AEW Dark Elevation results: Brian Cage vs. Willie Mack

This week’s AEW Dark: Elevation was filmed prior to last Wednesday’s Dynamite in Los Angeles with Paul Wight & Matt Menard on the call.

There was a lot of comedy on this show with one really fun match and some that could have been better with more time.

An Martin Luther King Jr. graphic with a quote of his opened up the show.

Nyla Rose, Marina Shafir & Emi Sakura (w/ Vickie Guerrero) def. Johnnie Robbie, Vipress & Zyra

If you’ve been following along, Rose and Shafir have had their issues recently with Guerrero also not being happy. Why? Good question. Sakura, as always, is always up for a random tag or trios match on Elevation. 

This didn’t last long as Rose hit a Beast Bomb on Zyra followed by Sakura getting the pin by just sitting down on her. Sakura’s facials indicated she seemed to like Rose as a partner while Shafir and Guerrero just glared as more arguing ensued walking to the back.

Daniel Garcia defeated Kevin Blackwood

For fans of the Northeast U.S. indie scene, Garcia and Blackwood are both from Buffalo and were in the well-publicized 2019 car crash that also included fellow Buffalo Brothers Puf and Kevin Bennett.

Blackwood and Garcia took the worst of it, but recovered over time and are now back to good. The two were paired up in Maine’s Limitless Wrestling for Garcia’s title run and Blackwood has made a name for himself on the indies since moving to the West Coast.

While evenly matched in the first few minutes, Garcia took over, knocking Blackwood to the outside and laying the lumber on the inside with chops and impactful hands and feet. Blackwood rallied, hitting a nice head and arm suplex followed by a double stomp for a near fall. Garcia eventually got the victory after a DDT that looked as if Garcia drove his opponent’s head into his knee on the way down.

Given more time, these could have had a banger and perhaps might on the indies again. Garcia moves on to face Action Andretti on Friday’s Rampage.

– Hardy Party (Matt Hardy & Isiah Kassidy) were backstage with Lexi Nair and prepping for their eight-man tag match tonight. Kassidy was wondering who the fourth man was when Hardy said Ethan Page was trying to get him to be more enthusiastic. Page and the fourth man — Brandon Cutler — entered with a goal: putting smiles on faces out there. Page called out Kassidy for being so pouty and both Page and Hardy questioned if Kassidy was deadass.

Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver & Alex Reynolds) defeated Ari Daivari, Zack Clayton & Nick Ruiz

I’m confused why Daivari isn’t teaming with Sonny Kiss and Jeeves Kay who are actually in the Trustbusters team. And why is Parker Boudreaux not with the group anymore? Why do I care about these things?

This was pretty competitive. Of note, Clayton does have some impressive size and plays a good heel, but there’s no room or real opportunity for him on the main roster. 

Silver got the hot tag and was in NBA Jam “on fire” mode on Cruz until Clayton and Daivari killed the vibe. Uno and Reynolds evened the odds and after clearing out the ring, the trio hit their swinging turnstile deal on Ruiz for the pin and win. Remember when it felt like Silver was going to break out and really be a pushed entity? Me too.

– Don Callis interrupted a Konosuke Takeshita promo with Nair. He tried to instruct Takeshita on what he’s doing wrong, that he needs help and needs to start winning. He then left him with his card and said to call him. He specifically mentioned Callis and Kenny Omega see a lot in him.

Rush & Preston Vance (w/ Jose The Assistant) defeated Misterioso & Diego Valens

This was a squash. Vance no-sold everything Misterioso threw at him and Rush then pinned him after hitting the Bull’s Horns. They then attacked Valens and whipped him with the infamous green cable Rush uses to choke everyone. They also ripped Misterioso’s mask off. I have a hard time caring about any of this LFI stuff.

Hardy Party, Ethan Page & Brandon Cutler defeated Serpentico, Luther, Ryan Nemeth & Peter Avalon

Page came out and asked the fans if they wanted to party hearty, ahem, Hardy. He said he was bringing in a fourth man who would bring the energy in local favorite Cutler. Cutler then danced to the Hardy music, Page danced to the music, and both Hardy and Page continued to urge Kassidy to cheer up.

Avalon looks a lot different now with his short haircut. He and Cutler picked up on their long-standing rivalry right away with Cutler getting the best of him. The heels eventually got Cutler in trouble and Page did his faux babyface best to get the fans behind his team. 

Kassidy got the hot tag and was rolling, hitting a big jump to the outside, launching off Hardy’s back. He hit a swanton on Serpentico, but Page pulled him off to get the pin himself. Hardy, Cutler and Page celebrated and Kassidy then got in Page’s face before being separated by Hardy.

Brian Cage (w/ Prince Nana) defeated Willie Mack

Mack got an entrance for his AEW debut, coming out to the Dark: Elevation theme music. Womp womp. The hometown hero is an alum of both Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground in addition to AAA. He surprised Cage early with a jumping kick coming off the ropes, but Cage quickly hit a side slam soon after to regain the advantage.

Cage gave Mack a lot here including a t-bone suplex and a “flying butt to the face” in the corner as Menard called it. Cage hit a superplex as Mack was ensnared in the corner but could only get two off off a front facebuster.

Mack hit a fallaway slam and then a moonsault off a kip-up out of nowhere that got two. The two had a great exchange of kicks until Cage hit him with an inside out lariat to take both men out, allowing the crowd to rally behind the match.

After a stunner, Mack missed a frog splash and Cage hit a running twisting neck breaker to get the pin to end a really fun match that the crowd loved. Make Dark: Elevation three or four matches like this every week, please. That’s all we need. Go ahead and check this out.

ROH Women’s Champion Athena defeated Zeda Zhang in a title eliminator match

The thing with these title eliminator matches is that they lose their effect when it’s against enhancement talent on the Dark shows. Now that I think of it, I can’t remember the last title eliminator resulted in a title match following it. Maybe something in 2021? Help me out.

Athena won this quickly with a crossface with fishhooks. Just call these non-title matches. Afterward, she did her usual post-match thing and attacked Zhang, not once but twice. Upon the second attempt, the returning Yuka Sakazaki ran out to make the safe and take out Athena with some forearms, later indicating she wants a title shot.

Neither Wight or Menard had any idea who she was and talked around it. Isn’t Tony Khan on headset?

– Backstage with Nair, Nana was very happy for what he has lined up in 2023. Dark Order then walked up and wanted Nana to join the group because he’s handsome and loves purple. Nana had zero interest and Reynolds then said he got an email from Nana about donating money to an orphanage. Nana then quickly got away as the Dark Order cracked Nair up with asking if they stink.

I assume these leads to an ROH Six-Man Tag Team match at some point as Dark Order is an afterthought with the main AEW scene.

Top Flight defeated Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta) and The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny) in a three-way

This was surprisingly short, ending in roughly six minutes, and had a strange finish.

Every team did what they do best with B&B laying in the heavy shots, Top Flight unleashing the flash offense, and the BCC being a hybrid of both styles

Castagnoli, the ROH Champion, got the hot tag and focused on Blade, hitting running forearms corner to corner over and over again. The Bunny got involved which led to Butcher laying out Castagnoli. That didn’t last long as Castagnoli got the literal giant swing on Butcher which the crowd loved. Before he could quit, Blade broke it up

At this point, I was wondering why Top Flight were even in the match. The Martin brothers then returned and got some offense in, getting the win after Dante Martin took out everyone on the outside. He then got back in and hit the Nosedive on Blade for the win out of nowhere.

This felt like they got three minutes or so cut and had to step on the gas late. It was fine, but odd.