AEW Dark Review - September 27, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Fuego Del Sol def. Jay Malachi

I honestly can't remember the last time Fuego was in action on one of the Dark shows. He was feuding with The Factory for a brief stretch, but was there ever a proper payoff to that? Truthfully, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other, but any momentum he had from starting to adapt more of an edge is completely gone. This was an energetic sprint, if nothing else.

Leila Grey def. Tiara James

I'm confused. Didn't Jade Cargill boot Grey from The Baddies a few weeks ago? Was there an explanation as to why she was allowed back then? She definitely has a presence about her, but she hasn't been overly impressive in the ring up to this point, at least whenever she's appeared on Dynamite or Rampage. This was one of her better showings, but I hope Red Velvet isn't out for much longer and take her place back in the group.

Jeeves Kay def. Gus De La Vega

Kay is, of course, VSK. He currently competes in the NWA and occasionally IMPACT, but he's also wrestled for AEW on and off over the last few years. He's doing a butler gimmick now that he's a part of The Trustbusters and I have no idea why. The Trustbusters have been a bit of a dud so far and his addition doesn't change my opinion on them at all. There isn't much to comment on since this was so short.

Jora Johl def. Blake Li

No offense to Johl, but it's astonishing that he's still being featured on these shows. That isn't to say he's bad or anything (he's actually quite decent in the ring), but in storyline, he was signed to a contract by Matt Hardy and joined his faction. Hardy was booted from his own group many months ago and I can't recall a single interaction Johl has had with the new leader Andrade El Idolo. He's a developmental prospect for AEW, but these crowds couldn't care less about him. This was solid stuff, for whatever that's worth.

Anna Jay A.S. def. Kelly Madan

Anna Jay is officially being referred to as Anna Jay A.S. in the graphics and in her ring announcements, which means I have to start calling her that in my reviews. Ugh. I can't stress how much of a step backward this whole thing is for Jay and how the new gimmick she's been doing doesn't fit her at all. She's regressed as a character but remains adequate as a wrestler. This solely existed to give Jay a win and nothing more.

Ryan Nemeth def. Arjun Singh

Do we really need to be giving Nemeth his own singles squashes (unless he's the one being squashed)? The answer is no, we don't. He's not awful, but he is the definition of generic and bland in pretty much every respect. A win over Nemeth will never mean anything, so giving him any sort of a victory is worthless and a waste of time. They could've trimmed a few minutes off the show by cutting this crap.

Leon Ruffin def. BSHP King

It's still amazing to think that Ruffin once held the NXT North American Championship. Granted, it wasn't for very long, but that whole period in late 2020 was bizarre, to say the least. Nonetheless, he can be fun to watch wrestle, especially when he's up against the bigger guys. King is one of those big guys, but you had to know Ruffin was winning because King has never been focused on. I assume this was designed to give Ruffin a victory so it won't be completely pointless the next time he gets beaten.

Angelico def. Caleb Konley

Konley, formerly known as Kaleb with a K, left IMPACT a few months ago. I'm not sure if it was his choice or if his contract expired, but he hasn't signed anywhere since. That's a shame because he's a talented dude, but it was nice to see him resurface here. Speaking of talented athletes, Angelico is super skilled, but it's impossible to care about him at this point with where he's been slotted on the totem pole. Sure, he won here in what was a well-wrestled affair, but how much does it really mean?

The Renegade Twins def. Mila Moore and Mylo

I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I haven't seen anything from The Renegade Twins over the last year that has stood out as special to me. They stole The Bella Twins' gimmick (despite it being pretty obvious they're not identical) and are fairly subpar in the ring. That said, you didn't get a chance to see that here because this was over so quickly. Did I want a 20-minute mat classic from these two teams? No, this would have been better off the show entirely.

Nick Comoroto def. Shaheem Ali

Comoroto has been doing this new gimmick recently where he's been acting like a poor man's Tony D'Angelo. I assume it's part of the repackaging for The Factory, but the problem is that I still care as little about the group as I did before. They're trying to give Comoroto more of a personality, but again, my perception of him hasn't changed at all. He dominated Ali (who previously teamed with LSG in Ring of Honor I believe) and that was about it.

Dante Martin def. Anthony Henry

This stemmed from Martin's recent win over Henry's tag partner JD Drake. It's sad that Martin went from being regularly spotlighted on Dynamite to doing Dark feuds, but I suppose it's better than nothing. Not to mention, Henry is a hell of a competitor and they worked as well together as I figured they would. I also appreciated that this wasn't a total spot-fest and that there were more strikes and actual wrestling. This was an enjoyable main event that justifiably received more time than anything else on the show. Matt Sydal making the save for Martin afterward against The Workhorsemen was predictable, setting up a tag match for next week's show.

Overall Show

The show's length being almost exactly one hour was great, but shoehorning 11 matches in that timeframe was ridiculous, especially since so many of them were short and meaningless. It would make more sense to do less of them, give each one slightly more time, and have them feature slightly biggest names than what we got on this show. Elevation follows the perfect formula, but if they don't want to do the same thing on back-to-back nights, then one of them should become ROH TV. This was your average edition of Dark with only the main event standing out.

SEE MORE: Dark Reviews