10 AEW Dark Matches You Must See
1. Kenny Omega Vs Joey Janela (October 15th 2019)
A match designed to put AEW Dark on the map in just its second episode (the whole show has just shy of 1.5m viewers at time of writing, suggesting that the strategy was successful), Kenny Omega and Joey Janela's Lights Out match was ostensibly booked by Omega himself to try and ready himself for a similarly stipulated brawl with Jon Moxley weeks later.
A promise of violence was baked in thanks to the reputation of the 'Bad Boy' and the experimental side of the 'Best Bout Machine', and it delivered it by the truckload from very early on.
Both men welcomed weapons into the fray, but fans bit particularly on the moves that utilised them rather than the strikes themselves. Omega attempted to hit a One Winged Angel from the stairs on the arena floor, but Janela countered with a german suplex on the concrete. A corner ladder seemed primed for Irish Whips before the pair performed that same spot on that.
The stipulation (and Omega's own angle as an underachieving) was well serviced from there, and the match ages magnificently thanks to the AEW Champion's remarkable arc. Far from must-see in the beginning, it became it thanks to the company's big picture storytelling, and that in particular is to the company's immense credit.
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