Tony Schiavone and Cody were the announce team for the opener.
Up first was QT Marshall against one of his students at the Nightmare Factory training school.
QT Marshall defeated Lee Johnson
Johnson has a nice dropkick but didn’t show much else. Marshall is technically very good but has been dealt a bad hand in the look and charisma departments.
They locked up and traded holds. Marshall took over after catching Johnson on a crossbody attempt. Marshall hit a leg drop and worked an abdominal stretch.
Johnson made a brief comeback with a dropkick and one-legged dropkick. Marshall caught Johnson off the top again and hit a uranage/flatliner combination. Marshall ended up with a cut under his right eye.
Marshall then hit a swanton bomb for the pin.
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Taz and Excalibur did the announcing for this contest.
Wardlow (w/ MJF) defeated Ryan Pyles
Wardlow took forever to take his clothes off before the match.
The match itself went seconds. Wardlow hit his F-10 finisher and pinned Pyles with a boot on the chest.
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Schiavone and Jimmy Havoc did the announcing for the main event. Havoc was especially entertaining and I would like to hear more of these two together.
Kip Sabian (w/ Penelope Ford) defeated Tony Donati
Congratulations to Kip and Penelope on their engagement.
This was the best match on this show.
They began with some fundamentals, trading side headlocks and shoulder tackles. Ford tripped Donati while Sabian took the referee. Sabian then hit a pump kick and went to work.
Sabian again took the referee while Ford choked Donati in the corner. Sabian hit a kick and a back elbow for a near fall. Sabian hit a penalty kick for another two count.
Sabian went for a Michinoku driver, but Donati blocked and hit a hammerlock brainbuster for a two count. Sabian cut Donati off as he attempted a springboard attack.
Sabian hit his draping top rope suplex, a modified GTS, then used the Cruciatus Clutch and Donati tapped out.
AEW announced their slate of matches for this week’s edition of Dark featuring various main roster talents against newcomers.
Kip Sabian (with Penelope Ford) will look to get back on the winning track against Tony Donati after suffering a loss to Darby Allin on the March 25th Dynamite. Donati will be making his promotional debut.
While he has seen recent success teaming with Dustin Rhodes, QT Marshall will be looking to earn his first AEW singles victory (0-3) as he faces the debuting Lee Johnson. Marshall lost to Brodie Lee in the latter’s AEW debut on the March 25th Dynamite.
AEW also announced that Wardlow will be in action but didn’t announce his opponent. MJF’s bodyguard has only had one match in the promotion thus far, a steel cage loss to Cody Rhodes on the February 19th Dynamite.
It’s assumed this match was taped during AEW’s appearance in Jacksonville, Florida, several weeks ago while Sabian and Marshall were both part of the recent Georgia tapings.
AEW Dark debuts on YouTube Tuesdays at 7 PM Eastern.
The Big News: The Young Bucks continued the respective losing streaks of Peter Avalon & QT Marshall in the main event.
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Tony Schiavone introduced this week’s episode of AEW Dark from a quiet spot backstage.
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Kris Statlander defeated Diamante
Now that the Nightmare Collective is no more, Statlander has lost her angle, but she was back here to do battle with former LAX member Diamante. Statlander booped referee Rick Knox, which is when she touches their nose. She spent a minute teasing doing it to Diamante before being smacked away.
Statlander took her down, stuck Diamante’s finger in her mouth, and then gave her a wet willie. Please no one show this to Jim Cornette.
We broke down into a serious wrestling match as Statlander used a gorilla press to drop Diamante on the ring apron, which is the hardest part of the ring. Statlander used a nice German suplex and picked up the win with the Big Bang Theory.
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Best Friends (w/ Orange Cassidy) defeated The Hybrid 2
Earlier today on the AEW media call, Cody called Jack Evans one of the most underrated wrestlers in AEW. Evans showed off his athleticism early and bragged to the crowd about it, which got him booed. Trent used a nice Northern Lights suplex when Evans tried diving over the top rope into the ring.
Angelico and Chuck Taylor tagged in. Taylor got the best of it, so Angelico went outside and punched Orange Cassidy, a man wearing glasses, right in the face! Best Friends ran out for the save, but Evans dove off the top rope and then stomped on Cassidy for good measure. The fans chanted Jesus, since the guy dressed like Jesus was in the crowd.
Trent used a tornado DDT to get away from his foe and make the hot tag to Taylor. Taylor ran wild on both members of TH2, including giving Evans a pop-up powerbomb on Angelico and hitting a spinning Liger Bomb on Evans.
A crazy four-way broke out, with both members of both teams running wild. Evans went up top and suddenly Cassidy rose from the ashes and violently began striking Evans in the legs. I do not know how Evans maintained his balance while getting struck like that. Anyhoo, TH2 ended up crotching themselves on the ropes and Best Friends finished them off with a Strong Zero.
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Big Swole defeated Christi Jaynes
Jaynes is from Brazil, trained in Mexico, and was making her AEW debut here. We started with a collar-and-elbow tie-up, which was such an even matchup that they went around the ring with neither wrestler gaining the advantage and it ended in a stalemate.
Swole was dominating after that, but Jaynes stepped aside on a charge and used a step-up enzuigiri where she ran up the ropes ala Fenix. Swole battled back and hit a pretty nice cutter that she hit as she stepped through the ropes. She then picked up the win with a ripcord elbow called Dirty Dancing.
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The Young Bucks defeated QT Marshall & Peter Avalon (w/ Leva Bates)
Wasn’t I just talking last week about how we hadn’t see either Librarian in a while? Marshall and Avalon have a combined record of 0-12, so maybe what they lack as individuals they can make up with being a tag team. Speaking of tag teams, where is Shawn Spears? Has he stopped looking for a partner?
The Young Bucks were hoping to pull out the hammer and nails and begin to build momentum leading into tomorrow night’s gigantic tag team battle royal. Trust me, that’s not the corniest joke I have.
Marshall and Nick Jackson exchanged counters, with both men flipping and rolling through moves. Avalon took the mic and began booing both, including his partner, for not doing actual wrestling.
Matt Jackson and Avalon tagged in and Avalon got taken down with a drop toe hold. Matt took the mic and asked if the crowd wanted to see a double hip toss. They did it and then led the crowd in a chant of “That was awesome.”
Marshall did agree to tag in despite everything that had happened, but Avalon came in for a sneak attack on Matt and then tagged himself back in. Matt was draped across the middle rope and while Avalon distracted the referee, Leva Bates jumped up and tried to show Matt the book she was reading. He pushed it away, which offended Bates, who hit Matt in the knee with it.
Matt hit eight straight Northern Lights suplexes on Avalon, with the last one including Marshall, who tried to break it up. Nick got the hot tag and used the Sharpshooter at one point. Since the referee wouldn’t just ring the damn bell, Bates pushed the bottom rope closer to Avalon to break it up.
Avalon got a handful of tights for a near fall and then went for Bates’ book, but Marshall broke it up and threw the book away. Avalon punched Marshall, got superkicked and hit with a Meltzer Driver, and the Bucks picked up the win.
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Final Thoughts: If nothing else, the main event was fun — so watch the show just for that.
AEW has announced two matches for next Tuesday’s edition of AEW Dark.
Both of the matches will be taped this Wednesday before premiering on YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, October 29. Darby Allin, Jimmy Havoc, and Jack Evans will face off in a three-way match, while Dustin Rhodes & Sonny Kiss will team against Peter Avalon & QT Marshall (Michael Cuellari).
Evans vs. Joey Janela was originally announced for this week’s Dynamite, but the match was changed to Janela facing Kenny Omega instead.
Allin unsuccessfully challenged for Chris Jericho’s AEW World Championship in a Philadelphia street fight on last week’s Dynamite.
An Undesirable to Undeniable segment with Cody Rhodes and Marshall aired on this week’s AEW Dark. It covered Marshall’s career, his time in Ring of Honor and suffering a neck injury, and working behind the scenes in AEW. Cody revealed that Marshall would be having his first AEW match.
Tomorrow’s live episode of Dynamite and AEW Dark tapings are taking place at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
