AEW Dark Review - November 9, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Gunn Club (Billy, Austin and Colten Gunn) def. The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds and Colt Cabana)

Wait a second. You're telling me Dark Order can beat The Elite in the main event of Dynamite two weeks ago (albeit with the help of Adam Page) but lose to Gunn Club in the opener of Dark? I'm pretty sure Uno and Reynolds were in that match, too. Dark Order will never be taken seriously as long as they're a goofy babyface faction, but that win over The Elite was pretty dumb in retrospect. Most of this was crappy comedy and I didn't care for it, personally.

Riho def. Heidi Howitzer

This was my first look at Howizter and I thought she was impressive. She has a unique look and held her own against the inaugural AEW Women's World Champion for as long as she was on offense. This didn't last long at all, but it was exactly what it needed to be with Riho scoring another win and continuing to find her footing following an extended absence from AEW. I'd like to see more of Howitzer as well.

Too Fast, Too Fuego def. The Factory (Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto)

For those that missed it on Dark a couple of weeks ago, Cody Rhodes made his debut under a mask as Fuego Dos. It felt like a one-off, and even if if they did do it again, I figured it'd be exclusive to Universal Studios. I'm glad that it wasn't. Yes, it's completely ridiculous, especially given the storyline the Cody character currently finds himself in on AEW TV, but it's dumb fun. Plus, Cody has history with The Factory from earlier this year, so this made sense. The crowd seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.

Inner Circle (AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager) def. Koko Lane and Luke Langley

I'm not going to lie, I totally forgot Guevara was TNT Champion until I saw him come out with the title. I know he defended it against Ethan Page on Dynamite two weeks ago, but the belt feels like such an afterthought in this Inner Circle vs. American Top Team feud. If that was always the plan, AEW should have kept it on Miro a little longer. This was a pretty basic showcase for the Inner Circle guys before they face American Top Team at Full Gear. Men of the Year attempted to attack Guevar and Hager afterward before Santana and Ortiz made the save.

Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) and Wheeler Yuta def. Darian Bengston, Davey Vega and Camaro Jackson

It's interesting that Cassidy is still selling his ribs even though that Casino Ladder match was almost a month ago, unless he's actually injured. Now that Cassidy has been bumped from the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament, it looks like he's back to teaming with the rest of Best Friends on the Dark shows for the time being. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this, but the crowd was into the Best Friends trio.

Dante Martin def. Frankie Kazarian

It's about time Dante faced some legitimate competition not named Matt Sydal. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Sydal fan, but Kazarian has a bit more credibility having been featured more prominently on Dynamite this year. They had a super fun match with both guys having strong showings. Dante is really coming into his own and Kazarian continues to kill it despite being on the backend of his in-ring career. This was a big win for Dante.

Thunder Rosa, Kris Statlander and Ryo Mizunami def. Emi Sakura, Jamie Hayter and Rebel

Rosa and Hayter will meet in the next round of the AEW TBS Women's Championship Tournament. This served as a nice preview of that and everyone else had their time to shine, too. Some of these multi-woman matches tend to be hit or miss depending on who's involved, but this was perfectly passable stuff. Rosa continues to be incredibly over. I don't think she will or should win the TBS title because her beating Britt Baker for the AEW Women's World Championship at some point makes the most sense.

Matt Sydal and Lee Moriarty def. 2point0

Sydal and Moriarty will be taking on the duo of Dante Martin and Lio Rush on Wednesday's Dynamite. Needless to say, that should be an absolute thrill. Moriarty is an upgrade of a partner for Matt over his brother Mike, who did appear with them briefly on the stage beforehand. As expected, they had wonderful chemistry together and I wouldn't mind them teaming up more often beyond Dynamite to people used to seeing Moriarty. 2point0, as always, played their roles well in this nice little outing.

Nyla Rose def. Tootie Lynn

This was the second straight appearance for Lynn on AEW programming after competing on Monday's edition of Elevation. As I've mentioned before, she's stood out in the last few months I've seen her on NWA Powerrr, so it's cool to seeing her get opportunities in AEW. That said, this was a total squash for Rose. She'll be facing Hikaru Shida in the next round of the AEW TBS title tourney, so it's smart to re-establish her dominance before then.

Andrade El Idolo def. WARHORSE

I believe this marked Andrade's debut on Dark. Why did it take AEW so long to put him in action on the show? He's barely wrestled since coming to the company, so more consistency would be nice. Nonetheless, this was a fine outing for him coming off his victory over Cody Rhodes last week on Dynamite. AEW fans may remember WARHORSE from when he answered Cody's AEW TNT Championship open challenge last year. He's a joke wrestler, but at least this was mostly one-sided in favor of Andrade.

Team Taz (FTW Champion Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs) def. The Dark Order (Alan Angels and Preston "10" Vance)

Man, this was not a good night for Dark Order. I'm not saying they should have beaten Team Taz here, but I certainly wouldn't have booked them to lose two matches in one night after defeating The Elite two weeks ago (it's going to take me a while to get over how stupid that was). As for Starks, I'd seen some fans suggest he hasn't been wrestling much because his neck is still injured. That's the only logical excuse for why he hasn't been wrestling too much lately. This was a quality contest, but I want to see Team Taz featured more.

Tay Conti def. Miranda Gordy

Miranda Gordy is, of course, the real-life daughter of Terry Gordy. I know I've seen her in action before, I'm just not sure where. I remember her wrestling at the NWA EmPowerrr pay-per-view in August, but has she not wrestled in AEW at least once prior to this? Either way, I was curious to see how she'd do, but this ended up being squash city with Conti hitting her with a series of kicks and beating her almost immediately. I can't take issue with that considering Conti is days away from challenging Baker for the women's title.

Wardlow def. Ryan Mantell

With Lance Archer out injured (or at least recovering) for the time being, watching Wardlow squash enhancement guys on the Dark shows is my new favorite pastime. The crowd getting more and more behind him in the last few months has been very noticeable. The more he destroys dudes, the more over he'll get. This was short, sweet and straight to the point at just under a minute long.

Darby Allin def. QT Marshall

This stemmed from Allin beating Nick Comoroto in short order on Dynamite recently and Marshall getting laid out by Sting. Marshall even complained about that beforehand and got good heat for it. Unsurprisingly, Allin received a strong reaction from the fans and he was a nice get for this show. I actually enjoyed this for as long as it lasted and thought it was an entertaining sprint. I've never been the biggest QT Marshall guy, but admittedly, he has been having some of his better matches lately, so the heel turn was clearly for the best.

Christian Cage and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) def. Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy and The Blade

Christian and Hardy are destined to fight forever, apparently. Cage feuded with the H.F.O. for a while, but not as long as Hardy has been going at it with Cassidy. Good lord, that rivalry needs to end. Jurassic Express have been off TV selling injuries up until a week ago, so it was nice getting them back in the ring here. All six guys worked wonderfully together and put on a fitting main event for this episode. Cage and Jurassic Express winning was a no-brainer seeing as how they'll be facing The Super Kliq at Full Gear.

Overall Show

God bless this St. Louis crowd for sitting through nearly two hours of Dark matches. Props to them for being lively throughout, but I assume this was done as a makegood because they were robbed of the Full Gear pay-per-view. I've never been high on the two-hour Dark shows with 15 matches (and some of these matches most definitely did not need to happen), but this was an enjoyable enough edition that it's hard to complain. Whenever Rampage is taped on its own night separate of Dynamite, it seems you can expect Dark to be taped beforehand as well.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews