You NEED To Watch Last Night's AEW Dark
An experimental AEW Dark format yielded positive results last night.
All Elite Wrestling experiment with last night's Dark, bookending the oft-ignored YouTube show with two high-profile matches, both of which had major title implications.
The first came courtesy of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. Company ace Miyu Yamashita felled reigning AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa on Saturday 9 July's excellent Summer Sun Princess '22 event, earning a future shot at #AllElite gold in the process. Championship ramifications aside, it is a fierce, competitive encounter serving as a great introduction to Yamashita, whose hard-kicking style and fearsome aura mean she is well-positioned to become many an AEW fan's new favourite wrestler.
England's Revolution Pro Wrestling provided the closer: PAC's first AEW All-Atlantic Title defence against rising star Shota Umino. Umino, who shone so brightly at Forbidden Door, showed his main event chops in a near 20-minute contest with 'The Bastard', who was characteristically nasty and precise. AEW's aim is to establish PAC's belt as one that can be defended anywhere - and this was the start of that.
Beyond the bookends, Private Party vs. Bear Country and Dante Martin vs. Nick Comoroto will satisfy those who enjoy smaller, more athletic men flying around and bouncing off gigantic opponents. Elsewhere, Willow Nightingale, former IMPACT star Rohit Raju, and Angelico looked good in squashes closer to the typical Dark format.
Ideally, AEW will be looking not only to raise Dark's profile with this experiment, but showcase the work its wrestlers are doing outside their Jacksonville home too. AEW-contracted talents work for other groups every single week. Dark is a great platform to share that work, hopefully encouraging curious AEW fans to explore wrestling's smaller stages in the process.