AEW Dark Review - October 15, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kip Sabian def. Peter Avalon and Sonny Kiss in a Three-Way Match

The higher-ups at All Elite Wrestling have to know that the librarian gimmick sucks, right? I mean, they've even alluded to it on Being the Elite these past few months. They haven't scrapped it yet, but at least it's been relegated to dark matches for the most part so far. Avalon is completely unspectacular, but Kiss is an excellent athlete and Sabian has a lot of potential. This was a fine three-way while it lasted with the right guy going over.

The Dark Order and TheHybrid2 def. SoCal Uncensored and CIMA

I'm sorry but Dark Order bores me to tears. They're perfectly fine in the ring, but the gimmick continues to do nothing for me. Sadly, I see them going to the finals in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament. I just hope they don't walk away with the titles. As for this match, it was solid and I enjoyed the interaction between Jack Evans, Angelico and SCU. CIMA is just there to put everyone else over it seems. Hey, at least TheHybrid2 finally won something.

Kenny Omega def. Joey Janela in an Unsanctioned Match

I might be in the minority on this one (which is weird to say because I was in attendance for it), but I didn't love this match as much as everyone else seemed to. Omega and Janela put forth a hell of an effort, but what was the reason for this being unsanctioned? Is Janela only going to compete in hardcore matches in AEW? Did it really need to last almost a half hour? Being there live, I can tell you that I was drained halfway through and was ready for it to end. Don't get me wrong, it had its fair share of awesome spots and they did everything they could to make it feel special, but it came across as random to me and a desperate attempt to make AEW Dark relevant.

Overall Show

The Unsanctioned match definitely made this an eventful episode, even if it came out of nowhere. Despite my gripes with it, it's still worth checking out. I can't say the same for the other two matches, but it was a decent edition of AEW Dark on the whole. I didn't realize that with last week's show, the first match was taped prior to Dynamite and then the other two were taped afterward. It's an inconsistent formula in my opinion. If they want to film these dark matches, I'd prefer they tape them all beforehand. It just makes more sense because it's when the crowd is at their hottest.