AEW Dark Elevation 100 results: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Blake Christian

This week’s edition of AEW Dark: Elevation hit a massive milestone of 100 episodes. The first one aired two years ago in March 2021 with Jungle Boy at the top of the show. My, how times have changed. 

This week’s show was filmed before last Wednesday’s Dynamite in Lexington, Kentucky, with Ian Riccaboni, Matt Menard and Paul Wight on the call.

Red Velvet defeated Billie Starkz

This was a rematch from a mid-December Dark match taped at Universal Studios in Orlando.

The 18-year-old Starkz was tremendous in this match. They started out very physically with Starkz hitting elbows in the corner, followed by two German suplexes. They exchanged pinning combinations after a perfect swanton bomb by Starkz. However, a poisonrana and spin kick by Velvet finished off Starkz who is now 0-3 in AEW.

– ROH Women’s Champion Athena was backstage with Lexy Nair but she quickly kicked her out. She needed to find a tag team partner for her match tonight and walked up to Diamante, asking the cameraman for her name. The only way Diamante was going to join her was if she was given a title opportunity. Athena agreed and we were on.

Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) (w/ Evil Uno) defeated The WorkHorsemen

“Johnny Hungie” chants rained through the arena as Silver got his offense going against Anthony Henry. JD Drake made his way in and started throwing Silver around like a rag doll. The WorkHorsemen cut off the ring, but some showboating opened up for a hot tag to Reynolds. He took out both members of the heel team and planted Henry with a tiger driver for a near fall.

A misstep by Reynolds took out Silver and the WorkHorsemen were back in front, but Silver got right back up and hit Drake with a German suplex to set up Henry for the stunner suplex bridge combo and the win. That move is always so crisp.

Rush (w/ Jose The Assistant & Preston Vance) defeated Brian Pillman Jr.

Pillman Jr. got a big reaction from the Ohio Valley area crowd. Menard talked about how the locker room saw this match on the card tonight and were talking about it. Except for a few high-flying outbursts, this was slow and methodical by Rush. He took him to the outside and threw so many knees to Pillman Jr.’s face that referee Aubrey Edwards had to join them and try to pull him off. 

Jose and Vance used this opening to attack Pillman Jr.. Once they were back in the ring, they started chopping and slapping the hell out of each other. Both men’s chests were nearly purple by the end of it. Rush followed the exchange with the Bull’s Horns to get the win. 

After the match, somebody threw the neon green cable into the ring which Rush used to whip Pillman Jr. and choke him. 

Skye Blue & Yuka Sakazaki (w/ Madison Rayne) defeated ROH Women’s Champion Athena & Diamante

Diamante came out with glow sticks in between her fingers for Athena’s entrance, but quickly ditched them which really pissed off Athena. Diamante started with Sakazaki. Each team took turns cutting off the ring, but Blue definitely got the worst of it and got beat down for several minutes. Sakazaki finally got the hot tag and hit a missile dropkick and body slam onto the ROH Women’s Champion. 

Each member of the match took the other out, but Sakazaki took out Athena. Diamante took over and got hit with a kick and helicopter slam pin for the win. Athena was faking an ankle injury on the outside and was getting ready to attack Sakazaki, but all three women in the ring stared her down so nothing happened.

Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) defeated Ari Daivari & Tony Nese (w/ Mark Sterling)

Sterling told the crowd that not showering in Lexington is a crime so he bought everyone a bar of soap that was under their seat. But this was obviously a lie and he called everyone who looked under their seat guilty. This was really funny.

Top Flight was as good as you can get in this match. They started off with a great double team move, but Nese quickly cut off the ring against Darius. Both Daivari and Nese were in the ring punching him in the corner and Rick Knox just kinda stood there. Darius turned it around with a double hurricanrana and tagged in Dante who came in with a crossbody and a tope suicida. The two teams traded near falls until Dante hit Daivari with his Nosedive for the pin and win.

– Yuka Sakazaki was getting interviewed by Lexy Nair in the back, but Dark Order interrupted. Due to Anna Jay A.S. leaving, they asked her to join. Sakazaki just kept saying “hai” which is yes in Japanese. They thought she was introducing herself and didn’t understand, so they walked away.

Kings of the Black Throne (Brody King & Malakai Black) defeated The Outrunners

OVW’s Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd) looked like a team straight out of the 80s. They didn’t have a chance against King and Black who got a mammoth reaction. Each of the Outrunners took a turn against Black, but both got dominated. King came in and chopped each guy to death, followed by King hitting Magnum with an assisted piledriver for the quick win.

ROH Champion Claudio Castagnoli defeated Blake Christian to retain

Caprice Coleman joined the commentary desk for this one. I just saw Christian a few weeks ago live at GCW in Charlotte, so I was really excited about this one. 

Castagnoli came out of the blocks hot with a dropkick and early pin attempt. The champion didn’t really face any adversity in the first few minutes. Christian looked like he was going to get something done, but Castagnoli moved out of the way of a springboard dive and took back control. He drove Christian into the ring post on the outside. Every single move that Christian tried to pull off, Castagnoli countered with something even better. 

Eventually, the challenger hit a bulldog and a spear onto the apron and connected on a Fosbury Flop. Castagnoli kicked out of a double stomp and tried to start his giant swing, but Christian rolled him up and hit a 450 splash for a great near fall. Castagnoli got back up and hit a straitjacket power bomb and started his swing. The ref thought it was enough and called it in the middle of the swing. This was a really awesome main event to close the 100th Dark: Elevation.