‘AEW: Dark’ Review (Jan 10th 2023)
Another week, another episode of AEW: Dark which this week features seven matches… Including a Women’s ROH title match! Anyway, on with the review.
Match #1: Juice Robinson def. Travis Williams
My Thoughts: Juice Robinson makes another appearance for AEW and faces some decent competition in Travis Williams. This was a well-paced, competitive, start to Dark.
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #2: Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale def. Emi Sakura & Diamante
My Thoughts: The new team of Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale get another outing, this time against the heel team of Emi Sakura & Diamante, who have worked together before and delivered each and every time. And the same is the case here, with Soho and Nightgale really gelling – I’d definitely like to see them stay together as a team for a while longer even though I’d like to see Willow Nightingale make her way up the singles scene too.
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #3: Jake Hager def. Steve Migs
My Thoughts: I don’t get the Hager “hat” thing and that, once again, was what this match was all based around. A daft squash.
My Score: 1 out of 5
Match #4: Big Bill & Lee Moriarty def. The Vorros Twins
My Thoughts: Big Bill & Lee Moriarty are quite the team, even when participating in squash matches like this one. Unfortunately for the Vorros twins, all I can think about when they wrestle is those goddamn Island Boys…
My Score: 1.5 out of 5
Match #5: Anna Jay A.S. & Tay Melo def. Teal Piper & Kel
My Thoughts: Nice to see Roddy Piper’s daughter in action here, and Tay constantly calling her out was interesing too. Not the smoothest of matches but even I’ll admit this wasn’t a bad Tay Melo match!
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #6: Ethan Page, Matt Hardy & Isiah Kassidy def. Judas Icarus, Sebastian Wolfe & Caleb Teninty
My Thoughts: This match/team was made by Ethan Page, who’s really come into his own in this self-made feud with Matt Hardy (because apparently Page and Hardy have created and planned this entire storyline themselves). The second match for this team this week but this one furthered the Hardy/Page storyline really well.
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #7: ROH Women’s World Championship Match – Athena def. Marina Shafir
My Thoughts: They laid the groundwork for this on Elevation on Monday and swiftly followed it up with this FANTASTIC match. Good god, where has Shafir been hiding these skills? I’m guessing given that Athena wasn’t afraid to hit as hard as she took that made this match a proverbial banger! These two were brilliantly matched and I definitely want to see this feud continue in the future. It finally feels like BOTH women have the perfect opponents in each other.
