wrestling / TV Reports

Lovell’s AEW Dark Review 6.22.21

June 22, 2021 | Posted by Blake Lovell
AEW Dark Image Credit: AEW/Twitter
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Lovell’s AEW Dark Review 6.22.21  

Hey everyone! It’s Tuesday. You know what that means.

As a reminder, the GoFundMe for Larry Csonka’s daughters is still active. Please contribute and share if you can.

Also, 411’s Steve Cook put together a great piece on Larry’s top seven columns. You should read it.

Let’s jump into this week’s episode of AEW Dark.

AEW Dark logo

– Alex Marvez with the Varsity Blonds. Brian Pillman Jr. sends a message to Miro and says he’s not afraid of him. He’s gonna fight for his friends, and he’s coming after Miro.

Rex Lawless vs. Lance Archer

Archer hits the ring and just destroys Lawless right off the bat. Jake Roberts is on commentary, and he loves it. This is officially a HOSS FIGHT, but Archer has the hoss advantage in my opinion. Archer hit the Blackout on Lawless for the easy win at around two minutes.

Blake’s Rating: SQUASH

Brian Pillman Jr. (15-6) vs. Bear Bronson (8-9)

Ricky Starks is now on commentary, and by the rule of the 411 comment section, that automatically adds 0.5 to the final show rating. Another installment of my favorite AEW Dark theme in this match, as tag team wrestlers square off in singles action. Starks: “It looked like Miro beat the piss out of Brian Pillman.” By the way, I continue to enjoy the Julia Hart pairing with the Blonds. She’s got star potential. Good back and forth from Pillman and Bronson, but Pillman hits the cross body for a rather quick victory at 3:23.

Blake’s Rating: **

Brian Cage (8-2) vs. Chandler Hopkins (0-3)

Taz trying to keep Starks cool on commentary is good storyline development. Early in the match, Cage hit a release German suplex and his strength is so ridiculous that it nearly sent Hopkins to Germany. Something that’s pretty underrated about Cage is his selling, as he does a great job putting over his opponent’s offense. Hopkins hit a flurry of offense early, and Taz is PISSED at Cage not finishing him off and wanting to do more moves instead. Hopkins continued to try to counter Cage’s offense, but that led to Cage hitting the Weapon X for the win at 3:59. After the match, Starks runs off as Cage goes in pursuit of him.

Blake’s Rating: **1/2

Diamante (22-14) vs. Ashley D’Amboise (0-4)

D’Amboise has impressed in her four AEW appearances thus far. Diamante does not care about my opinion though because she just went right at D’Amboise and didn’t hold back before locking on the submission for the victory at 1:04. Diamante didn’t stop there and added a little more offense after that match.

Blake’s Rating: SQUASH

Colt Cabana (13-4) vs. Kit Sackett

This is the first AEW singles match for Sackett, so let’s see if he starts off with a victory. He didn’t. Cabana went to the Superman early and got the easy win at 47 seconds. They don’t call it AEW Dark Order for nothing.

Blake’s Rating: SQUASH

Chuck Taylor (9-3) vs. Dan Barry

Another AEW singles debut here. However, Taz is more concerned with letting us know that if Dan Barry’s first name was Chuck, he’d be Chuck Barry. My response would be that if Chuck Taylor’s first name was Chuck, he’d be Chuck Taylor. Barry hit an Asai moonsault on Chuck early on, then went for another moonsault inside the ring that didn’t hit its mark. Chuck took control from there and hit the jumping piledriver for the win at 2:41.

Blake’s Rating: NR

Abadon (8-1) vs. Ashley Vox (1-2)

Justin Roberts announcing Abadon as “crawling to the ring” is always fun. What’s not fun is getting your finger nearly bitten off by Abadon, and that’s almost what happened to Vox. Abadon hit the leghook DDT for yet another quick victory at 1:28.

Blake’s Rating: SQUASH

Griff Garrison (14-7) vs. Marko Stunt (17-24)

To compare himself to Marko, Taz reminds us he was 120 pounds in the fourth grade and would whoop people’s asses. I believe it. Garrison plays the heel by taking Marko’s hat, and Marko decides to slap him in the face. I could see Garrison eventually playing a heel at some point in his career. It was competitive for a bit, but Garrison hammered Marko with the punch for the victory at 3:03.

Blake’s Rating: **

The Bunny (16-7) vs. Reka Tehaka (0-6)

The Bunny is the best. Just the best. Bunny with a stiff shot as soon as the bell rings, and I’m pretty sure it indeed rang Tehaka’s bell. At one point during the match, someone started singing, and I think it was Taz. Just like Bunny, Taz is the best. The Blade seems to agree with me by also stating that Bunny is the best. Bunny didn’t play around in this one and hit her finisher for the win at 2:16.

Blake’s Rating: SQUASH

Stu Grayson (13-2) vs. Serpentico (1-3)

Taz takes a shot at Evil Uno’s shorts, then takes it a step further by running down his entire wardrobe. Of course, the issue with this tag team wrestler singles match is we don’t get Luther using Serpentico as a weapon. We do get Luther screaming like a maniac though, and that always cracks up Excalibur and Taz. Some hard chops from both men, and Serpentico nearly got the pin by grabbing the trunks. However, Grayson regained control and hit Nightfall to earn the victory at 5:24.

Blake’s Rating: **1/2

For more of my thoughts on pro wrestling, subscribe to the 411 On Wrestling podcast and follow me on Twitter @wrestleblake. Thanks for reading!

6.0
The final score: review Average
The 411
This was far from the most noteworthy edition of AEW Dark, but at only around 50 minutes, it served its purpose. The main event between Stu Grayson and Serpentico was fun, and so were Taz's reactions during Brian Cage's match against Chandler Hopkins. Everything else focused on character and storyline development, which was fine. Once again, Excalibur and Taz were at the top of their game on commentary, and that's always quality entertainment.
legend

article topics :

AEW, AEW Dark, Blake Lovell