9 Ups & 2 Downs For AEW Dark: Elevation

When AEW Dark: Elevation wasn't WWE RAW: Glorified, it was really quite productive...

By Michael Sidgwick /

AEW

Amid an already bloated pro wrestling schedule, AEW with Dark: Elevation had to achieve one thing: the show had to convince viewers that it was an essential viewing experience and not the second Dark show it literally promoted itself as.

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Dark is fun, but inessential. An irreverent and endearing exercise in stat-padding, the show is nonetheless baggy and repetitive. Dark is elevated beyond what it actually is - a growing streaming service-friendly content library masquerading as a push-facilitator and a benevolent gesture - by the fact that it never feels like a cynical strategy. The gloriously abstract commentary provided by Taz and Excalibur is crucial to the vibe.

This is a show on which Taz will provide necessary relief from the functional obligation of handing a certain act a win by singing and meandering on bizarre, glorious tangents. The in-ring action is mostly comprised of predictable, elongated squashes, and is promoted for strategy as much as the fan experience. These two objectives can sometimes collide quite thrillingly - Ricky Starks was in stunning form throughout 2020, treating Dark as a legit platform and not a supplementary YouTube revenue stream - but there's only so many six-minute vehicles one can watch before the monotony sets in.

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Did Elevation do more than that...?