‘All Elite Wrestling: Dark’ Review (June 10th 2020)
Welcome to this week’s All Elite Wrestling: Dark review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and I’m watching this “I’m Not Your Negro” documentary. I like it, but Samuel L. Jackson’s overly-performed narration highlighted why writers and artists tend to be the wrong people to deliver any kind of important message. Hell, look at this bull-shit paragraph I just wrote. Never fully trust a writer unless it’s a confession of guilt (and even then…). Okay, the sermon’s over and Dark has Robert Anthony fighting Jon Moxley in the main event.
Match #1: SCU def. Fuego del Sol and Low Rider
My Opinion: 2.7 out of 5 – Not bad for a squash match.
Match #2: 5 (Alan Angels) def. Lee Johnson
My Opinion: 2.8 out of 5 – This went real well for a five minute fight. 5 and Lee used some smart reversals and snappy transitions that kept the train a’rollin’…not all night long, but for five minutes.
Match #3: Santana and Ortiz def. Brady Pierce and Musa
My Opinion: 2 out of 5 – Yet another squash match that didn’t offer as much as it should have, but had the right winners.
Match #4: The Butcher and The Blade def. Anthony Catena and Pineapple Pete (Suge D)
My Opinion: 2 out of 5 – Blah, blah, blah… Yet another squash match that didn’t offer as much as it should have, but had the right winners. Yup same again!
Match #5: QT Marshall def. Zack Clayton
My Opinion: 2.6 out of 5 – This was doing fine, but it stopped far too short of what could have been a pretty good one. QT is getting better with every match and Clayton has a knack for wrestling. It’s not the match of the year or anything like that, but it was a decent appetizer for a pairing that could be worth re-visiting later on.
Match #6: Christopher Daniels def. Sonny Kiss
My Opinion: 3.2 out of 5 – Now this was fun. Kiss is a real thrill to watch and Daniels is still one of the best, so this match-up just worked, even when they weren’t required to do all that much. The reversals made me happy, because they weren’t too fast to see and you could actually follow the logic of why they wanted to break out of a hold at what time. Kiss showed a lot of poise here that a lot of folks might not attribute to him, since he’s so flamboyant. Can you book this match on Dynamite and let it go fifteen minutes?
Match #7: Jurassic Express def. Brandon Cutler and Peter Avalon
My Opinion: 3.2 out of 5 – Going about ten minutes or so, this was the equivalent of watching Sid Caesar and Howard Morris hug the shit out of each other on “This Is Your Story”. The dinosaur boys whooped the book boys something fierce and Delta Airlined the hell out of their faces until they got a three count, kinda like the FOX Tuesday night line-up.
Match #8: (Main Event) Jon Moxley def. Robert Anthony
My Opinion: 3.4 out of 5 – Going about or around thirteen minutes, this match was an excellent taste of what these guys can do together. They never went too fast to comprehend, but also didn’t go too slow to be called lazy. Moxley made Anthony feel like he could be a legitimate challenger to the World Title a few times over and that kind of thing is what should be happening every time the champion wrestles.
Final Verdict: 3.4/5
I had more fun with this than much of what I see on Dynamite. AEW is at its best when it commits to showing new wrestlers for many minutes of solid action and that’s what we have this week.
