5 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Dark (Jun 30)
In which The Young Bucks bring their working boots.
As a British AEW reviewer, surfing over to YouTube and seeing that Dark's runtime has been cut by a third on the previous week is a relief not because the show stinks, but because 9-12 similarly-structured squash matches is a lot.
This observation bears repeating every week because it's a problem every week. It's fine from a pure fan's perspective as you can cherry-pick the bouts you're interested in watching, though the format's flaws are thrust to the forefront when you consume every second every single week.
Last night's Dark was trimmer than usual with seven bouts stretched across its hour. Most of these were the kind of enhancement matches we have come to expect from the web series in recent months, with Ricky Starks, Lance Archer, The Butcher and The Blade, the newly-christened Nightmare Sisters, Shawn Spears, and Scorpio Sky all smashing overmatched talent. The main event saw The Young Bucks meet Peter Avalon and Brandon Cutler in a more competitive affair than some may have expected.
Let's light the fuse...