Elevation this week is from Grand Slam! It’s an odd episode, as it’s mostly promos and interviews, but we’ve got three matches. Mark Henry and Eddie Kingston join Tony Schiavone on commentary for this show.
Kayla Sparks vs Thunder Rosa: Thunder Rosa opens the pre-show with a fun match, and closes the win with a wonderful Fire Thunder Driver.
T.J. Crawford, Eric James, Kevin Tibbs & Dean Alexander vs Jon Silver, Alex Reynolds, Alan “5 Angels & 10: Whew, that is a lot of names. The younger parts of the Dark Order take on some jobbers, and the pop for the Dark Order is legitimately great. We get some fun spots included a stereo quadruple shoulder tackle from the Dark Order and John Silver pinballing around the floor to knock down every single member of the opposition. As if to strike a knife into my heart, Eddie Kingston acquired after the win if the other members of the broadcast team thought that Hangman was watching. How dare you, sir.
Match of the Night – CPA, VSK, & RSP vs Paul Wight: Paul Wight is fighting on his own show against three opponents who do not have enough vowels in their names. CPA, however, is just an… accountant who looks rightly terrified of Paul Wight? However, as the bell rings, the Gunn Club comes out. This is a fun match, Wight’s great at putting on a show as an absolutely overpowering face, and our hapless victims sell it amazingly. Even the Gunn Club applauds Wight’s win!
We then get a post-Grand Slam interview with Dr. Britt Baker, where she declares that she’s going to keep adding onto her legacy as a champ.
MJF’s Grand Slam interview includes him slamming the idea that this is his hometown. He’s from Long Island, not the “rat-infested” Queens. He wants a new challenge, and then, conflicting with the previous interview, insists that the only three letters that matter in wrestling are MJF. Can we get a DMD/MJF mic feud?
After the Dream Match, Bryan Danielson says he feels alive after that match, and the entire experience felt like magic. He wants the Championship next, as Omega won’t give him a rematch.
Then, we get the Men of the Year, who are there to gloat over their win over Jericho and Jake Hager. They want more, and honestly? I want that for them. Apart from the Darby feud, Page and Sky have been underutilized, but I do not want them with this Dan Lambert angle. Let’s get them in the tag team championship conversation.
The rest of the episode is behind the scenes interviews from Grand Slam, not proper promos, but are some fun segments.
Dark, meanwhile, continues from the All Elite Zone in Orlando.
We start off with Alex Marvex, interviewing Santana Garrett, a new signing. As Alex Marvez is interviewing, I am timing how long it lasts until someone interr- oh, there we go. Diamante interrupts thirty seconds in and challenges Santana to a match next week. The two brawl, and have to be separated.
Nikita Knight vs Thunder Rosa: Thunder Rosa opens up the festivities, securing a win with the Peruvian neck tie after a well-fought match.
Charlie Bravo & JDX vs Private Party: I’m not a huge fan of the military trappings from Carlie Bravo, but Private Party are one of my favorite tag teams. They get some fun spots in and pick up the win with the Gin and Juice.
Leila Grey vs Kiera Hogan: Kiera Hogan just recently signed with AEW, and she’s getting her Dark time in. Leila Grey starts off with the momentum, but Kiera’s able to rally and get the pin.
Brandon Gore vs Dark Order’s “10” w/ Dark Order and -1: The big man of the Dark Order gets some action in ahead of the big Dynamite show in Rochester. I do love Pres10’s finisher with the Ragdoll Full Nelson. Like Wardlow’s Casualty of War, it’s just very memorable.
Jake St. Patrick & Ryzin vs Cezar Benoni. & Adrian Jaoude: Adrian Jaoude, formerly a WWE performer under the name of Arturo Ruas, makes his debut with Cezar Bononi for an all-Brazilian tag team. Jaoude has a strong performance, and the new tag team get the win convincingly.
Arjun Singh vs Lance Archer: It’s funny to me that, for a man who drags his opponents to the ring, Lance Archer came out of the face tunnel. It took nearly three minutes of Archer beating Arjun Singh like a drum before both men were actually in the ring and the bell rang. Easy win for the Murderhawk Monster.
Match of the Night – Darius Lockhart vs Ricky Starks w/Hook: The FTW champion takes on indie standout Darius Lockhart, and this one’s a pretty good match! Lockhart’s able to get a few good moves in, and even gets a nearfall or two. This one’s a hard fought match, but Absolute Ricksy Starks is able to get the win.
Adrian Alanis & Liam Gray vs Evil Uno & Stu Grayson: Evil Uno, after accidentally unmasking Alan Angels last week, returns to action with Stu Grayson. Evil Uno steals one of his aopponent’s headbands, and Uno and Grayson get the win, with Colt Cabana watching from the stage.
Reka Teheka vs Julia Hart: Our favorite wrestling cheerleader takes on Reka Tahaka, and we get some fun J-U-L-I-A chants led by the Varsity Blonds enroute to Julia getting the win.
Jameson Ryan & Brick Aldridge vs Bear Country: There’s a lot of big beef here in this match. Taz insists that he has seen Bear Country searching for fish in the East River when AEW was up in New York which is certainly an image. Bear Country pick up the win here, though Bear Boulder seems to sustain a leg injury during the match.
Matt Sydal & Dante Martin vs Aaron Solow & QT Marshall w/Nick Comoroto: I’m enjoying the pairing of Sydal and Martin, that pairing of experience and youth. As Nyla Rose tweeted this week, when God made Dante Martin, he forgot to install gravity, and him and Sydal have a great stereo moonsault spot in this match. They pick up the win off an amazing Dante finisher.
Tangent of the Night: Taz went off for a moment about how big of a metal fan he is during the Bononi/Jaoude match. Then, while doing an ad read for AEW Elite General Manager, Excalibur started, said “There is no way I am reading these two paragraphs of copy,” and went on with the match.
Overall, a pretty solid week of matches, but not a lot of story stuff. Still very enjoyable!