LogFAQs > #950856633

Because I wanted to try to find that Japanese women's tournament, I wound up watching an episode of AEW Dark... only to realize midway through it was in a different video. I can't complain too much, though, it was a reasonably good episode.

AEW Dark 2/16 notes

Moxley vs Jobber
Fast, but sloppy match against a job guy. Some of the job guy's stuff just looked terrible. On the plus side, it was a short match.

Bear Country vs Chaos Theory
Very impressed by Bear Country. Big, strong wrestlers, very old school feel. Got to see a few classic power moves, which is always nice.

The Chaos Theory guys look and act like goofs, but some of their tag team moves are amusing.
Was kinda surprised to see them beat Chaos Theory, since I thought Chaos was being pushed? It was the right play, though. Chaos Theory seem like a joke.

Butcher and the Blade (with Bunny) vs Sage Scott and... it doesn't matter
Kinda like Bunny's weird-ass laugh. Their team's horror vibe is kinda neat, with them coming out to the ring with masks that remind me of various home invasion movies (and, I suppose, Bioshock). It was a pretty quick match B&tB looked dominant. Other than the presentation, nothing really stood out (either good or bad).

Within the first 19 minutes, there were THREE matches. That's an improvement over any of the other wrestling programs I watched recently. (In the case of SD, the matches were reasonably good, but there was was more non-wrestling than wrestling. For AEW Dynamite, you had some fluff but then you also had the matches going long and often looking like shit. As for NXT, it wasn't a good sample episode, since the last episode before a major show for NXT is always shaky.) Were they amazing matches? Not really, but they were good enough. Even the Moxley match was kinda watchable (and this time the problem wasn't necessarily Moxley).

Renee Michelle vs Shanna
Shanna's ring entrance was whatever. Once again, this kinda feels like it'll have a predictable outcome, considering Shanna got an entrance whereas Renee Michelle was already in the ring.
Lot of arm drags and athleticism, which was kinda fun. Those arm drags looked sloppy. Shanna did a pretty good job of selling those hits from Renee. The camera work made a lot of it look better than it probably was. I'm not sure why they're this much better on the YT show than the broadcast one where I was constantly seeing things miss... although maybe Dynamite is live? I'll have to look into that later.
I wasn't overly impressed (especially given that botch at the end that even the refs called as a botch), but it was alright.

Eric James & DSK vs Alex Reynolds and John Silvers (Dork Order)
Again, one side gets a ring entrance, the other doesn't (and, like Renee, is mentioned as having their AEW debut). That's a pretty obvious job.

And the Dork Destroyer is probably one of the worst finishers I've seen in pro wrestling. It looked like the job guy had suplexed the two of them. Wtf? Why do these idiots think that's a good finisher? I watched the fucking thing three times and it STILL looked like they were taking the move instead of giving it.

I imagine any wrestling promoter with any amount of experience would tell them to never use that move again. Ugh, fucking AEW...

And fucking Dork Order, for that matter. What a goofy ass stable. Tazz and whoever were putting over John Silver, but the guy is tiny. And their end pose and that chant, wtf? Get these guys back to the indies. Send them to a developmental. Do something with them, but don't even put them on YT. The really awful thing is that I know these guys have been on broadcast because I saw them for a backstage skit during AEW Dynamite (and that was a complete throwaway).

The Inner Circle and the Briefcase commercial
I only mention this because Sammy can't act for shit and I swear this guy looks like Justin Bieber. Why are they pushing him? (Unless the group has two Justin Bieber lookalikes.)

Baron Black & John Skyler vs Jurassic Express
I like Jungle Express's entrance (although it needs the video package to make it work). It's kind of a cute concept. Jungle Boy looks like he'd be more at home in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or Jesus Christ Superstar, but the guy seems talented. And wtf is up with that name? That's some TNA shit right there. Luchasaurus is kinda sloppy, but he's huge and looks intimidating.

Of course, I'll mention that the match was shorter than the fucking ring entrance. It was a decent squash in that it showed off a bunch of what Jungle Express can do.

Vertvixen vs Tay Conti (with Anna Jay)
Tay Conti is cute, but otherwise neither wrestler stood out... which is understandable for one of them. Not a great match, but when you're filling 5 minutes, it doesn't really matter.

Commercial for Young Bucks: Killing the Business
Killing the Business is a little too on the nose, isn't it? >_> If not the business, they're certainly killing a billionaire's bank account.

Eddie Kingston vs... eh, who the fuck cares
For some reason the announcers were talking a lot about tripping when getting into the ring, so I'm wondering if the job guy did that or if referenced some previous event with Eddie Kingston. I was disappointed by Kingston. For some reason, I thought he was supposed to be good. He doesn't seem all that talented. The job guy was way worse, though, with his punches clearly not connecting. I tuned out midway through and stopped watching.

KC Navarro vs Ricky Starks (w/ Hook, repping Team Tazz)
Ricky Starks has a goofy vain gimmick going. That was the shits. They spend a ton of time on the entrance, then Starks delivers a spear for the win. He's much too small and thin to make that seem credible. The fucking recap was great.

Brandon Cutler vs Misterioso
Love Cutler's cool dragon ring attire and entrance... although the 1d20 in the intro looks goofy. Misterioso looks badass. Of course, the actual fight was lucha so... meh.

Ryzin vs Powerhouse Hobbs (w/Hook, repping Team Tazz)
Hobbs looks stupidly out of shape. He's paired against a guy with a 0-4 record. Another fast job.

Fuego Del Sol vs Nick Comoroto (part of Nightmare Factory?)
Comoroto looks like an actual wrestler. He reminds me a little of either Randy Savage or Jim Duggan. This is the kind of guy I'd rather see on Dynamite.

Overall 3.5/5
Despite being a YT show, AEW Dark was worlds better than AEW Dynamite. What gives? Why would you put the better stuff on YT? I don't fucking get that. I will say that most of the matches weren't exactly competitive, so it might that they're putting more of the strictly job matches on Dark.

And while the work wasn't the best (and a few matches barely count as matches), it's an hour that's pretty much just wrestling AND it fit in a lot of matches. I think they did 12 fights? That's kinda neat. I can see myself watching something like this on a regular basis, although I might get bored of the format. Even the matches where one guy kinda sucks aren't terrible because they're short.

I_Abibde posted...

Dare I challenge Zeus to try watching episodes of Main Event (available on Hulu)?

I find your challenge intriguing... but first I'm going to watch that AEW women's tournament.

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