AEW Dark Elevation results: Dark Order vs. HFO, Andrade in action

Tony Schiavone and Mark Henry were on commentary for this week’s AEW Dark: Elevation, taped prior to Wednesday’s Dynamite in Garland, Texas.

Emi Sakura, The Bunny and Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero) defeated Jessica James, Gigi Rey and Lady Bird Monroe

Ruby Soho, Rose’s opponent in this week’s TBS title tournament semifinal, was on commentary which isn’t her strong suit. She admitted she was a bit scared of facing Rose.

This was the latest random women’s trios match AEW puts out there on Dark: Elevation every week. Sakura and Bunny got some offense in before Rose hit a Beast Bomb on one of the unnamed competitors before picking her back up and staring at Soho before delivering another one for the pin. Sakura and Bunny are still just treading water right now.

Red Velvet defeated Madi Wrenkowski

Wrenkowski returned for her 11th AEW outing. Eddie Kingston was out on commentary and had no idea what any of her moves were called so having him out there for two minutes seemed pointless. Velvet hit the Final Slice to win in less than two minutes in another treading water match. 

Bear Country defeated Chaos Project

Kingston stayed out on commentary for the rest of the show and even did a plug for Jon Moxley’s book.

Bear Country haven’t been on Dark: Elevation a ton the past few months, but have been doing double duty on the Universal Studios Dark tapings. They have a different look and have size, but it feels like AEW is stashing them until they have a real direction for them.

The size difference was pronounced when Bear Boulder was in there with Serpentico as a press slam turned into a backbreaker turned into multiple backbreakers. The crowd woke up for a Boulder spot with Serpentico in a power bomb position followed by catching Luther in a crossbody, dropping both men at once. Boulder dropping Bronson off his shoulders onto Luther got them the pin and win. This was a fine short match and Bronson moves on to face Hook on this Saturday’s special Christmas edition of Rampage.

Andrade El Idolo defeated Kaun

Henry seemed surprised Andrade was out for some reason. The crowd was into him, chanting “Idolo” and popped when he took his mask off. This was Kaun’s AEW debut while it was Andrade’s first match back since the street fight match with Cody Rhodes that saw him partially go through a flaming table.

Andrade played the bully and event got caught in a fireman’s carry gutbuster. He took too long and Andrade got him to submit with the Rings of Saturn.

Thunder Rosa defeated Amber Rodriguez

This was Rodriguez’s AEW debut and apparently an active member of the U.S. Coast Guard. Kingston said it wasn’t pro wrestling, a theme anytime Schiavone or Henry brought up something else the wrestlers did.

Rodriguez actually was in control for the first part of the match, but when Rosa got control, she didn’t give it up. After a corner lariat and a pair of dropkicks into Rodriguez while she was in the ropes, a fire thunder driver finished off Rodriguez and gave Rosa her 29th straight singles win in AEW.

Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson and 10) defeated HFO (Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy and The Blade)

It didn’t take too long for the HFO storyline/gimmick to be dropped in terms of relevance. Hardy feels like just another guy right now when he was a much bigger part of things a year ago.

Having said that, he hit a Twist of Fate to Grayson on the floor followed by a Kassidy springboard to the outside that Kingston said was like “poetry in motion” which Schiavone somewhat acknowledged. 

10 got the hot tag and cleaned house, leading to Uno nearly getting the win on Blade off a swanton. Uno nearly got pinned after a Kassidy enziguri, a Blade punch and a Hardy Side Effect. He rallied and after hitting Fatality with Grayson, 10 got the Full Nelson on Blade for the submission win.

Final Thoughts:

The crowd was pretty quiet for most of the show outside a few key spots and for Rosa. I was also surprised at how much the commentary team treats the show like a joke. If they aren’t taking it seriously, why should the viewer? AEW has an aversion to two-man booths for some reason and Kingston really didn’t add too much.

The show continued to serve as giving a place for Rosa to rack up wins and that’s about it.