AEW Dark Review - September 13, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Penelope Ford def. Alice Crowley

Ford returned to the ring after a long layoff due to injury a few weeks ago and has looked fine so far, even though her outing against Toni Storm last week on Dynamite wasn't the best. Kip Sabian accompanied her to the ring for that, but he wasn't at ringside for this one (though he was back in the crowd with the dumb box on his head). Ford was on offense throughout and won decisively as she should have.

Dante Martin and Matt Sydal def. The Wingmen (Ryan Nemeth and Cezar Bononi)

As I mentioned in my Elevation review from Monday, Dante and Sydal work really well as partners, so I'm down for them reuniting now that neither of them have anything going on. This was another nice sprint from them, even though I find the entire Wingmen faction to be a bunch of goofs. They held their own here while Martin and Sydal shined on offense. I assume they'll mostly be relegated to Dark, but the occasional outing on Dynamite or Rampage would be appreciated.

Emi Sakura and Diamante def. Skye Blue and Queen Aminata

Aminata has been impressive any time I've seen her in action on the Dark shows, so I'm all for her being brought back. As for Blue, she's always a fan favorite, especially in Chicago (which is where they were for this taping). They played their roles well here and had solid showings. The finish surprised me since Sakura and Diamante (who I really wish we'd see more of) are more established, but I'm not complaining.

Danhausen def. "Pretty" Peter Avalon

Damn, people really love Danhausen. I mean, how can you not? I can't say I'm surprised, but it's cool to see as someone who has been following him for a few years and has been enjoying his work. He's gotten his big break and has made the most of it. He doesn't need to wrestle often, but when he does, it can be booked exactly like this. Let Danhausen do Danhausen things and keep it short and sweet. It's the perfect formula.

Matt Hardy def. Angelico

Being The Elite has largely been a boring show for a while now, but Hardy furthering his feud with his former Hardy Family Office stablemates on there in recent weeks has been fun to follow and it's a bummer he won't be able to do that for now since the show is on hiatus for the foreseeable future. To his credit, he put up a brief YouTube video earlier today hyping the match, which was admirable. They had a quality contest and Hardy winning was the right result.

Overall Show

We were still in Chicago for Dark this week, meaning this must have been taped during All Out week. Nonetheless, we found out on this episode that Toni Storm will now team with Athena against Britt Baker and Serena Deeb on Wednesday's Dynamite after Baker attacked Hikaru Shida backstage. This was one of the shorter editions of Dark in recent memory and that's what I liked most about it, along with it featuring more star power than usual and being a relatively easy show to sit through.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews