AEW Dark Elevation results: Daniel Garcia vs. Matt Sydal

It’s Thursday and you know what that means: a special edition of AEW Dark: Elevation with a short card from Wednesday’s tapings in Houston, Texas.

Ortiz & Santana defeated Warren Johnson & Zack Mason

This was the second AEW match for Mason and Johnson. They started hot, but Ortiz and Santana turned things around quickly. The Inner Circle members won in quick fashion with a combination of a Samoan drop and a cutter, upping their record this year to 6-3.

Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero) defeated Steff MK (w/ Ashley MK)

This was MK’s first singles match in AEW. During the match, Ashley and Steff did twin magic by changing places but it was not enough to get the win. Rose (19-4) won after hitting the Beast Bomb. After the match, Rose attacked the other twin with a power bomb on top of the other. Later, Guerrero cut a promo about Britt Baker and putting over Rose.

Emi Sakura defeated Madi Wrenkowski

This match featured the return of the ace of ChocoPro to AEW. Her last U.S. match for the promotion was a loss to Big Swole on episode eleven of Dark. This match was also Sakura’s Elevation debut. While she was away, she was part of the greatest small promotion in Japan (ChocoPro) having awesome matches every week.

Sakura worked a more aggressive style. She was fantastic here and is a great regular addition for the women’s division now that she has moved stateside. Sakura won with a dragon sleeper.

Private Party (w/ Matt Hardy) defeated Will Allday & Edge Stone

This was Allday and Stone’s first match as a team. Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy (9-1 this year) dominated and won quickly after hitting Gin and Juice, rolling into their Tag Team title eliminator tournament match on Rampage against Jurassic Express.

Daniel Garcia defeated Matt Sydal

What stood out was how different the styles of both wrestlers were as Garcia was focused on being technical and Sydal focused on being a high flyer. Sydal did a good job showcasing Garcia and putting the spotlight on him ahead of his match against Jon Moxley on Rampage. Sydal and Garcia had some great submission exchanges against each other, giving us a different style of match that the ones we usually see on Elevation. In one of the first upsets in Elevation history, Garcia (2-3) submitted Sydal with a nasty looking scorpion deathlock.

Garcia later cut a promo backstage about his match against Moxley, this was really good. There’s a good chance Garcia is getting signed considering this recent win and because he is getting featured in one of AEW’s biggest shows so far. 

Final Thoughts:

This was a short and sweet show. Nothing overstayed its welcome and most matches served their purpose to help build up records. Garcia vs. Sydal was really good and a match worth watching.