7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dark (Sep 15)
Cutler and Avalon fight to be the Last Loser Standing, Brian Cage gets beefy, and more.
One of the more deflating parts of being an AEW beat writer living in the United Kingdom is waking up on a Wednesday morning, clicking on the previous night's episode of Dark, and finding a 90-minute runtime staring at you, particularly on the back of a breezy couple of weeks that had seen the show flourish for its truncated length.
The cram is understandable, at least. AEW wants to give its less experienced wrestlers as many reps as possible, pad records, and give those who aren't making it to Dynamite regularly something to do, so they load Dark up with a double-figure match-count. That's the good part of the equation. The bad part? A diminishing viewing experience brought on by repetitive layouts and formulae, making Dark feel like more of an effort than any web series should be.
Last night's show at least had the appeal of Brandon Cutler and Peter Avalon's 'Loser Must Win' clash, as AEW's two lowest-ranked full-timers fought to finally put a 1 in their W column. Best Friends, The Dark Order, Private Party, Will Hobbs, Brian Cage, and Penelope Ford were among the wrestlers highlighted elsewhere.
Let's light the fuse.