AEW Dark Episode #77 3/2/2021

AEW Dark Episode #77 3/2/2021

Lee Johnson & Aaron Solow vs Louie Valle & Chris Peaks

Peaks and Valle have matching tights so I guess they are a pair. Solow and Valle botch a headlock takeover. Valle takes some double axe handles from the 2nd rope on his arm, then Solow knee drops Valle. Valle nails Solow with a knee to the back from the apron and gets forearmed for it, then Valle does an apron to inside double stomp on Solow.

Lee his a nice dropkick on Valle and Solow does a running knee on Peaks. Johnson then hits a blue thunder bomb for the win. This was long and boring.

Red Velvet & Kilynn King vs Ivelisse & Diamante

King looks like a monster compared to Red and Diamante. Velvet leg lariats Diamante early. Red chops Ivelisse in the face. King wheelbarrows Red onto Ivelisse. Ivelisse triangles King and is picked up and puts it on over the top rope.

Ivelisse hits an unusual takedown out a King slam and King gets her arm worked over by her opponents. King gets Ivelisse on her back and throws her down then lariats her. Red comes in and Thesz presses Diamante and the two give each other forearms. Red does a standing moonsault. Ivelisse and Diamante try to knee Red together but nail each other.  Diamante gets on King's back and they both fall outside. Red then hits a spin kick and a flying boot to the head to win.

This wasn't any good but they got a decent amount of time for it.

Top Flight vs Fuego Del Sol & Jon Cruz  

Darius did a neat roll on Sol's body into a headlock. They have a sloppy section and Dante comes in with a slingshot flipping senton on Sol. Sol backflips out of a wristlock and rolls back into a headscissors takedown on Cruz.

Sol double underhook suplexes Dante then standing SSP's him. Darius catches Cruz off the ropes with a spanish fly. Dante gets backdropped over the top rope. Sol then goes outside to in and slingshot monkey flips Cruz into a hurricanrana on Darius which was botched. Cruz then tope's Dante on the outside.

Sol hits a neat tornillo off the top onto TF. TF traps him on the ropes and jumps on his back. Darius has Sol in a backdrop and Dante flips Sol over into a bulldog and TF wins. This had multiple botches and sloppiness.

Gunn Club vs Tony Vega, Aaron Frye, & Angel Fashion

Slow start here until Frye punches Austin Gunn in the face. Austin botches an up and over then leg sweeps him and hits a reverse blockbuster. The Gunn's do their basketball dunk corner splash. Vega takes a Gunn triple team and hits a nice clothesline on Austin.

Austin mounts a comeback and tags to Billy after getting beaten up for a bit. Billy does a neat looking body slma on Vega then he hits Fashion with the fameasser, which Frye breaks the pin up on. Frye gets thrown into the rails outside. Then Frye takes a dangerous and sloppy looking backdrop into a neckbreaker. It was what it was and wasn't special.

Abadon vs Renee Michelle

Renee gets hit off the apron early then Abadon hits a Thesz press on her from the apron. Back in and Renee gets a few shots in before getting clotheslined down. Abadon hits double knees in the corner. Abadon then hits the Gori special into a neckbreaker for the win in a quick squash. Abadon needed to win this and did. I don't know if I would have had Renee be involved in this one since I think it is just a matter of time until she hits the main roster due to her look.

Stu Grayson vs JD Drake

Drake shoulders Stu down early and is dropkicked. They pound fists then start flurry punching each other. JD gets his leg swept on the apron and then Stu slingshot flip senton's him. JD pops up Stu into the ropes from the outside floo then hits a lariat on the rebound. JD then senton's him.

JD spins around and takes a uranage then Stu does a springboard twisting european uppercut. JD hits a great belly to belly then legdrops Stu off the second rope while he runs at him. Stu does a springboard hurricanrana to JD on top. Stu misses a 450 and JD hits a flying boot to his face. JD misses a cannonball into the corner and takes a tornado ddt off the 2nd rope. Stu then hits a fireman's carry into a backbreaker for the win. JD took a great bump for the finish. This was the most interesting match on the show up to this point and it was a fun back and forth match.

The Acclaimed do an Acclaimed Shopping Network promo. They are selling The Dark Order's Kool-Aid. Someone tries it and transforms into "100", who they say is 10's identical twin. The Acclaimed do a music video rap on 10 from the Dark Order. They then close it saying Castor will beat up 10 on Dynamite this week.

Bear Country vs Baron Black & M'Badu  

The Bears have some new masks for thier entrance. Bronson drops a nice elbow on Black. Bronson flurry clubs on Black then lariats Badu on the apron. Black does an armw wringer on Bronson on the apron and Bronson lands on his shoulder on it. Black stretches Bronson over the corner post.

Excalibur calls Black "thoughtful" then he punches Bronson in the face and Taz has a lot of problems with that statement. Badu hits a shoulder off the ropes on Bronson. Badu then does a nice corner splash on Bronson. Taz brings up how everyone in this has a name with a "B" in it. The ref is Paul Turner, and Taz turns it into "Ball Burner" and they have a blast with it. Badu spinning sideslams Bronson.

Black chops Bronson then takes a slow exploder. Boulder comes in and nails Badu off the apron and Badu slides on the floor into the rails. Boulder does a big back body drop on Black. Boulder splashes both opponents in the corner. He picks up Badu and Black charges at him, then he fallaway slams both. Boulder misses a 2nd rope moonsault on Black then Badu comes off the top with a clothesline on him.

Bronson just crushes Badu on the outside with a tope. Bronson gets on Boulder's shoulders and is dropped down into a splash and wins it. The announcers were very entertaining here and the Bears looked good as usual with Badu doing some good stuff.

The Butcher and The Blade then jump the Bears. Boulder takes a hard chair shot and Bronson gets a chair kicked into his arm.

Evil Uno, Alan "5" Angels, & Colt Cabana with -1 vs Levy Shapiro, John Skyler, & RYZIN

Colt double chops Skyler early. Shapiro jumps up onto to get caught in an atomic drop. 5 does the corner punch spot on Shapiro. Colt hits a diving elbow on Shapiro. Shapiro walks the middle rope into a fist drop on Uno then Angles clears out his opponents.

Skyler's neck is on the middle rope and Angles splashes his back. Then he goes for a spear on Ryzin but turns it into an STO on the apron. Ryzin gets put on Colt's shoulders and is thrown into Uno's knees. Uno then does a side single butterfly into a reverse STO on Ryzin to win. I don't have too many thoughts on this but thought the Dark Order's opponents should have maybe gotten something in.  

Max Castor vs JJ Garrett

Castor does a rap to start and says JJ's name is short for "vajayjay". JJ has a terrible look but it's bad enough that you won't forget it, so maybe it works. JJ single legs and takes down Castor. Max spears the 2nd turnbuckle and JJ 619's him. JJ takes a nasty armdrag and Max works the arm. Max sits on his back and pulls on the arm.

Max runs up the buckles and takes a bad fall down. JJ does an outside to in moonsault off the 2nd rope. JJ has a spot where he goes up and over his opponent in the corner and double stomps his head but they kind of goofed it up and Max was holding his neck after. JJ then cannonballed him in the corner. Bowens threw the boombox in the ring and while the ref dealt with that, Max pop-up low blowed JJ. Then he dropped an elbow on him off the top. Max then licked JJ's hand after for some reason...

This probably did more for JJ than Max but JJ has such a bad look on top of being so small that it's going to be tough for him to get anywhere. He can move though.

The Hybrid 2 vs Shawn Dean & Charlie Bravo

Dean and Bravo are wearing camo here and clearly doing a team based around that. Dean also got his own entrance graphic up on the screen, so it seems like they have plans for him.

Angelic does a nice escape out of a wristlock. Dean does a slow cartwheel out of a wristlock. Evans goes for a cartwheelto get out of the wristlock but is legswept. Dean walks up Evans' leg and boots him in the face. Dean enzugiri's Angelico and dropkicks him and Evans.

Bravo does a bad flipping neckdrop then Dean splashes Angelico off the top. Evans spinkicks Bravo off the apron. Angelico then reverse figure fours Bravo to win it. This wasn't any good.

Orange Cassidy vs Steven Stetson
 
Stetson is working a cowbow gimmick and keeps his hat on in the ring. OC takes it off of him and wears it. Cassidy does his stupid hands in the pocket thing and Stetson takes the hat back. Cassidy then dropkicks the hat away and does kip ups. Stetson hits a big boot and knocks off OC's sunglasses. OC ducks a move and hits a superman punch then samurai driver to win in a stupid comedy match.

Chuck Taylor vs VSK

Chuck stomps VSK early, but VSK comes back with a 2nd rope european uppercut. VSK gets thrown into the buckles hard and Chuck makes dumb faces. VSK jumps off the 1st rope into a tornado DDT on check then tope's him. Chuck hits a standing rock bottom then a slam into a falcon arrow for 2.

Chuck hits a short piledriver then a regular piledriver for the win in a quick squash.

10 vs Daniel Joseph

-1 comes to the booth. He tells Excalibur to shut up. -1 keeps telling Excalibur to shut up. 10 then lariats Joseph over the top onto the ramp. 10 comes over to high five -1. Excalibur tries to call the match but -1 keeps telling him to shut up then 10 hits a pump kick. 10 hits a spinebuster and deadlift powerbombs him for the win. -1 was really distracting here.

SCU vs Matt and Mike Sydal

Nothing debuts a tag team like Matt and Mike's 0-2 record. Matt hits some armdrags on Kaz early. Then he bridges Kaz across the top and Mike double stomps him. Mike hits a standing moonsault and Kaz returns with a very hard lariat. Mike trips Daniels into Matt's dropkick.

Kaz legsweeps Mike into a Daniels lariat. Daniels nails Mike in the gut then Kaz flipping neckbreakers Mike. Kaz then hits a release german for 2. Kaz leapfrogs Mike into a Daniels lariat then Daniels backdrops Kaz onto Mike then hits a 2nd rope moonsault.

Mike does a hard tornado ddt on Daniels and both men tag out. Matt running hurricanrana's Kaz. Then he does a moonsault into an armdrag and a leg lariat on Kaz. Matt hits a slice/jawbreaker combo on SCU then twisting moonsaults Kaz.

The Sydal's hit a double russian legsweep. Mike limbo's out of a lariat and hits an enzugiri. Kaz slingshots Mike into a cutter from the outside to the inside. Kaz backflips Matt into a Daniels double knee on the gut. Daniels the moonsault spike tombstones Kaz on Mike for the win. The Sydal's are now up to 0-3 and I don't know why. This just had a lot of flipping and spots and we know the Sydal's had no chance of winning since SCU will break up if SCU loses.

Overall thoughts: Not really a fan of the Dark format. There were only a few matches that I thought were a waste of time this week but cutting a few matches would have helped everyone. This show is never must-see though I saw worse editions of it than the one we saw here.