AEW Dark Elevation results: Takeshita vs. Limelight

It’s Monday and you know what that means: time for AEW Dark: Elevation with Tony Schiavone and Paul Wight.

Dark Order’s #10 (w/ -1) defeated Zack Clayton 

10 slid out of a bodyslam attempt and locked in the full nelson to finish off Clayton. 

Miro defeated Hayden Backlund (2:11)

Schiavone said that Backlund is a distant relative of Bob Backlund which a cursory internet search verified. Miro slammed him so hard that his COVID-19 protocol bracelet came off. Game Over got the submission. 

Tay Conti & AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida (w/ -1) defeated Katalina Perez & Leila Grey (3:58)

Shida won with the katana: a spinning knee to Grey’s head. This was better than any women’s tag team match this weekend even though it wasn’t anything other than Conti and Shida having fun with some jobbers. 

The Hybrid2 defeated Carlie Bravo and Dean Alexander (4:25) 

Bravo and Alexander were part of the Nightmare Family, which has been split by the Cody Rhodes/QT Marshall feud into The Factory (led by Marshall) and The Nightmare Family (led by Rhodes). Bravo and Alexander haven’t picked a side yet. Angelico got the submission on Alexander with the Navarro death roll.

Orange Cassidy (w/ Best Friends & Kris Statlander) defeated John Skyler (3:55) 

This was a more competitive squash, but it was still a squash. A spinning DDT and Beach Break got Cassidy the win. 

Rising Star Profile: Shawn Dean 

Dean joined the Navy shortly after 9/11. He was doing pretty well in wrestling and getting consistent bookings until the pandemic happened. Then, he got some work with AEW and got fired for missing work for doing an AEW loop. A week later, he was hired by Tony Khan. This was a nice profile. 

Konosuke Takeshita defeated Danny Limelight (8:34)

Takeshita is a big star for DDT in Japan so this is the match everyone is going to be interested in. This match is so important they brought Excalibur out for commentary to help Schiavone and Wight (instead of just feeding them lines over the headset as Wight implied on commentary). 

After some competitive matwork, Takeshita took the advantage with a leg lariat and flying clothesline with a middle rope senton getting a near fall. Takeshita threw some hard chops that Limelight cut off with a thumb to the eye. A Limelight swinging neckbreaker was followed up with a slingshot senton for two. Takeshita came back with a huge blue thunder bomb, a running helluva kick (“What a hell of a kick!” says Excalibur) and a brainbuster that got another near fall. A pop-up sitout power bomb got another two count.

Limelight came back with a double jump springboard tornado DDT for two. He went for a cazadora, but Takeshita threw him off, hit a forearm and then a strong lariat. Takeshita went for a German suplex and Limelight rolled through, but Takeshita countered into a wheelbarrow German suplex for the win. This was a great match you should seek out. 

And then, the squashes began.

FTR (w/ Tully Blanchard and Wardlow) defeated Midas Black and Jay Lyon (4:24)

Midas and Black have a somewhat amusing lion and lion tamer thing going. Lyon has a lion mask on and Dax Harwood immediately knocked it off. Lyon got completely taken apart by Harwood and Cash Wheeler until he caught Harwood with a lucky knee and made the tag to Midas. Midas was even less effective than Lyon, getting dropped immediately with a brainbuster. A spike piledriver on Black resulted in Wheeler getting the pin. FTR are now 16-1 in AEW. 

PAC and Fenix defeated Andre Montoya and Vary Morales (5:18) 

This is a preview for Young Bucks vs. PAC and Fenix on Wednesday.  After stereo superkicks on their opponents, PAC and Fenix mocked the Young Bucks pose. Fenix pinned Morales after a frog splash. 

Dante Martin (of Top Flight) defeated Baron Black (3:45) 

Black is another victim of the Nightmare Family/Factory Fracture. Black is also 0-7 and got a jobber’s entrance so I didn’t like his chances going into this one. He tried to German suplex Martin off the top rope, but Martin flipped through and landed on his feet. Martin then hit a superkick and a 450 splash for the win. 

Martin is now 6-3 in singles competition which shocked me because all of those matches have to happen on Dark or Dark: Elevation. I have probably watched them all, but none of them have stood out because are part of these marathon shows where nothing sticks with you.

Britt Baker (w/ Rebel) defeated Skye Blue (4:27)

This is the AEW debut for Blue. She did a matrix move to avoid a clothesline from Baker, but Baker countered by kicking her arm out from under her. Baker hit a neckbreaker on the floor and while Baker distracted the referee, Rebel choked Blue with her crutch. Back in the ring, Baker hit a superkick and an air raid crash. Baker finished her off with a curb stomp. 

After the match, Tony interviewed Baker, who wants to see an update to the rankings on Wednesday since she’s on a quest to become the number one contender.  

QT Marshall & Nick Comoroto (w/ Aaron Solow) defeated Andrew Palace & Cole Karter (3:37)

This is the tag team debut of Palace and Karter. As a big fan of Comoroto from the Darks in the beginning of the year, teaming with Marshall feels like such a waste. Comoroto hit a really nice slingshot elbow into the ring on Palace. Karter got the tag and got hit with a neckbreaker for his trouble. After a press slam into a power bomb, Marshall got the tag and hit the diamond cutter for the win. 

Mike Sydal defeated MT Nakazawa (5:01) 

Michael Nakazawa is now “MT Nakazawa” but that didn’t change anything. 

I have no use for either of these guys. Nakazawa grabbed Sydal by his nipple and wishboned Sydal around the ring post in some examples of the unfunny comedy from this match. Even the commentators sounded annoyed by Nakazawa’s joke offense. Nakazawa tried to hit Sydal with his laptop, but Sydal avoided it and rolled him up for the pin. After the pin, Nakazawa hit Sydal with the laptop and run off to complete uan absolute waste of time. 

When critics say “AEW is just a place for the Elite guys to give their friends job,” it’s awfully hard to argue that when a QT Marshall match is followed by a Nakazawa match.

Leyla Hirsh defeated Shanna (4:37)

Hirsh won with the cross armbreaker in a match that was hard to get into after the last one. 

— Alex Marvez tries to interview Takeshita, but Omega and Nakazawa chased him away. Omega took over and in welcoming Takeshita, he put himself over and tried to cash in on a favor from their DDT days to get Takeshita to team with Nakazawa against the Sydals. Omega made a match for next week’s Elevation: Nakazawa and Takeshita against the Sydals. (Editor’s note: this was later changed to a six-man where Omega will take with Nakazawa and Takeshita against the Sydals and Limelight.)

Penta El Zero M (w/ Fenix and PAC) defeated Brandon Cutler (6:45) 

It should not take more that six minutes for Penta to beat Cutler. I also don’t know why these guys are wrestling on a show that is supposedly about giving younger performers who need time to work more time to work. Penta won with the package piledriver and Death Triangle taunted Cutler after the match. The Young Bucks did not make the save for their friend. 

Thunder Rosa defeated Diamante

Rosa won in a pretty good back and forth match that took us past the two hour mark. Diamante went for the Code Red, but Rosa countered with an Alabama slam and the fire thunder driver for the victory. This was a good match, but the run time at this point made it hard to get into.

Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page defeated Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela (9:40)

I don’t understand why Sky was broken off from the rest of SCU to get a singles push, only to now be in a tag team again.

Kiss got the hot tag after Janela spent most of the match getting worked over. He took Sky out with an enziguri and hit a handspring elbow on Page. Kiss got a near fall on Page, then he and Janela hit stereo planchas on the floor. Back in the ring, Sky hit a DDT on Janela for a near fall. Page got the tag and went for the Ego’s Edge, but Janela escaped and hit a moonsault.

Janela and Kiss hit a inverted DDT/split leg drop combo on Page for a near fall. Kiss got hit with a kick from Sky and then Page hit Kiss with the Ego’s Edge for the win. This was an okay match, but again, the placement in the show hurt it a bit.

Best Friends (w/ Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander) defeated Ryan Nemeth and Cezar Bononi (7:10)

Chuck Taylor got a near fall after Soul Food because of a cocky cover. A little while later, Best Friends hit the Strong Zero on Nemeth to get the win. And you’ve got to give the people what they want: the four-way group hug. 

Final Thoughts: 

There were 14 matches over two nights of WrestleMania and there were 17 matches over two hours of Monday’s Dark. That’s basically an 80s WWF taping. 

Seek out both the Takeshita and Rosa matches.

Once you get past a certain point (roughly an) hour, an endless string of squashes becomes not entertaining. Are there good matches? I guess. But as a show, Elevation is exhausting to sit through and has lost the point of elevating new talent.