AEW Dark Review - September 4, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Butcher and The Blade def. Faboo Andre and D3

Although they're good in the ring, I still can't get into The Butcher and The Blade, even with Eddie Kingston as their manager. Obviously, that helps, and I guess Kingston has history with them from the independent scene, but it doesn't make Butcher and Blade any more interesting to me. This was a perfectly fine squash where Butcher and Blade largely dominated.

Allie def. Red Velvet

Brandi Rhodes sat in on commentary for this, acting like a heel even though she's apparently a babyface in this Nightmare Family vs. Dark Order feud. As for Allie, I continue to be disappointed by her in-ring work in AEW. Most of her matches are subpar and the pairing with QT Marshall is a waste of time. This was a weak outing, but like I said in my review of Tuesday's episode of Dark, it's nice that she's finally wrestling some singles matches after only ever teaming with Brandi and managing Butcher and Blade.

Colt Cabana def. Zack Clayton

Cabana joining The Dark Order intrigued me at first, but it's been so long since we've gotten any real followup on it that I've lost interest. For example, is he okay with Dark Order decimating The Nightmare Family the way they did a few weeks ago? Where does he stand? The match wasn't anything special, but Cabana using Brodie Lee's finisher to beat Clayton was cool. I think we need to hear from him to really advance that story, though.

The Lucha Brothers def. Angel Perez and RYZIN

I don't understand how AEW has managed to make The Lucha Brothers feel less special since they came into the company last year. They've hardly fought for the AEW World Tag Team Championship and aren't much of a threat. Despite that, they remain exciting to watch in the ring and this was exactly what it needed to be. Kingston's post-match promo was a treat, too.

Ivelisse def. KiLynn King

Ivelisse and Diamante won The Deadly Draw two weeks ago, but there's been no word on what's next for the duo, especially since there's no tag titles in the women's division to fight for right now (nor should there be at the moment). I wouldn't be opposed to them linking up with Kingston just to give them some direction. It's smart to have them pick up wins in the meantime on Dark, like we saw here.

The Dark Order (John "3" Silver and Alex "4" Reynolds) def. Shawn Dean and Brandon Bullock

Silver and Reynolds are hilarious on Being The Elite, but I still don't myself invested in any of their matches, simply because they've been positioned as the fodder of Dark Order so far. Sure, they managed to score a victory here, but you almost always know they aren't going to win whenever they're wrestling people who are actually under contract. If AEW wants to establish them as credible, it probably shouldn't have taken them as long as it did to beat two no-namers here.

Darby Allin def. Luther

Luther is like Abadon to me where I find the gimmick goofy and his matches aren't interesting. Thankfully, he's only ever been a fixture on Dark and not Dynamite, and I'm glad he took on someone who could bring the best out of him in Allin. This was a short and sweet affair with Allin winning with relative ease. That's basically all I could have asked for from this.

The Natural Nightmares def. The Dark Order (Alan "5" Angels and Preston "10" Vance)

I'm not sure if Vance is going by that above name or not, but I'll probably call him that going forward because of how some of the other members of Dark Order are using their number in the middle of their names. At any rate, this was a serviceable main event and nothing more. It was supposed to serve as a preview of the big eight-man tag team match that Natural Nightmares will be involved in at All Out and it worked in that respect, but this wasn't main event worthy whatsoever.

Overall Show

This was a very Dark Order-heavy edition of Dark, so if you're not a fan of the group, you're probably going to hate this episode. I haven't been a fan of all the enhancement matches on the program in recent months, but this was a shorter show with less filler it seemed, so I appreciated that. Granted, none of the matches are worth seeking out, but the hour flew by and it gave some stars momentum-building victories ahead of their matches at All Out on Saturday.