AEW Dark Episode 68 12/29/2020

AEW Dark Episode 68 12/29/2020

Dark is just too long. While it is only 2 hours in length, there's no commercials and it basically has the same amount of content that a 3 hour show does. Even worse is that most of these matches are meaningless squashes with wrestlers nobody cares about in front of a dead crowd, making it just awful.

AEW had a graphic here for Brodie.

 Vary Morales vs Rey Fenix

Morales is small like everyone else and gets rolled up quick. He comes back with a flying kick to the face that probably missed. Morales cannoballs him in the corner. Morales dropkicks him and takes a hook kick. Fenix kicks him in the face and takes a headscissors from the 2nd rope, then an around the world DDT. Morales John Woo's him and then he gets kicked in the face. Rey hits a springboard spin kick and does a spinning muscle buster to win. No real thoughts on this. Morales did some basic lucha stuff and this was mostly a lucha style match. They timed this about right.

Penelope Ford vs Lindsay Snow

Snow does a cool flip into a leglock. Ford hits the ropes and runs her face into the buckle. Ford hits a high pump kick, likely to the chest or throat. Snow is laying on the apron and Ford springboards off the middle rope inside to double knees on her. Ford has her laying on her back on the middle rope and pulls her into the top rope. Ford does a cartwheel backflip into an elbow onto Snow then flips into the ropes and mostly misses a cutter to win. Even though Ford did miss the cutter some, she didn't look bad here.

John Silver and Alex Reynolds vs Shawn Dean and Tyson Maddux

The finish

Tyson does two good leapfrogs into a powerslam on Reynolds. He hits Reynolds in the corner with a clothesline and delay suplexes him. Maddux powers out of the two D.O. members holding him and then gets put in a 3D into a euro uppercut.

Silver throws a kick to Maddux's chest and falls over. Why Maddux is taking all the offense here, I'm not sure. D.O.2v1's Maddux and he hot tags out. Dean runs into each corner nailing both D.O. members and DDT's Reynolds for 2. Maddux takes a flurry of combo offense and is pinned. This wasn't bad at all with everyone getting a little shine. 

Anna Jay vs Jazmin Allure

Jay armdrags Allure down and grabs her chin. She hits a spin kick to the gut in the corner, then forward rolls into a face kick. Allure hits some chops and stomps in the corner, then Jay comes back with a spin kick when Allure misses a charge in the corner. Jay hits a spin kick again and wins with a grounded sleeper in a quick squash. Allure got little in.

 

The Waiting Room with Britt Baker

 

 

Britt was joining in on the dogpiling on Bostic this weekend which I didn't like. Brian Pillman Jr. is in the audience. Baker pimps tommorow's Dynamite which is not going on as planned as she runs down stuff we will not be seeing. She accused Cody of stealing Moxley's spotlight.

Matt Sydal came out and they brought him slipping in his very first appearance in AEW and they brought up The Shockmaster. Sydal brought up his wins so far and Baker wasn't impressed. Baker said what will he do to make sure he doesn't screw up like he did in his debut. Sydal said he would open hearts, mind and the third eye. They received mail with TBS asking her to put up a poster for the TNT show called "The Go Big Show" with Cody Rhodes in it. Sydal brought it up and says Cody doesn't like to share the spotlight. He then drew on Cody's face on the poster.

This was awful and buried Sydal.

Ryzin, Nick Comoroto and James Tapia vs Team Taz

Comoroto is back, looking even bigger than Hobbs. He hits a punch on Hobbs then gets body blocked down. Comoroto took a big double back body drop. Ryzin goes for a spinning headscissors and just gets thrown. He then gets tossed out and has to sell for Taz's 150lb son with a clothesline.

Ryzin tries to hop over Starks for a tag but misses. Tapia takes a kick and a spinning lariat. Comoroto does a shoulder tackle over the top then gets spinebustered by Hobbs, which Taz sells well. Ryzin hits a missile dropkick but gets speared by Starks then Hobbs hits a big slam on Nick. Cage then wins with the drillclaw in a squash that was too fast for all the people involved.

 

Fuego del Sol vs Griff Garrison

 

Peter Avalon is at the booth. Griff might actually win this one...maybe.

Garrison misses a big splash in the corner. Sol does some kind of springboard off the 2nd rope but undershoots it and gets a sloppy kick in the face. Sol hits a headscissors and a dropkick. Sol takes a triple backbreaker as Avalon is creaming his pants over Griff. Tony, please keep Avalon 100 miles away from my boy Griff.

Griff hits a splash in the corner then Sol flips on a lariat. Sol hit a hurricanrana off the top, but Griff was late to react and it looked odd. Griff won with a spinning elbow that Sol sold big. Not a good one though with a few sloppy spots.

Avalon gives Griff a signed photo after and he rejects it.

Santana and Ortiz vs Terrance and Terrell Hughes

Terrell gets armdragged twice to start. Santana blocks a shot and enzugiri's him, then he goes for the 3 amigos. Ortiz assists him with it. One of the twins hits a diving shoulder block and then they double shoulder Ortiz. More shoulders for Ortiz and he hits a DDT. Santana springboards off the middle rope into a crossbody. Santana and Ortiz do some kind of assisted death valley driver. Santana double stomps the arm as Ortiz holds it then foot slaps him. A Hughes brother hits a belly to belly on Santana.

Ortiz and one of the twins duels lariats and Ortiz gets back body dropped and powerslammed. The twins hit the 3D. One of the twins gets thrown over the top to the floor and PnP does this weird spot where Ortiz rolls up Santana and then he hits a cutter out of it. PnP then does a ligerbomb, lifts one of the twins up from the pin position and then Santana knees him to win.

Nothing wrong with this but PnP is getting too cute with these moves.

Aaron Solow vs Sammy Guevara 

Sammy slams down Aaron and rides him. Sammy backflips out of a wristlock. Sammy backflipped over a leapfrog and turned it into a dropkick. Guevarra came off the top and Solow dropkicked him, then dove on him on the outside. Solow then came off the top and met a knee. Sammy then did a springboard moonsault to him on the outside. Solow avoided a 450 then he got catapulted onto the buckles where he bounced back with a double stomp. Solow hit a tornado kick then Sammy came with a headkick. Solow then double stomped him and Sammy won with a knee and a knee to the head after a flip from the torture rack position. They did way too much for a dark match show, they sold nothing and none of it meant anything.

Sammy then cut a promo saying how it's his 10th year anniversary as a wrestler and how he will keep working to get a title shot.

Chaos Project vs. Ariel Levy & Cuervo De Puerto Rico

Cuervo hung Serpentico on the middle rope then moonsaults off another rope onto him, mostly just kicking him in the face. Luther picked Serpentico up for a slam and Luther held him while he kicked Levy in the face which looked bad. The two argued over who should pick up whoe to attack their opponents and Luther picked up Serp and dropped his legs onto Levy. Chaos Project won this when Luther held up Cuervo and Serp dropped double knees on his shoulders. This was bad and even Tazz admitted he wanted this to end.

 

Leva Bates vs Madi Wrenkowski 

Bates gave Madi a book and Madi ripped some of the pages out and nailed her, thankfully. Madi did a forwarding rolling samoan drop and dropped her butt on her. Madi tried another butt drop but missed hard. She got dropkicked into the corner and splashed and Bates hit some awful kicks. Madi ripped out more pages of the book during the match and had the book kicked in her face and was rolled up after it for the Bates win. This was bad.

Matt Sydal vs Danny Limelight

They did some basic stuff to start and Sydal did a cool flip into an armdrag. Limelight came back with an outside to in ropewalk into an armdrag which I haven't seen before, then he dropkicked Sydal. DL turned away from Sydal and Sydal came back with a spinkick to his face. DL blocked a la magistral but took a leg slice out of it for 2. Sydal did a twisting standing moonsault onto DL. DL then did a sunset flip like move into a single leg crap. Sydal hit a brazilian kick and did a release cobra clutch suplex where DL landed on his knees. Sydal then won it with a roll-up. This was pretty much all action from start to finish and was the most interesting match on the show up to this point.

 

Tay Conti vs Vertvixen

They do some roll-ups and Tay kicks Vert in the head. Tay does a pump knee to her face and monkey flips her. Tay belly to belly overhead suplexes Vert. Vert ducks a kick but Tay hits her on the way back. Vert kicks her in the head from the mat, then they double high kick each other. They trade some shots and Tay does some rolling throws before kicking her in the face. Tay then hits a TCO - a gory special into a kick to the face which looks stupid. They kept this one moving here with a lot of kicks.

Royal Money, Baron Black and Mike Verna vs The Gunn Club

Austin baseball slides and trips Money with his arm. The Gunns do this splash into the corner that they have made look like they are dunking a basketball. Austin(I think) then wins this with a Colt 45(underhook turnover drop) after a small brawl. It was a waste of time for everyone involved. One of the Gunn's then said if you mess with the family they are going to kick your @ss.

 

SCU vs The Hybrid 2

Daniels said he will retire the next time SCU loses. I have to wonder why essentially a possible retirement match is being wasted unadvertised on Dark.

Evans hit a gamengiri here and Daniels ducked a tornado kick just to hit an exploder. SCU hit a combo that ended in an STO. Kaz does a springboard into a legdrop. Evans put Kaz in an indian deathlock and Angelico kicked Kaz in the face which didn't look fun. Evans did a handspring into an elbow in the corner. Daniels had Kaz up for a reverse DDT and then STO'd Angelico onto him. TH2 did a backdrop/footstomp combo. Then they did a double hiptoss into a powerbomb/neckbreaker. TH2 did a combo and Evans did a twisting moonsault onto Kaz.

Angelico flipped Evans into a 450 onto Kaz and SCU did a cool out of nowhere monkey flip into a double clothesline. SCU then hit a backdrop into a double knee to win. It had some good spots.

The Acclaimed then jumped SCU and the Bucks followed.

Overall thoughts: A very long show. 2 hours straight of wrestling with no breaks is tough, especially when the matches have nobodies in them, are mostly squashes and have no storylines involved. And I know Brodie died unexpectedly, but it was lame of them to run a giant ad for a show tomorrow which they knew when publishing this wouldn't be airing as advertised.