Cazer’s AEW Dark Review 5.31.22

It’s Tuesday night and you know what that means! It’s time for another episode of AEW Dark. Following an exciting double or nothing PPV i’m sure we’ll get an interesting episode of Dark. We’ve got championship action when Mercedes Martinez defends the ROH women’s title, we’ll also see the Dark Order, The Butcher & Blade, Jamie Hayter and more! It look like we’ve got one of my favorite styles of AEW Dark ahead of us with a very short five match show. I don’t mind the longer episodes but boy a five match show sure is comfy.

ROH Womens Championship
Mercedes Martinez vs. Viva Van

Hard to imagine Viva picking up a win here with a 0-0 history in AEW. We’ve got Caprice Coleman on commentary for this one due to his ROH duties. Back and forth grappling early Van gets a little bit of offense in but it’s short lived as she taunts too long allowing Martinez to regain control and put this one away. Martinez wasted little time finishing this one off after Van started showing any signs of offense. She’s such a great addition to the roster and will be great in Ring of Honor, she picked up the submission victory with a modified surfboard stretch.
Rating: **1/2
Review: Nothing too special and too short to really give much thought to but Martinez is always great. Van did well in her loss and should be brought back down the road.

The Butcher & The Blade vs. Hunter Grey & Paul Titan

Caprice is sticking around for the night, I wouldn’t be mad if that was more consistent. Glad to see Butcher & Blade featured once again they’re a really underrated team. Grey and Titan are a unique team with a neat wildman type gimmick. I’m not sure that I like it or hate it but it’s intriguing. Butcher and Blade hit a combination GTS style move that was really cool. They pick up the victory with a combo powerbomb neck breaker finish.
Rating: **1/2
Review: Again not anything too special but the Butcher & Blade are such a good team, I hope they eventually get a longer run against some formidable opponents and can move away from the AHFO gimmick. The jobbers were cool but nothing too special.

Anthony Ogogo vs. Carlie Bravo

I feel like I know exactly how this one will go. Bravo actually getting the upper hand on Ogogo for a moment early but he’s easily able to escape and drop Bravo with ease. Bravo with a salute and running knee but Ogogo again quickly takes control and drops Bravo with multiple body slams. Ogogo hits a lifting uppercut and picks up the knockout victory after Aubrey counts to ten while Bravo is out.
Rating: **3/4
Review: This wasn’t much more than the other matches and may have even been shorter and had less to it, but I enjoy the way Ogogo wins here, the lifting forearm/uppercut finish is something I used to love in wrestling video games, he’s a bad guy so it’s not supposed to be cool but it’s a badass finish. I could do without the ten count win and just call it a knockout on impact but it’s fine either way. I do wonder what the ceiling for Ogogo is, feels like initially he was poised to be a star now it’s more like an upper midcard act at best.

Jamie Hayter vs. Danika Della Rouge

Hayter feels like a wrestler with so much untapped potential. She’s stood out ever since her very first AEW match and does well every time I see her. She made very quick work of Danika beating her with a ripcord lariat in very short order.
Rating: N/A
Review: This was super short, but it was cool. I really like Hayter and feel like she could be a big star but i’m not sure when they’ll decide to pull the trigger on that. Until then she’ll continue to work short squashes on Dark. I’d like to see a short feud with her and Marina Shafir.

Serpentico, Ryan Nemeth, & Pretty Peter Avalon vs. Evil Uno, John Silver, & 10

Quite the interesting pairing here with Serpentico, Nemeth and Peter. Taking on Silver, Uno and Ten. The Dark Order used to be really hot and felt like important main eventers for Dark, now they just feel like guys who main event dark a lot and rarely do anything else. Silver is awesome but Ten is like Ogogo in the sense that he felt like someone they had big ideas for early but now has become a big background character. Uno is a solid vet to help keep the group solidified but imagine if he left as well. They’ve spent a majority of the start of this match beating down Serpentico another AEW Dark resident wrestler. Uno gets caught off guard by Nemeth and this allows the heels to work him over for a short bit. Lots of comedy stuff here with Uno getting most of his classic comedy bits on before tagging in Ten to take care of business. It’s so awesome seeing tag teams bust out unique combos you’ve never seen before. Uno and ten hit a sweet combination stunner on the ropes that is hard to explain but was cool to see executed. The Dark Order picks up the victory after Silver tags in and drops Serpentico with the pendulum powerbomb. A move that is pretty cool and impactful but I always feel looks so dumb. Silver covers for the victory.
Rating: ***
Review: This was the best match of the night if you can enjoy the comedy stuff for what it is. It didn’t have a whole lot for stiff competition though. All six men involved are entertaining no doubt but they’re either irrelevant jobbers or irrelevant midcarders who aren’t doing anything. This feels like a main event we’ve seen dozens of times on Dark now and they could be better off to shake things up a bit if you ask me.

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

This was honestly one of the most 'can miss' episodes of Dark in a while. I thought with a championship match on tap we were gonna be treated to a solid show. Instead it was mostly squash matches with none going long at all. I was hoping we'd at least get a great Mercedes Martinez match but no such luck. It wasn't bad by any means but this is AEW Dark at it's worst I feel like. Not horrible, just short and completely irrelevant. There were no great matches, no storylines, just squash matches to pad numbers at a point that loses it's entertainment value most weeks offer something I feel people should try to check out, this week is as can miss as it gets.