AEW Dark: Elevation Episode #3 3/29/2021
Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/03/aew-dark-elevation-episode-2-3222021.html
Moxley does a promo to start. He said he isn't feeling well and is sore after some of the stuff that happened the last few weeks. He said beating someone up would make him feel better.
Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy vs JD Drake and Ryan Nemeth
Orange Cassidy has new music here. A couple of armdrags are hit early from Taylor and Drake. OC goofs off early on, barely trying which is not funny. Chuck gets thrown into the bottom rope from the outside into JD's lariat. Ryan whips Chuck into a JD clothesline then they do a fist drop + headbutt combo. JD and Ryan fail on a double team when JD is tripped into a headbutt Ryan's crotch.
OC does his stupid bit with his hands in his pockets nad hurricanrana's him while his hands are in his pockets. Chuck hits a satellite DDT for 2. Ryan then gets in and hits him with a ddt. OC comes off the top on JD and gets a northern lights suplex, Chuck dives on Ryan on the outside and OC wraps it up with a beach break/samurai driver on JD for the win.
OC's stupid comedy bits really hurt this one and nobody, including the announcers seem to get the JD/Ryan team.
Kip, Penelope Ford and Miro come out. Kip wants to wish Taylor and OC luck, but Miro says he doesn't wish luck as he wants to do all kinds of bad htngs to them and then leaves.
Bill Collier vs Jon Moxley
Collier is an indy guy from Pennsylvania who has been around for a little while. He's a littler taller than Moxley and is in shape. Mox takes him down early and Bill comes back with a nice dropkick. Bill bends forward for a back body drop and Mox just bangs his head off the mat.
Mox ties him up on the mat and grabs him by the nose. Mox hits a stiff knee to the face and kicks him in the chest multiple times. Bill gets a comeback with some forearms but takes a german. Bill comes back and hits a fallaway slam and kips up. Mox then comes back with a big lariat and a nice piledriverto seemingly win it but only gets a 2. Mox then lays on his back and chokes him for the win.
Bill didn't really get enough in to see what he could do and he probably shouldn't of here against Mox.
Cody gives his belt to a kid outside. I don't know why we needed to see that.
Leila Grey vs Penelope Ford with Kip Sabian
Miro was shown in the graphic to be out here for this, but he is not. Grey shoves Ford and gets slapped. Grey hits some kind of double stomp/dropkick move on a seated Ford. Ford hits a kick combo then handspring backflip back elbows her. As usual, Ford lays her on the apron and springboard double knees her from the second rope inside to outside.
Ford chokes her over the ropes and kisses Kip, then pulls her throat first into the top rope. Grey comes back with some clotheslines and Thesz presses her. Ford hits a back roundhouse kick then double knee fireman's carry gutbusters her for the win in a short squash.
Gunn Club (Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn & Colten Gunn) vs Rex Lawless & Milk Chocolate (Brandon Watts & Randy Summers)
Do I even need to comment on how stupid the name Milk Chocolate is? Their gear is awful too. Billy Gunn does some dance with the ref during his entrance. Austin does his running blockbuster to the back of Randy's head. Rex really looks like the 3rd Bear Country member or like Pac's cousin.
Rex drops Billy with a forearm and slaps him over the head and Billy Gunn comes back with his "suck it" taunt. The Gunns hit a triple team combo with Colten hitting a strutting stunner. Rex comes back with a nice looking face kick Colten ends up getting the hot tag here later on with splashes and a nice dropkick. The Gunns then hit the back body drop into the neckbreaker and it ends up being mostly just a backdrop as the neckbreaker misses. The Gunn's pretty much have the same squash every time out.
Marvez congratulates Rosa on the bloody match she had with Britt. I am very tired of hearing about that one. Rosa says she is ready to fight again and is fighting her student Alex Gracia today. She goes off on women's empowerment and latino pride(I have a feeling Britt doing that about her race wouldn't be allowed). Diamante comes in and says nobody represents her, though they never tell you its Diamante. Diamate says Rosa put a massive target on her back and htey talk half in spanish. Dia says she will step up to the plate and Rosa will agree to it whenever she wants.
I am skipping the Janela match.
Dasha wants to interview Jack Evans and makes Angelico bring him out of a van. Jack said he doesn't need to prepare today, he just needs coffee. He calls Jungle Boy "Jungle Dork" and says he is disappointed with AEW putting him in the ring with them. Angelico is dancing even though no music is playing during the whole promo.
Thunder Rosa vs Alex Gracia
They call Alex "The Pink Dream" and it seems like they do have plans for her, but they haven't shown them yet. They wrestle on the mat early. They try to dropkick each other at the same time and do some counters and reversals. Alex takes some chops in the corner and they blow an irish whip. Alex double springboards into a hurricanrana and Rosa does a satellite headscissors into a russian leg sweep. They trade shots and Rosa hits a bad looking slam to win. This wasn't any good.
Kaz takes him down and does a nice roll through escape into a trip out of a wristlock. Danny comes over the back with an armdrag after kind of missing on a monkey flip spot then jumps from the middle ot the top rope with a hurricanrana. Kaz hits a spin kick, knee to the face then lariat combo.
Kaz does an unusual twisting russian legsweep which stumps the announcers and DL comes back with a hurricanrana. Kaz starts throwing DL into the buckles hard. Danny walks the middle rope and jumps up onto the top rope with a lariat. They do a messy spot that ends in an ocean cyclone suplex for 2. Kaz springboards into a legdrop and a little later, Danny hits a springboard double stomp to his back. Kaz gets a crossface chickenwing out of nowhere and wins it. Danny can do some cool stuff, but the cool stuff is very complicated to hit and when it doesn't go off as planned, the match suffers.
Christian Cage comes out after and claps for Kaz. It's amazing how little buzz and how not over Cage is right now.
Fuego del Sol vs Ethan Page
Speaking of people who have no buzz, here's Ethan Page. Fuego is from the very lucha town of Mobile, Alabama which sounds silly. Tony even references it calling him "Alabama's top luchador". Page pops up Sol and he dropkicks him. Sol hits a nice corner spear and gets thrown off on a DDT, then flipped on a shoulder. Sol gets whipped hard into the buckles.
Page works the back and does an unusual leg and arm hook into a backbreaker. Fuego comes back with a 2nd rope moonsault and gets his 2nd tornado ddt attempt blocked. Page backbreakers him on the top rope and throws him down. Page then tosses him on the razor's egde to win. This was fine though the finish was never in doubt. They are really running with the "best tornado ddt" gag here they have with Sol.
Tay Conti and Hikaru Shida vs Jasmin Allure and Tesha Price
-1 is not here today and the Dark Order leaves after they get in the ring. Tay takes a 2v1 to start but bangs htem into each other. Allure takes some judo throws and comes back with a nice back elbow on Shida. Tay hits a nice pump kick on Allure then Tay and Shida hit double judo throws into triangle chokes in a cool spot. Tay then hits a DDT on Tesha and wins it. Tay and Shida aren't a bad team and Tesha got nothing in here.
They both flip out of wristlocks early and try to dropkick each other at the same time. Angelico distracts JB and JB gets spin kicked. JB gets his head smacked off a table and Jack grabs a mic saying "you're welcome". Jack suplexes him and then gets a 2 on a pin attempt. Jack puts JB in a hold but he powers out and powerbombs him.
JB mounts a comeback with shops and elbows and Jack takes a nasty bump on his neck for a lariat. Jack then hits a handspring elbow onto JB on the ropes and both go onto the floor. Jack takes another hard bump on that.
They fight outside and Jack running spin kicks him fron the apron. They go up top and JB takes a spider german from the top. Jack then moonsaults, but JB moves and he moonsaults again to prevent a bad landing. JB comes back, throws him into the buckles then german suplexes him. Jack hits a northern lights suplex then michinoku driver's him for 2. Jack tries a ryder kick off the top but JB catches him with the STF and wins it.
As usual when any AEW matches goes a decent length of time, they did too much here and Jack took a couple of very painful looking bumps.
QT Marshall & Lee Johnson vs. Adam Priest & Aaron Frye
D3 takes a 10 shoulder to start and does a nice leapfrog but is nailed with a forearm. 10 back body drops D3 then 5 dropkicks him from the buckles. 5 hits a nice forearm on Vary and misses an asai moonsault. 10 does a diving clothesline off the middle rope on D3 and a spinebuster. Vary gets an STO on the apron from 5 and 10 hits a big boot on D3. 10 then wins it with the full nelson on D3 in this waste of time.
Ryo picks up the ref and puts her glasses on him. They both dance around with the crowd claps for some reason to start and look dumb doing it. They shoulderblock battle and King wins it. They trade forearms with Bryce the ref doing dumb head weaves with each shot. Ryo does her usual stupid rope pull taunt and lariats King in the corner.
They let each other get free chest slaps which was also dumb and King was put into something like an anaconda vice but hit the ropes. Ryo charged into a spin kick then was german suplexed and dropkicked. King then spinebustered her for 2. Ryo popped up and hit an exploder out of nowhere really then speared her. Ryo then did a top rope legdrop for the win.
If these two just had a serious match it would have been good, but they had to be goofy and not treat this like a contest and I didn't like it at all.
The ref tries to pick up Ryo after but can't.
Bear Country did a feature video. They have been teaming for 3 years. Boulder said he was a singles guy but wasn't going anywhere, so he wanted to try a team. They said it took a long time for them to figure it out. Bronson said he has always been called "Bear" by his mom. He said they almost stopped wrestling during the pandemic. Boulder said Tony and Cody said they liked their act on Dark and told them to come back. Bronson said there is too much hugging and hand shaking in wrestling and that's not them. They said they plan to stay here for a long time and AEW is Bear Country.
I didn't have any issues with this except for making it known that Cody is in power which is bad.
Bear Country vs Private Party with Matt Hardy
Bronson shoulders down Kassidy early and suplexes him from the bearhug position. Quen gets pushed down but handstands and pops up with an enzugiri that Bronson blocks. Quen then gets whipped into a lariat. Boulder hits some hard shots in the corner and Quen just falls over on an irish whip.
Kassidy distracts Bronson from the apron and gets nailed off the apron for it then Quen flurries on Bronson. Bronson gets beat up in the corner with Hardy taking some shots. Kassidy jumps off of Quen's back to splash Bronson in the corner. Quen catches himself on a back body drop from Bronson and makes the tag.
Boulder comes in and double splashes both PP members in the corner. Kassidy and Quen both get caught on Boulder's shoulders and he fallaway slams them. Marko Stunt comes out to pull Matt Hardy off the apron then argues with Bear Country. PP hits a double enzugiri on Bronson and wins it.
Marko continues to argue with both after and Boulder grbas him. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus come to make the save and they both fight until it is broken up. I'm glad AEW sees something in Bear Country but I don't want to see them go heel and that's what I think happens here. The match was fine by the way though the finish was a bit light for AEW's standards. I'd rather see the Bears feud with Private Party or really any heel team.
Mike Sydal vs Scorpio Sky
Finally, it's the last match of the night. Sydal cartwheels off the ropes while Sky is bent over and dropkicks him. Sky hits a nice punch combo in the corner. Sky ties up Mike on the ground with a seated octopus clutch and Mike takes a hard fall on the floor when thrown out. Mike makes a comeback and does a limbo out of a lariat. Mike does a nice superkick and then leg sweeps him and standing moonsaults him.
They trade forearms and Sydal takes a couple of german suplexes. Sky spears Matt's knee and makes him flip then he does a leg lock and taps him out of nowhere to win, then refuses to break it. Matt Sydal then comes out and stops it but Ethan Page follows him and beats him up. The finish was totally random here but it wasn't too bad leading up to it.
Sky and Page left together.
Overall thoughts: This was a brutal show. It went longer than Raw does without commercials by 20 minutes and was not too entertaining.
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