‘AEW Dark: Elevation – Episode 99’ Review
Welcome back to another review of AEW Dark: Elevation, which features six matches on the card and runs just over 35 minutes – that’s what I like to see, short and sweet wrestling action! We’ve got Paul Wight and Matt Menard on commentary, with ROH’s Ian Riccaboni added to the mix this week… so let’s get into the review.
Match #1: Skye Blue def. Zoe Dubois
My Thoughts: Nice to see Skye Blue open a show and Zoe Dubois was an interesting opponent, someone who’s style is certainly unique. This wasn’t anything remarkable and certainly not up to the standard of Blue’s more recent matches. Still, a great start to this week’s Elevation.
My Score: 2 out of 5
Match #2: The Butcher and The Blade def. David McCallion and Richie Slade
My Thoughts: The Butcher and The Blade made absolute mince meat of McCallion and Slade, in a gloriously beautiful squash match that felt like it was needed to really build up the long-standing AEW tag team. A team that seem, much like Dark Order, pick up wins on Dark and Elevation but lose to “bigger” teams on the main shows. Which is a shame.
My Score: 1 out of 5
Match #3: La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush and Preston Vance) def. Papacito Negro and Papacito Blanco
My Thoughts: Another squash but another one that felt like it worked for LFI. We need more of Vance and Rush working together to give them more fluidity for them to work as a team going forward. Their gimmick of tearing masks off luchadores is probably going to bite them in the arse in future and I’m here for it!
My Score: 1 out of 5
Match #4: Emi Sakura def. Brooke Havok
My Thoughts: Nice to see Brooke Havok back on AEW programming after her fluke injury and what better way to return than being fed to Emi Sakura! I joke but Sakura is the one member of the AEW women’s roster who can help new and upcoming talent look good and that’s exactly what she did here.
My Score: 2.5 out of 5
Match #5: Ari Daivari and Tony Nese def. Big Fonz and Jordan Cruz
My Thoughts: Another men’s tag match and another squash match. And one that, honestly, wasn’t appealing or interesting. I have no idea what’s going on with Ari Daivari and his previous faction or why Nese was tagging with him here instead of his regular tag partner Josh Woods. Weird.
My Score: 1 out of 5
Match #6: Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds) def. Serpentico, Peter Avalon and Ryan Nemeth
My Thoughts: And we’re back to Dark Order closing AEW’s YouTube shows. I not complaining, at least Dark Order are still working on the regular. This was unfortunately just a typical AEW Trios match, nothing remarkable but perfectly serviceable. If anything, I will say that Peter Avalon definitely needs to get out of the shadow of Ryan Nemeth – a man whose work is seriously off-putting these days, which is a shame.
