5 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dark (Jan 19)
Sammy Guevara, Luchasaurus, Top Flight, and Santana and Ortiz shine in Tuesday showcases.
What should we expect from All Elite Wrestling this week? Middling ratings, that's for certain. Joe Biden's inauguration as President of the United States will lead to another night of television dominated by news coverage, and it's already established that these things have a bigger impact than Dynamite than NXT. The numbers will almost certainly underwhelm at first glance.
The Dynamite card looks solid without anything that immediately grabs the attention. Cody Rhodes is in action against a guy whose last singles bout on TNT was in November 2019. Jon Moxley will squash a jobber. Brodie Lee Jr.'s birthday celebration will be lovely, endearing, and essential, while the Inner Circle's three-way tag should push them closer to all-out civil war, particularly if Chris Jericho and MJF win.
Dark, meanwhile, came loaded with some of the biggest names you can reasonably expect to see on the YouTube series. The Lucha Brothers, Santana and Ortiz, Sammy Guevara, and Scorpio Sky were all present and correct. There was also a strong focus on mid-level tag teams, with Chaos Project, The Acclaimed, and Top Flight all given showcase spots.
Bumped back up to two hours this week, much of Dark was typical - though the show definitely peaked higher than usual.
Let's light the fuse...