it.

Ryo Mizunami def. Dani Jordyn

It feels like Mizunami has had nothing but multi-woman tag team matches lately in AEW. I'm not clamoring to see more of her personally, but she should probably be spotlighted on her own every now and again and that was what this was. Truth be told, I was happier to see Jordyn back. She hasn't competed for AEW in a long time and she even brought her "burn book" with her. This was a serviceable squash.

The Butcher def. Michael Martinez

I read somewhere that Butcher was injured in that tag team match that featured Tomohiro Ishii two weeks ago on Dynamite, but this was taped well over a month ago from my understanding. I have no idea why he had to have a singles match, but as pointless as this was, I appreciated that it didn't overstay its welcome. He killed Martinez in about a minute and it was onto the next thing. Butcher and Blade have never done much for me and their many alliances in the last two years haven't helped.

Julia Hart def. Nikita Knight

Prior to Monday's Elevation, Hart hadn't competed on AEW programming since early September. I remember an injury keeping her out of the Casino Battle Royale at All Out, but she had one match after that, so I don't think that's why she was absent from the shows. She still needs a lot of seasoning, but that's what Dark is for. To her credit, Knight showed some signs of potential as well, so keep an eye out for her.

Infinito def. Ray Jaz

Call me a fool, but I genuinely do not know who Infinito was. Obviously, it was someone already on the AEW roster under the mask, but it was hard to tell who it could be because their entire body was covered. I saw some speculation on Twitter that it could be Bryan Danielson and this absolutely seems like something he would do. This was a fun little showcase for this Infinito fellow and hopefully we get to see more of him on Dark.

"Legit" Leyla Hirsch def. Sahara Seven

It's about time we got more of Hirsh in singles competition on Dark. She's another one of those people that we've seen very little of in recent months and that's disappointing because I'm a fan of hers. Seven has appeared on Dark before but has never looked overly impressive in my opinion. Thus, I had no issue with Hirsch tapping her out in under a minute. Hopefully a few more wins will get her back on Dynamite or Rampage.

Varsity Blonds def. The Factory (Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto)

It's nice to get Varsity Blonds back on Dark. They were building some serious steam before they inexplicably disappeared from TV. That feud Brian Pillman Jr. had with MJF means next to nothing in retrospect. This was one of the more competitive matches on the show and it was decent. I just can't bring myself to give a crap about The Factory. Comoroto eating the pin for his team instead of Solo was certainly surprising.

Tony Nese def. D'Marceo James

As most people probably know by now, Nese will challenge Sammy Guevara for the AEW TNT Championship this Friday on Rampage. I mentioned this in my Elevation review from Monday, but Nese will only benefit from getting more chances to showcase his skills in matches like this on Dark and Elevation. He won't win the title, obviously, but if he can have a good showing like he did here, that's all that matters.

Matt Hardy and Jora Johl def. Baron Black and Prince Agballah

Hardy recruited Johl into the Hardy Family Office many months ago, but there has barely been any follow-up with him since then. He seems promising enough, but if he's hardly featured, then it's difficult to care about the dude. Hardy managing him isn't a bad idea, though. Both of them got an equal amount of ring time and took turns beating up on Black and Agballah before picking up the win in decisive fashion.

"All Ego" Ethan Page def. Fuego Del Sol

I know Fuego is a fan favorite and all, but I didn't expect this to last as long as it did, especially since it wasn't the main event. Page was just involved in a pretty prominent angle with American Top Team against Inner Circle and has been protected up to this point, and although Fuego is a talented guy, he also went winless in AEW up until a few months ago. Fuego arguably shouldn't be taking Page to the limit, but as a match, it was well worked and their styles meshed together nicely.

Adam Cole def. Anthony Greene

This felt like a match we would have seen on WWE NXT six months ago, and maybe we would have seen it at some point had Cole not left and had Greene not gotten released. I'll sing Greene's praises all day, but this was another instance where I don't think Greene needed to hang with Cole. As far as we know, Greene isn't signed by AEW, whereas Cole is one of their top guys. It's a mismatch on paper even though we all know Greene can go. That's just me nitpicking because I thought it was an entertaining main event otherwise.

Overall Show

I just don't understand why AEW insists on doing 90-minute editions of Dark with 15 matches. Of course, it's more bearable than the two-hour and two-and-a-half-hour episodes they were doing a year ago, but as effective as some of these squashes can be, they lose their luster almost immediately when you see so many of them on the same show, and that's in addition to what we get on Elevation on Mondays. Universal Studios is the perfect setting for this type of show and I thought this was an adequate episode on the whole with the last two matches standing out, but they really need to cut back on the amount of matchups they do per week because it becomes overkill.

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