Tag: AEW Dark Elevation

This week’s AEW Dark: Elevation was filmed prior to last Wednesday’s Dynamite in Los Angeles with Paul Wight & Matt Menard on the call.

There was a lot of comedy on this show with one really fun match and some that could have been better with more time.

An Martin Luther King Jr. graphic with a quote of his opened up the show.

Nyla Rose, Marina Shafir & Emi Sakura (w/ Vickie Guerrero) def. Johnnie Robbie, Vipress & Zyra

If you’ve been following along, Rose and Shafir have had their issues recently with Guerrero also not being happy. Why? Good question. Sakura, as always, is always up for a random tag or trios match on Elevation. 

This didn’t last long as Rose hit a Beast Bomb on Zyra followed by Sakura getting the pin by just sitting down on her. Sakura’s facials indicated she seemed to like Rose as a partner while Shafir and Guerrero just glared as more arguing ensued walking to the back.

Daniel Garcia defeated Kevin Blackwood

For fans of the Northeast U.S. indie scene, Garcia and Blackwood are both from Buffalo and were in the well-publicized 2019 car crash that also included fellow Buffalo Brothers Puf and Kevin Bennett.

Blackwood and Garcia took the worst of it, but recovered over time and are now back to good. The two were paired up in Maine’s Limitless Wrestling for Garcia’s title run and Blackwood has made a name for himself on the indies since moving to the West Coast.

While evenly matched in the first few minutes, Garcia took over, knocking Blackwood to the outside and laying the lumber on the inside with chops and impactful hands and feet. Blackwood rallied, hitting a nice head and arm suplex followed by a double stomp for a near fall. Garcia eventually got the victory after a DDT that looked as if Garcia drove his opponent’s head into his knee on the way down.

Given more time, these could have had a banger and perhaps might on the indies again. Garcia moves on to face Action Andretti on Friday’s Rampage.

– Hardy Party (Matt Hardy & Isiah Kassidy) were backstage with Lexi Nair and prepping for their eight-man tag match tonight. Kassidy was wondering who the fourth man was when Hardy said Ethan Page was trying to get him to be more enthusiastic. Page and the fourth man — Brandon Cutler — entered with a goal: putting smiles on faces out there. Page called out Kassidy for being so pouty and both Page and Hardy questioned if Kassidy was deadass.

Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver & Alex Reynolds) defeated Ari Daivari, Zack Clayton & Nick Ruiz

I’m confused why Daivari isn’t teaming with Sonny Kiss and Jeeves Kay who are actually in the Trustbusters team. And why is Parker Boudreaux not with the group anymore? Why do I care about these things?

This was pretty competitive. Of note, Clayton does have some impressive size and plays a good heel, but there’s no room or real opportunity for him on the main roster. 

Silver got the hot tag and was in NBA Jam “on fire” mode on Cruz until Clayton and Daivari killed the vibe. Uno and Reynolds evened the odds and after clearing out the ring, the trio hit their swinging turnstile deal on Ruiz for the pin and win. Remember when it felt like Silver was going to break out and really be a pushed entity? Me too.

– Don Callis interrupted a Konosuke Takeshita promo with Nair. He tried to instruct Takeshita on what he’s doing wrong, that he needs help and needs to start winning. He then left him with his card and said to call him. He specifically mentioned Callis and Kenny Omega see a lot in him.

Rush & Preston Vance (w/ Jose The Assistant) defeated Misterioso & Diego Valens

This was a squash. Vance no-sold everything Misterioso threw at him and Rush then pinned him after hitting the Bull’s Horns. They then attacked Valens and whipped him with the infamous green cable Rush uses to choke everyone. They also ripped Misterioso’s mask off. I have a hard time caring about any of this LFI stuff.

Hardy Party, Ethan Page & Brandon Cutler defeated Serpentico, Luther, Ryan Nemeth & Peter Avalon

Page came out and asked the fans if they wanted to party hearty, ahem, Hardy. He said he was bringing in a fourth man who would bring the energy in local favorite Cutler. Cutler then danced to the Hardy music, Page danced to the music, and both Hardy and Page continued to urge Kassidy to cheer up.

Avalon looks a lot different now with his short haircut. He and Cutler picked up on their long-standing rivalry right away with Cutler getting the best of him. The heels eventually got Cutler in trouble and Page did his faux babyface best to get the fans behind his team. 

Kassidy got the hot tag and was rolling, hitting a big jump to the outside, launching off Hardy’s back. He hit a swanton on Serpentico, but Page pulled him off to get the pin himself. Hardy, Cutler and Page celebrated and Kassidy then got in Page’s face before being separated by Hardy.

Brian Cage (w/ Prince Nana) defeated Willie Mack

Mack got an entrance for his AEW debut, coming out to the Dark: Elevation theme music. Womp womp. The hometown hero is an alum of both Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground in addition to AAA. He surprised Cage early with a jumping kick coming off the ropes, but Cage quickly hit a side slam soon after to regain the advantage.

Cage gave Mack a lot here including a t-bone suplex and a “flying butt to the face” in the corner as Menard called it. Cage hit a superplex as Mack was ensnared in the corner but could only get two off off a front facebuster.

Mack hit a fallaway slam and then a moonsault off a kip-up out of nowhere that got two. The two had a great exchange of kicks until Cage hit him with an inside out lariat to take both men out, allowing the crowd to rally behind the match.

After a stunner, Mack missed a frog splash and Cage hit a running twisting neck breaker to get the pin to end a really fun match that the crowd loved. Make Dark: Elevation three or four matches like this every week, please. That’s all we need. Go ahead and check this out.

ROH Women’s Champion Athena defeated Zeda Zhang in a title eliminator match

The thing with these title eliminator matches is that they lose their effect when it’s against enhancement talent on the Dark shows. Now that I think of it, I can’t remember the last title eliminator resulted in a title match following it. Maybe something in 2021? Help me out.

Athena won this quickly with a crossface with fishhooks. Just call these non-title matches. Afterward, she did her usual post-match thing and attacked Zhang, not once but twice. Upon the second attempt, the returning Yuka Sakazaki ran out to make the safe and take out Athena with some forearms, later indicating she wants a title shot.

Neither Wight or Menard had any idea who she was and talked around it. Isn’t Tony Khan on headset?

– Backstage with Nair, Nana was very happy for what he has lined up in 2023. Dark Order then walked up and wanted Nana to join the group because he’s handsome and loves purple. Nana had zero interest and Reynolds then said he got an email from Nana about donating money to an orphanage. Nana then quickly got away as the Dark Order cracked Nair up with asking if they stink.

I assume these leads to an ROH Six-Man Tag Team match at some point as Dark Order is an afterthought with the main AEW scene.

Top Flight defeated Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta) and The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny) in a three-way

This was surprisingly short, ending in roughly six minutes, and had a strange finish.

Every team did what they do best with B&B laying in the heavy shots, Top Flight unleashing the flash offense, and the BCC being a hybrid of both styles

Castagnoli, the ROH Champion, got the hot tag and focused on Blade, hitting running forearms corner to corner over and over again. The Bunny got involved which led to Butcher laying out Castagnoli. That didn’t last long as Castagnoli got the literal giant swing on Butcher which the crowd loved. Before he could quit, Blade broke it up

At this point, I was wondering why Top Flight were even in the match. The Martin brothers then returned and got some offense in, getting the win after Dante Martin took out everyone on the outside. He then got back in and hit the Nosedive on Blade for the win out of nowhere.

This felt like they got three minutes or so cut and had to step on the gas late. It was fine, but odd.

This 90-minute edition of AEW Dark: Elevation was taped before and after Dynamite last Wednesday at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. Paul Wight and Matt Menard were on the call.

Brian Cage (w/ Prince Nana) defeated Schaff

This was a perfect match to start the show: hard-hitting, unpredictable and featuring a hometown star in Schaff. They tested each other’s power with shoulder tackles but this match was more about agility. Cage hit an inverted DDT and started taunting Schaff and the crowd. Schaff powered out of a rear chinlock with help from the crowd, but Cage countered with a knee. 

Schaff got the heat back and connected on a senton for a near fall. He went for a power bomb, but Cage hit a knee and fireman’s carry slam for another near fall. He followed with another exploder for a near fall that even got me. They went back and forth a little more, leading to Cage hitting the drill claw to finally close out a really good match.

– Ethan Page was in the back with Lexy Nair hyping up Hardy Party’s match tonight. Matt Hardy interrupted and let Page know that he had been added. Page was upset, but Hardy presented him with green bedazzled trunks as a “late Boxing Day present.” Page was ecstatic and accepted the match. Isiah Kassidy had to ask Hardy if he was deadass and he, in fact, was deadass.

The Kingdom (w/ Maria Kanellis) defeated The Bollywood Boyz

Each team got its own entrance and during The Kingdom’s, Wight and Menard were quick to point out how hot Maria was. The Boyz were obviously over with the Seattle crowd, being from British Columbia, Canada. They started on the offensive, but an elbow to the back of the head of Gurv Sihra turned the match around. 

A chopping match ensued but nothing changed until Gurv Sihra got the hot tag. He hit an elbow drop onto Mike Bennett but Matt Taven broke up the pin. They double-teamed Gurv Sihra until they hit an assisted running knee for the win.

It was just their second AEW tag team match (and win) and third match overall in AEW/ROH since debuting in October.

– ROH Champion Claudio Castagnoli was with Lexy Nair putting over Josh Woods ahead of their match later tonight. Nair mentioned how Woods is a former ROH Pure Champion. Castagnoli called himself the final boss and that he was the bar. Get it? 

House Of Black (w/ Julia Hart) defeated Ari Daivari & The Wingmen (Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth)

This went exactly as you thought it would, but it was the debut of Avalon’s new haircut, so it wasn’t all bad for them. Malakai Black dominated the three of the House’s opponents one by one. Buddy Matthews joined in on the fun, but was hit by a big right hand from Nemeth. He did not take too kindly to that. 

Daivari came up behind Matthews and hit him with neckbreaker on the apron to turn the match around for a little bit, but Brody King made his way in and destroyed Nemeth and Daivari. The HOB focused on Daivari and hit a cool cannonball/kicks combo to win the match.

Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Vinny Pacifico

Hobbs made his way out with the Book of Hobbs in his hands. He seemed offended by the competition tonight, but Pacifico almost got back into this a couple of times. In the end, this was mostly dominated by Hobbs and ended with a spinebuster. 

Marina Shafir & Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero) defeated Amira & Danika Della Rouge

They are still planting seeds of dissension between Shafir and Rose and Guerrero stayed on the stage instead of going down to the ring. Rose ran over Amira, acted as her teammate, and tagged herself in which was really funny. Shafir made her way in and dared Della Rouge to fight her which went exactly as expected. Rose chokeslammed her on to a downed Amira to set up the double-team spike DDT to get the win. Guerrero walked off the stage to the back right after the pin.

– The Butcher and The Blade were backstage talking about how 2023 was gonna be different for them and that they smoke a lot of weed. That was about it.

ROH Champion Claudio Castagnoli (w/ Wheeler Yuta) defeated Josh Woods (w/Mark Sterling) to retain the title

“Claudio” chants and pure mat wrestling started this match, prompting Menard to mention the only reason he can’t wrestle like that is that he doesn’t like cauliflower ears. Castagnoli went for an early swing, but Sterling interrupted on the apron. Woods was aggressive getting back into it with kicks and an ankle lock and Castagnoli sold the effects the rest of the match. 

Another ankle lock stopped Castagnoli’s momentum that he briefly got from some uppercuts. The challenger then turned the lock into a bridging German suplex for a near fall. Castagnoli was right back up, though, putting Woods in the giant swing until his knee gave out. One great thing about this match was Woods messing with the champion’s knee in any way he could, even in little things like pulling him around and trying to pin him.

Woods went for another German suplex, but Castagnoli countered with a knee and a super loud uppercut that got him the pin. This match was great and Woods looked good.

The Firm (Ethan Page, Isiah Kassidy & Matt Hardy) defeated Cody Chhun, Guillermo Rosas & Sonico

Page came out and stopped the music like he always does, but he said since he and Hardy are on good terms now, he restarted the song and started doing Jeff Hardy’s old moves and gyrations. This was really funny, but Kassidy was quite upset. Page kept the mic on him during the match and was yelling at both Hardy and Kassidy throughout. 

Hardy Party was dominant in the early going. Kassidy went to tag in Page, but he told everyone how well Kassidy was doing and didn’t tag in. When Hardy hit the Side Effect, Page finally tagged in, but it was to the detriment of The Firm. It briefly turned the match around for the DEFY regulars on the other side of the ring. 

The Firm quickly turned it back around and set up a Twist of Fate for Page which he hit for the win. Kassidy was upset again, but this whole angle is still great. It’s a perfect way to have a comedy bit without losing Page’s credibility.

ROH Women’s Champion Athena defeated Viva Van in a non-title match

Van is a very popular indie star on the West Coast, but she had no chance here against the champion. All of Athena’s matches are about the same, but also different at the same time. She set up Van on the outside against the ring steps and hit a double knee right into her face. She then rolled her back into the ring and locked in the crossface for the win. 

Athena attacked Van after the match, but Marina Shafir made her way out. Athena continued her attack without Shafir stopping her. They then had a staredown that resulted in Shafir issuing a challenge for the title which was accepted.

Eddie Kingston & Ortiz defeated Eddie Pearl & Ricky Gibson

If you thought other crowds were loud for Kingston, you need to hear this one. Angelico joined the commentary team and the three had great banter and were also great at calling a match. Angelico reminds me a lot of Nigel McGuinness — a guy that is experienced in the ring and also good at the desk.

Pearl and Gibson had to resort to dirty double teams, but even that didn’t work well. Gibson was able to turn it around with a backbreaker. Pearl then came in the ring and hit his own backbreaker, followed by him mooned the hard cam. Yes, he pulled down his pants with his butt towards the camera. Thankfully, he had another pair on underneath. The babyfaces fought back after a Kingston hot tag and he soon ended things with a DDT onto Pearl for the win.

Bandido defeated Christopher Daniels

A friend of mine in the building told me about how great this match was last week and of course with these two, it had all the makings of it. 

This was smooth from start to finish as they started going back and forth in a great sequence. Bandido had the heat first, mostly working out of the corners with chops and strikes. Daniels went heel, raking the eyes and using the ropes. Bandido hit a twisting crossbody and followed it up with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for a near fall. He went to the top again and paid homage to Eddie Guerrero with a frog splash for another near fall.

Daniels later rolled up Bandido but used the ropes for leverage in doing so. The referee caught him, but I really didn’t like how the ref simply stopped the pin with no reaction, no emotion, no anything. Daniels hit the Angel’s Wings for a two count, but Bandido kicked out and hit a gorilla press slam and an inverted GTS for the win.

Best Friends (w/ Danhausen) defeated Chaos Project (Luther & Serpentico) (w/ Angelico)

It was main event time after nearly 90 minutes of action which is out of the ordinary for Dark: Elevation. Angelico got up from the desk to go manage Spanish Announce Project or Chaos Project in this case. They attacked Best Friends before the bell, but the Friends turned it around with the Dosey Doe and went for the hug, but the heels knocked them down. They then singled out Trent Beretta and cut off the ring. 

Luther started using Serpentico as a weapon and it actually hurt him. They then went for their own hug and the cameraman did the zoom out I thought was reserved for Best Friends. Danhausen got in the ring and tried to eject the referee. 

Luther and Serpentico then held Danhausen to attack but he moved out of the way so Serpentico punched Luther in the groin, followed by a punch by Danhausen to Serpentico’s groin. This set up Best Friends hitting their assisted piledriver for the win to end the show.

This week’s packed AEW Dark: Elevation was filmed last week in Garland, Texas, before Winter is Coming. Paul Wight was the lead announcer this week along with “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard.

Marina Shafir defeated Jazmin Allure

Shafir, interestingly, made her way to the ring by herself as Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose were nowhere to be found. Allure tried to get out in front with fast offense, but Shafir kicked her right in the head and then used her MMA-based offense to win the match. The finish came when Shafir grounded Allure and with a knee in her back, simply bent her arm backward.

– After the match, Isiah Kassidy and Matt Hardy were confused why they were backstage with Lexy Nair, who was looking to get an update on Marq Quen’s injury. Hardy said they saw him earlier but didn’t know where he was. Stokely Hathaway interrupted to say that he scheduled the interview and that he sent Quen home and replaced him with Ethan Page in tonight’s match.

Emi Sakura & The Bunny (w/ Penelope Ford) defeated Gigi Rey & Lady Bird Monroe

Menard almost made the mistake of calling Monroe Larry Bird which was really funny. The heel team dominated these two Houston-area indie talents from start to finish. Bunny pinned Monroe as she hit Down the Rabbit Hole while Sakura hit a stereo version of a similar move to pick up the win. Referee Stephon Smith once again got the Tea Time treatment after the match.

Ethan Page, Isiah Kassidy, Konosuke Takeshita, Matt Hardy & Top Flight defeated The Trustbusters (Jeeves Kay, Slim J & Sonny Kiss) & The Wingmen (Cezar Bononi, Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth)

This was exactly what you might expect from a match with these 12 veterans. When Hardy came out, Page was quick to shut up the crowd in an effort to try and get them to stop chanting “Delete.” Another notable entrance was for Takeshita — further proof that AEW has really made this guy a star in limited TV time.

The entire match was all about the heels trying to use their numbers advantage on certain guys, but the babyface involved would always came out on top. Wight mentioned that he twerks a little bit, which would be a great video. Page still had a mic on the apron and when Kassidy went for the tag, Page proclaimed on that mic that he’s his boss and “you tag me when I tell you.” Page also stopped Hardy from doing a Twist of Fate. 

Everybody got their moves in except for Page. Hardy hit Avalon with the Side Effect and Kassidy hit his frog splash, but when he did, Page demanded that he get tagged in. Page then hit the Twist of Fate for the win, and kept gloating in the ring after the match.

Eddie Kingston & Ortiz defeated Hagane Shinno & Steven Andrews

The crowd was absolutely electric for Kingston and Ortiz as always. Shinno was great in getting some offense in, but also making the faces look great. Kingston and Shinno got into a slapping match, but that was probably the only notable aspect of this match. Kingston and Ortiz got in some great tag team work and Ortiz eventually got Andrews in a nice pinning combo for the win.

ROH Women’s Champion Athena defeated Vertvixen to retain the title

Vertvixen is great, but I’m not sure why someone who has never won a match on AEW TV or YouTube is getting a title match. Athena was quick to get aggressive with a crossbody and some work outside the ring. The challenger got some offense in, but Athena came back with an elbow, a german suplex, and a superkick. Athen then locked in the crossface for the win, driving Vertvixen’s head into the mat and later DDT onto the belt after the match.

Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta) defeated The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake)

Menard was not happy to see these two new ROH titleholders, but he admitted that they beat his JAS teammates at Final Battle two weeks ago. Yuta and Henry started by going back and forth. Drake and Castagnoli entered and did the same thing, but more with strikes instead of grappling. After Yuta and Castagnoli hit a double-team DDT, the heels singled out Yuta.

After five or so minutes of heel work, Castagnoli eventually got the hot tag,  hitting both men with many European uppercuts. Yuta recovered and hit a dive onto Henry and miraculously took Drake for a swing and got him to tap out with it.

This week’s edition of AEW Dark Elevation was filmed last Wednesday before Dynamite with Tony Schiavone, Paul Wight, and Matt Menard on the call.

Emi Sakura defeated Danni Bee

Bee, a Texas indie wrestler, started out on the offensive but Sakura fought back quickly and locked in a reverse dragon sleeper to get the win. There was no Tea Time during the match, but she made sure to grab the referee and use him as her signature Tea Time chair anyway.

Jericho Appreciation Society (Angelo Parker & Matt Menard) defeated Fly Def (Warren Johnson & Zack Mason)

This was a perfect example of less is more. Right as Parker and Menard got in the ring, they hit Mason with a double-inverted DDT for the win. They didn’t even get their nice JAS jackets off before they got the win.

– The Butcher and The Blade were backstage after the match talking about how the tag team division needs a little dose of reality:

"Dial 1-800-SEE-YA, cus your asses are grass, and we're smokin' all of it."#TheButcher @andycomplains and @BladeOfBuffalo with a declaration! Watch #AEWDarkElevation right now:
▶️ https://t.co/ju4HAbyMSN pic.twitter.com/kX1K7YTj2t

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) December 13, 2022

Willow Nightingale defeated Vertvixen

Nightingale got a huge reaction as always. She was facing off against Vertvixen who some might know as Glitch the Gamer on WOW TV. They went back and forth a lot with Vertvixen getting a lot of offense in. But Nightingale got the win, countering a big boot into a spinebuster to win the match.

Tay Conti and Anna Jay A.S. came out after the win and attacked Nightingale. Ruby Soho then hit the ring and ran them both out with a steel pipe. Soho takes on Tay Conti this Wednesday at Winter is Coming.

Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) defeated Zack Clayton & Zane Valero

Clayton is a regular on the Dark shows, but let Valero got most of the work in before getting in his own offense on Beretta. Beretta rallied and hit a running DDT on both men and tried to get the tag, but Clayton pulled Taylor off the apron. 

Taylor made his way in, but when Valero tried to tag Clayton, he jumped off the apron, it opened the door for Best Friends to hit Strong Zero on Valero. Clayton walked away as the Best Friends got the pin, but they did set up a group hug with him after the bell.

Ari Daivari & The Varsity Athletes (Josh Woods & Tony Nese) (w/ Mark Sterling) defeated Brandon Cutler & Chaos Project

This was quite the combination for the main event of Elevation. Fun fact: this was Serpentico’s 101st loss in AEW and last week, he was the first AEW wrestler in history to hit 100 losses. Quite the occasion. 

Luther and Woods started out by trading forearms. Luther bodyslammed Serpentico on top of Woods and then did the same with Cutler to a huge pop. Everybody ran into the ring and got the airplane spin from Cutler and Chaos Project. They all fell dizzy out of the ring which got the heat back to the Athletes’ team. 

Cutler got the hot tag and actually ran wild with Nese kicking out at two after a dab elbow drop type thing. Cutler then grabbed the cold spray out of desperation, but Sterling got up on the apron and knocked it out of his hands. Sterling grabbed it and tried to spray Cutler but ended up spraying Nese instead. The crowd thought that was the finish, but they kept going.

Cutler and Chaos Project tried to set up a double clothesline move, but the Athletes interfered, made them look goofy, and won the match off a frog splash and neckbreaker combo.

This was a special Saturday edition of AEW Dark: Elevation in preparation for today’s ROH Final Battle. These were all filmed Wednesday before Dynamite in Austin, TX.

The start was all about the build-up of Final Battle’s main event between Claudio Castagnoli and ROH World Champion Chris Jericho consisting of a five-minute video package and old ROH footage. Tony Schiavone, Matt Menard, and Paul Wight were on commentary and finally introduced us to the show.

The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) (w/Maria Kanellis) defeated Ativalu & Sal Muscott

Ativalu and Muscott were making their AEW Dark debut together, but it was a short-lived one. They each got about two moves in until The Kingdom worked together on Muscott, connecting on their assisted superkick for the win.

The Kingdom will face off against Top Flight on ROH Final Battle: Zero Hour today.

Athena defeated Madi Wrenkowski

Leading into this match, another video package aired hyping up Athena’s ROH Women’s title shot against Mercedes Martinez. 

Athena’s tune-up match was against NWA regular Wrenkowski. She was her normal, hyper-aggressive self, destroyed her opponent and then locking her in a crossface for the win. After the match, she attacked Wrenkowski on the outside.

– After the match, a video package was played previewing Daniel Garcia vs. Wheeler Yuta for the ROH Pure Championship.

Top Flight (Dante Martin & Darius Martin) defeated The Factory (Aaron Solo & Nick Comoroto)

On the way out, Top Flight’s Darius Martin met up with Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and Jesus Christ in the front row. Never thought I would be writing that.

This match was really back and forth, Top Flight started with the momentum but The Factory shut them down quickly. All the offense was on Darius Martin while Dante got the hot tag. Top Flight singled out Aaron Solo and hit an assisted moonsault followed by the pin.

Juice Robinson defeated Hagane Shinno

The new signee had his own video package talking about how he looked up to Samoa Joe for so long. This was only Robinson’s second AEW match on television, and it was on YouTube. He took on Shinno, who upset Nick Comoroto on last week’s show.

Robinson wasted no time, attacking Shinno before the bell. Shinno fought back here and there, but the former IWGP U.S. Champion just picked him apart. Shinno took him to the outside and hit a springboard knee, followed by some great-looking kicks — better than the Miz  Yes kicks, shockingly.

Robinson, however, raked the eyes and then hit a cannonball senton and a clothesline for a near fall. Robinson picked him up and immediately hit a sit-out piledriver for the win.

I’m not sure why he looked so vulnerable against Shinno when he has to face Samoa Joe in just a few hours. Not a good look as a contender here. Robinson takes on Samoa Joe for the ROH World Television Title later today.