7 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dark (Jul 21)
A new alliance forms, Darby Allin returns, and more.
Conjuring genuine excitement for a web series that is essentially All Elite Wrestling's version of WWE Superstars, Metal, or Jakked is difficult, even when the lineup highlights wrestlers the beholder is invested in. The format wears thin. The squashes are often good, though you click the play button knowing you're going to sit through seven-to-ten examples of pretty much the same thing every week.
The silver lining of this mediocre throughline is that it's easier to appreciate anything that looks different. We got that last night.
Darby Allin's first match in two months went down on Dark, not Dynamite, as he faced hard-jobbing Wednesday veteran Robert Anthony. Aaron Solow's positioning opposite Scoprio Sky suggested a basic enhancement role though his history teaming with full-timer Rick Starks on the indies brought intrigue. What on Earth was Tino Sabbatelli (wrestling here as "Sabby") going to do in his first match in over three years?
These aren't the kind of hooks that'll raise the YouTube viewership by 100,000 clicks, but they're nice to have, They freshen things up. Alongside them were spotlight moments for The Butcher and The Blade, Diamante, Best Friends, Hikaru Shida, and more.
Ups are worth watching. Nothing was exceptional, nothing was terrible. Let's light the fuse...