AEW Dark Review - October 25, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Lance Archer def. Iseah Brown

Archer did his usual shtick by bringing Brown to the ring with him and proceeding to destroy him for a few minutes. Personally, I prefer the short-and-sweet squashed from Archer, but seeing him pick apart his opponents is enjoyable, too. The problem is that he's been doing the same thing for so long without winning anything of note that it's almost impossible to care about the guy at this point.

Zack Clayton def. Shane Saber

When Clayton was strictly a Dark jobber, I praised him for standing out over some of the other talent. He's technically fine in the ring, but he's quickly been established as an undercarder on the main shows and I don't think he's won a single televised match yet, so why should anyone care about him on Dark? This was okay, but it was a fairly basic bout and he's come off as a generic heel so far.

Athena def. Alexia Nicole

These Athena showcases have become a recurring highlight on the Dark shows. That one from a few weeks ago gained a ton of attention for being overly physical. I didn't see anything wrong with it and Athena's intensity stood out. We got more of that from her here and she made the most of the time she had. Hopefully we see this edge from her on Dynamite or Rampage one of these days.

Danhausen def. James Stone

Danhausen is so damn entertaining (at least in my opinion) that it's a shame AEW hasn't had more for him to do since his partnership with Hook ended at the start of the summer. He's been used sparingly on TV since then, and doing Dark matches to keep busy might be his ceiling for now. There wasn't anything special about this match, but the crowd was into Danhausen and that's all that matters.

Aaron Solo def. Serpentico

This was a weird case of both guys being heels, though Serpentico played the babyface role and seemed to win a portion of the crowd over with his antics. Both guys bore me to tears, but while this match didn't do much for me (and I always cringe at the interference from Luther at ringside), it was well wrestled. I guess the unpredictability surrounding the outcome helped as well.

Riho def. Jungle Kyona

I've heard a little about Kyona as I believe she is/was a STARDOM talent, and she lived up to the hype. I've never been the biggest Riho fan, but she can certainly go in the ring and she and Kyona brought the best out of each other. This was a hell of a sprint and an effective way of incorporating Riho back into the fold ahead of her Dynamite match with Jamie Hayter on Wednesday.

AEW World Trios Champions The Lucha Brothers def. The Workhorsemen

What a fun match this was. The Workhorsemen always maximize their minutes regardless of who they're in the ring with and Lucha Brothers were excellent opponents for them. They ripped it up in the small window of time they had and The Workhorsemen looked credible in defeat once again. My only complaint is that this wasn't positioned as the main event so it could have gone longer. On a side note, it's easy to forget that Lucha Brothers hold the Trios titles seeing as how they've defended them once in the last two months.

Serena Deeb and Emi Sakura def. KC Spinelli and Taylor Rising

Sakura was in tag team action on Monday's Elevation and teamed with someone that wasn't under contract to AEW, so it was weird that they didn't continue that here and she teamed up with Deeb instead. Both women are basically stepping stones for the rest of the division at this point, but at least they win more than they lose on the Dark shows. This was serviceable and Deeb and Sakura actually had decent chemistry together.

Ricky Starks def. Nick Comoroto

Starks had issues with The Factory heading into All Out (during his feud with Powerhouse Hobbs), so this was a renewal of that rivalry (though not necessarily one I was clamoring to see). It was solid stuff and even Comoroto was impressive, but Starks is so beyond above wrestling guys from The Factory at this point. He's had all of one televised match since beating Powerhouse Hobbs on the Grand Slam edition of Rampage last month, which is inexcusable.

Overall Show

By usual Dark standards, this was an above-average show. The fact it was taped in front of a Dynamite-sized crowd was a plus and three of the last four matches were better than what we normally get on this show. Starks shined in the main event, Riho vs. Kyona exceeded expectations, and Lucha Brothers vs. Workhorsemen was a (brief) banger. Keeping the runtime around an hour long was also appreciated.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews