WrestleRant
  • Home
  • Columnist Corner
    • WWE Reviews >
      • Raw Reviews
      • SmackDown Reviews
      • NXT Reviews
      • Other >
        • 205 Live Reviews
        • NXT UK Reviews
        • Main Event Reviews
        • Superstars Reviews
        • ECW Reviews
    • AEW Reviews >
      • Dynamite Reviews
      • Dark Reviews
      • AEW PPV Reviews
    • More >
      • IMPACT Reviews
      • ROH Reviews
      • NWA Reviews >
        • Shockwave Reviews
        • NWA PPV Reviews
      • LU Reviews
  • Week in Review
    • Year in Review
  • Audio
    • WrestleRant Radio
    • Interviews
    • Audio Archive
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • About
    • Contact Us

Columnist Corner

AEW Dark Review - September 8, 2020

9/8/2020

Comments

 
Picture
By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Will Hobbs def. Sean Legacy

I was wondering why Hobbs took part in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out on Saturday and I guess this answered my question. I don't know if he's been officially signed yet or not, but it sure seems like he has. He's an impressive athlete and he had a solid showing here, but I continue to question why AEW had Orange Cassidy beat him in his debut two months ago in roughly 10 seconds. I realize AEW likely had no intentions of signing him at that time, 

FTW Champion Brian Cage def. Tony Donati (Non-Title)

Donati has some catchy entrance music, although the guy himself is nothing special. This was all about Cage picking up a dominant victory. By the way, I'll be calling him the FTW Champion in my reviews because AEW has chosen to officially sanction the title and allow him to defend it, unlike IMPACT's Moose with the defunct TNA World Heavyweight Championship. This was short, sweet and exactly what it needed to be.

Angelico def. Griff Garrison

Angelico and Jack Evans are incredibly talented, but I feel like they haven't gotten their just due since the start of AEW. That said, it's been nice to see them get spotlighted for a change lately, even if it's only been on Dark. Garrison, on the other hand, has played his enhancement role well in recent months for AEW. There wasn't anything flashy about this bout, but it was decent for what it was, even though Garrison probably didn't need to get in as much offense as he did.

Anna "99" Jay def. Skyler Moore

Jay wasn't introduced as 99 here, but Brodie Lee has referred to her by that number before (and the commentators did, too), so I figured I'd include it with her name like I do the other members. It has yet to be explained why she was assigned that number or why she joined The Dark Order to begin with. Yes, she lost her debut match in AEW, but that's it. At any rate, this was a nice showcase for her. She clearly has potential, but time will tell as to how much being associated with the group will benefit her in the long run.

Eddie Kingston def. Lee Johnson

I'm all for Kingston moving into a managerial role for guys like The Lucha Brothers, but it's cool that he's continuing to compete as well. Johnson is one of the best enhancement wrestlers AEW has used during the pandemic, so it was no surprise that this was a well-wrestled affair. Johnson showed some babyface fire, but all it took was one backfist from Kingston to put him down for the count. That was great.

Sonny Kiss def. Serpentico

Serpentico clashed with Kiss' tag team partner Joey Janela on the All Out Buy-In, so this match made sense. Speaking of Janela, he and Kiss will be teaming up against Chris Jericho and Jake Hager this Wednesday on Dynamite. Thus, this served as a warm-up of sorts for Kiss. Both he and Serpentico wrestle somewhat similar styles, so this was fun while it lasted. Serpentico has won more matches than most of the enhancement guys in AEW, so it was more meaningful for Kiss to beat him as opposed to someone such as Tony Donat or Shawn Dean or whoever.

"Absolute" Ricky Starks def. Ben Carter

I'm a big fan of Starks, but it was odd that this was positioned as the main event of the show when the outcome was never in doubt. Despite that, this exceeded my expectations. Starks never ceases to capture my attention with his charisma while Carter had a standout performance in his own right. Interestingly enough, Darby Allin was nowhere to be seen, but maybe that's because he endured a pretty bad bump in the body bag at All Out. Team Taz continues to roll.

Overall Show

There were a few things I loved about this episode. It didn't feature anyone I don't care about (Abadon, Luther, etc) and, most importantly, it was kept under an hour. I'm still not enamored with the squash match format, but seven matches is way more bearable than a dozen. Most of them were kept brief as they should have been and I appreciated several fresh faces being spotlighted. This just may have been my favorite edition of Dark in forever, though I'm aware that's not saying much.
Comments

    Categories

    All
    #AskGSM
    Cruiserweight Classic
    Halftime Heat
    Hidden Gems
    Lists/Rankings
    Mae Young Classic
    Mixed Match Challenge
    News
    NJPW
    Opinion
    Previews
    Retro Reviews
    Reviews
    RJ's Two Cents
    Satire
    SummerSlam Recall
    The Deadly Draw
    Tribute To The Troops
    Worlds Collide
    WrestleMania Recall
    WWE Starrcade


    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

    RSS Feed

©2021 WrestleRant. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Columnist Corner
    • WWE Reviews >
      • Raw Reviews
      • SmackDown Reviews
      • NXT Reviews
      • Other >
        • 205 Live Reviews
        • NXT UK Reviews
        • Main Event Reviews
        • Superstars Reviews
        • ECW Reviews
    • AEW Reviews >
      • Dynamite Reviews
      • Dark Reviews
      • AEW PPV Reviews
    • More >
      • IMPACT Reviews
      • ROH Reviews
      • NWA Reviews >
        • Shockwave Reviews
        • NWA PPV Reviews
      • LU Reviews
  • Week in Review
    • Year in Review
  • Audio
    • WrestleRant Radio
    • Interviews
    • Audio Archive
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • About
    • Contact Us