It’s Monday, and you know what that means! We’re recapping your past week in the world of Elevation and Dark!
We start off with Wednesday’s Elevation taping in Rochester, with our new usual trio of Tony Schiavone, Eddie Kingston, and Paul Wight:
Skye Blue vs Emi Sakura w/ Lulu Pencil: Eddie Kingston marks out for Emi Sakura’s assistant, Lulu Pencil, and it’s honestly great. Lulu even gets a little outside stomping action during the match before tossing Skye Blue back into the ring. Emi Sakura picks up the win, though Skye Blue ends up getting a few near falls.
Shane Stetson, Justin Corina & The 1ManThrillRide vs Daniel Gracia & 2point0: Daniel Garcia coming out to the ring with a towel makes him look twenty years older than he is. Also, the 1ManThrillRide is wearing a pink bow tie, trunks, and boots. It’s a choice. In a rather dominant performance, Daniel Garcia gets the win for the team by submission.
Match of the Night: Marko Stunt & Fuego Del Sol vs Wardlow & Shawn Spears w/ Tully Blanchard: It’s not often you get a tag team with a combined listed weight of less than 300 pounds. Marko and Fuego is a fun team, and Marko trying to stand up in front of Wardlow is hilarious. The two of them do a good cat and mouse of speed and strength. It’s a fun match, showing how styles can make great fights, but the blog boys take the loss as the Pinnacle dominates.
Louis Bruno vs Lance Archer w/ Jake “The Snake” Roberts: You know when we tell someone to pick on their own size? Well, Louis Bruno’s even bigger than Lance Archer. Bruno, however, goes after Jake Roberts! This does not go well for him, as both Jake the Snake and the Murderhawk Monster get hits in. Lance hits the Blackout and pockets the win.
Davienne vs Abadon: Happy Halloween! Eddie is about as creeped out as I am by Abadon. Her new look after the Casino Battle Royale with the red mohawk is real cool, and – oh hey before I even finished this sentence Abadon won.
Gunn Club Promo: The Gunn Club talk about how they’ve been overlooked, both for their records and their devotion to AEW. They want recognition, and they’re not going to lose. Okay. Ugh, wake me when the Trios Division starts.
Obariyon & Kodama vs Santana & Ortiz: Mark Henry joins the commentary both for this match as we have an all-face paint match! Kodama and Obariyon both have a neon yellow look that looks like something out of the 90s. It’s a quick match, and Santana and Ortiz pick up the win.
B3CCA vs Kris Statlander w/ Chuck Taylor & Wheeler Yuta: Usually Kris Statlander has the more colorful outfit on any given match but B3CCA has an outfit that looks like it’s from the Lisa Frank pallette. B3CCA spent the first few minutes of the match trying to avoid it, but she eventually gets booped, and gets pinned after a Big Bang Theory. There’s also the obligatory Best Friends Hug, which always warms my night.
The Acclaimed vs Colin Delaney & Cheech: In Max Caster’s intro rap, Colin Delaney gets compared to an extra for Slim Shady and Cheech’s head gets compared to a penis. The two local talents rush the Acclaimed as they enter the ring, but the Acclaimed rally. The Acclaimed get some good tag offense in, and with a Mic Drop, go to the pay window.
Zach Nystrom & Elijah Dean vs FTR w/ Tully Blanchard: FTR has a great new disco-y theme that a friend of mine pointed out is a tribute to the tag team Midnight Express. The match opens with FTR pulling out the Big Rig, and that might be the shortest match I’ve ever watched. They don’t even take their jackets off.
Sonny Kiss vs KM: KM starts off the match with some shows of force here, and lands some nasty blows on Sonny’s back, which was recently targeted by Joey Janela and Kayla Rossi. But Sonny is able to rally and is even to lift the giant and slam him (WHILE DOING THE SPLITS!) for the win. After the match, Kayla Rossi comes out and distracts while Joey Janela sneaks in behind with the chair, but Sonny catches on and she gives Janela some well-deserved revenge!
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And now, onto Dark! Welcome back to the All Elite Zone in Orlando. Today we don’t even get the Dark intro on this pre-taped show, and we’re going straight into an 8-man tag match!
Baron Black, Austin Green, Aaron Frye & Dean Alexander vs The Pinnacle (FTR, Wardlow & Shawn Spears): The Pinnacle has gotten so much more fun once they’ve been freed from their Inner Circle feud. Each member of the group gets some time to showcase, and this is a good back and forth match. Longtime Dark competitor Baron Black even got a two-count on Wardlow, but the Pinnacle wins off a combo finished from all four members.
Valentina Rossi vs Abadon: Our favorite horror movie monster returns to the ring against our aggressively Italian jobber. During the match, Taz talked about the funny mental vision of Abadon visiting Universal Studios or hair salon enroute for the Living Dead Girl to get the pin.
Michael Martinez & Vary Morales vs The Acclaimed: Ahead of their tag team championship match against the Lucha Bros, the Acclaimed get a win despite Max Caster getting himself into a spot of trouble with some missed moves.
Kal Herro vs. Sonny Kiss: Sonny Kiss goes up against the Fanny Pack Kid, and honestly, who doesn’t love a guy who wears tassles? May Kal Hero should tag with Nick Comoroto. Sonny’s all business, though, and she picks up the win off that new splits finisher.
Zada Zhang vs Kris Statlander: Stat takes on Zada Zhang and gets an awesome finish in this one with a cool spider crab submission hold!
Madi Wrenkowski vs Skye Blue: Skye Blue has been getting more play recently, and she’s the one getting the full intro now on Dark against Miss Reality. Wrenkowski starts off on the offensive, but Skye gets the win off an impressive Fisher’s suplex.
Anthony Henry vs Eddie Kingston: Anthony Henry makes his AEW debut on ark here against the Mad King, and he makes an impressive showing here. He’s able to dominate early in the match, but Henry plays with his food a little too much. Kingston is able to rally and get a win over Henry. This was a fun match, and I hope they bring back Henry for more.
Hunter Knott, Rosario Grillo & Cameron Stewart vs Gunn Club: The Gunn Club returns, and Taz compares their new intro music to music he’d hear at the background of a dispensary. I require approximately five times as much context as Taz provides. We also get Taz singing American Pie, and the Gunn Club get another win.
Santana Garrett vs Diamante: Building off last week’s interrupted interview, Santana Garrett goes off against Diamante. It’s telling that Garrett’s already in the ring when Diamante comes in. This rivalry that is carried over from the independent circuit leads to a fun match, and Diamante grabs the win in a hard fought context.
Varsity Blondes w/Julia Hart vs The Wingmen (Pretty Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth): According to Taz and Excalibur, the Wingmen’s music is played live by a hidden band. I want to believe. Avalon and Nemeth jump the Varsity Blondes at the bell, and Cezar Bononi and JD Drake assist with some outside interference through the match. Depsite the difficulty, the Blondes win in style with an Air Pillman drop.
Erik Lockhart vs Daniel Garcia w/ 2point0: Daniel Garcia comes in with his dads ahead of his match with CM Punk to take on Erik Lockhart. This week, Garcia fights on Rampage (pre-taped on Wednesday) but at practically the same time is fighting Minoru Suzuki on an indy promotion. He had four matches in four days. Indie wrestlers are just built different.
Serpentico w/ Luther vs Marko Stunt: Serpentico in rare singles action! Even outside of tag team action, Serpentico can’t be saved from Luther tossing him around. However, Luther does get a cheap shot in on Marko and Serpentico rolls him up! It…may be Serpentico’s first singles win on Dark, ever?! I’m shocked, stunned. I love it.
Nick Comoroto (w/ The Factory) vs Orange Cassidy (w/ Best Friends): The Factory’s Giant takes on recent Apuestas winner Orange Cassidy. Orange Cassidy does some good work to fight against Comoroto’s size, and a tope suicida leads to a fight between the Factory and the Best Friends ring side. In the confusion, QT Marshall gets into the ring to try to interfere and…Kris Statlander tosses her knee brace to QT and Orange grabs Aubrey Edwards’ attention. After the commotion, Cassidy chains an Orange Punch into a Beach Break and gets the pin.
Tangent of the night: During the Gunn Club match, Taz described the “stretch Escalade” and his driver Jeeves, that he drives around Long Island with.
Overall, it’s a relatively breezy week of Dark and Elevation with some good matches scattered around and some progress on the Sonny storyline. We’re all done here, until next time where we get more of your favorite after dark action.