AEW Dark Review - October 18, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Hikaru Shida def. Vanessa Kraven

Shida will challenge Toni Storm for the AEW Women's World Championship on tonight's Dynamite, so this provided her with a last-minute momentum boost. It's been nice to see Shida back on TV in the last month or so. The key is ensuring she remains a regular after she fails to beat Storm for the belt. Kraven had a significant size advantage over Shida and was on offense for a good portion of this match. Having her kick out of the Falcon Arrow was questionable, but then again, Shida didn't get all of it, so maybe they called an audible.

The Dark Order (John Silver, Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno and Preston "10" Vance) def. Tyler Tirva, Shayne Hawke, Zak Patterson and Jordano

The Dark Order squash matches were once a staple of the Dark shows. I'm glad they aren't done as much anymore because if you've seen one, you've seen them all. This was basically an extended showcase for Dark Order, though this one stood out a bit more due to Uno being a fan favorite in his native Canada. Stu Grayson appeared with them in a backstage segment on Rampage but was nowhere to be found here.

Eddie Kingston and Ortiz def. Mo Jabari and Jake O'Reilly

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we've seen Kingston on AEW TV at all since he lost to Sammy Guevara on the Grand Slam edition of Rampage nearly a month ago. That's bizarre to me considering how popular Kingston is and the fact he's directionless at the moment is inexcusable. He filled in for the injured Santana here and the crowd was very much behind him. We'll see if they'll continue teaming or if this was just a one-off, but it was a nice match while it lasted.

Best Friends (AEW All-Atlantic Champion Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor) def. Kobe Durst, Steven Mainz and Jessie V

Cassidy is fresh off winning his first AEW title: the All-Atlantic Championship. It was actually an odd sight seeing him come out with a title draped over his shoulder like a jacket. His feud with Pac isn't over yet, though, as he and Best Friends will get another opportunity at Death Triangle's AEW World Trios Championship on tonight's Dynamite. This was a straightforward squash from them and nothing else.

Ari Daivari def. Brandon Cutler

Daivari will face Hook for the FTW Championship this Friday on Rampage, so you had to know he was winning here. Obviously, that was the right result, but it's not as if I care about him that much more than I do Cutler. Truth be told, I find both guys completely uninteresting, but at least Cutler is getting fans behind him by acting like a clown. I would rather seen this kept on the shorter side, but if nothing else, the crowd enjoyed it more than I did. Hook emerged afterward and had his sights set on Daivari, but he changed his mind after Daivari put Sonny Kiss in harm's way.

Willow Nightingale def. Seleziya Sparx

Nightingale received a great reaction from the crowd when she made her entrance. I'll probably stop asking if AEW has her under some sort of a deal because I assume that's the case at this point considering how much she's been featured as of late, but it'd be wonderful if Tony Khan or someone could confirm that. As I always say, she has an amazing aura about her and is impressive in the ring to boot. To her credit, Sparx had a solid showing in defeat following what was a hard-hitting affair.

Dante Martin def. QT Marshall

I give Marshall a lot of crap for being boring (and he is), but he consistently plays the perfect foil for the underdog babyfaces such as Martin. These two had terrific chemistry together and produced a very entertaining outing that the crowd was into. Martin is basically the king of Dark at this point and it's a shame we don't see more of him on the main shows these days, but to his credit, he's made the most of every opportunity he's been given in the main event of Dark.

Overall Show

This, of course, aired much earlier in the day on Tuesday due to Dynamite airing at night instead of Wednesday this week. I thought that was a smart call as opposed to doing it back-to-back with Dynamite. Stretching seven matches over the span of an hour wasn't ideal, but it turned out to be a fine show on the whole with a livelier crowd than usual in Canada. Most of the matches were needlessly dragged out despite being squashes, though I can understand it because they were taped before last week's Rampage and AEW wanted to give the fans in attendance their money's worth.

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