AEW Dark results: Caster vs. Reynolds, Kiss vs. Angelico
It’s Tuesday and you know what that means: time for AEW Dark. Taz, Excalibur and Anthony Ogogo were on commentary to begin.
The Butcher & The Blade (w/ Matt Hardy, The Bunny and Private Party) defeated Milk Chocolate (Brandon Watts and Randy Summers) (6:18)
The HFO (Hardy Family Office) interfered during the match. The suplex/power bomb combo (Drag The Lake) on Watts got Butcher and Blade the win.
Madi Wreskowski defeated Jazmin Allure (3:59)
Leva Bates was on commentary for this match to advance her feud with Wrenkowski who won after hitting a side slam and an axe kick.
Chaos Project (Luther & Serpentico) defeated Dean Alexander and Justin Law (5:06)
Alexander and Law made their tag team debut here, but Creeping Death on Alexander got the win for Chaos Project. I guess the point of giving them the win is so they will be taken more seriously against name competition, but no one is going to take them seriously against name competition.
Angelico (w/ Jack Evans) defeated Sonny Kiss (w/ Joey Janela)
Janela won last night on Elevation and Evans lost, so my suspicion was that things would get evened up here. Kiss started out holding his own with Angelico on the mat. Angelico outwrestled Kiss on the next exchange and then kicked him in the stomach. Kiss came back with a deep, deep armdrag that made me wonder if Ricky Steamboat taught an armdrag symposium at Dustin Rhodes’ school. Everyone on Dark is doing these deep armdrags and they all look fantastic.
Kiss looked good, but Angelico won after the Navarro death roll and an ankle lock. Kiss fought it for a little bit, but ultimately tapped out.
Max Caster promo
Ahead of their match tonight, Caster cut a great promo on both Alex Reynolds and the Dark Order, even calling out Hangman Page is a way that I don’t think we were meant to forget.
Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson and Colt Cabana) defeated Vary Morales, Bill Collier and D3 (7:47)
Never has a promotion needed trios titles more than AEW does. Collier (who debuted Monday against Jon Moxley) looks like a version of Big Cass that got shrunk in the wash, but is still pretty impressively big for this roster. The match started with Uno and D3 while Cabana watched relaxed on the entrance way. Collier got to look very impressive, catching Grayson coming off ropes for a tornado DDT and turning it into a suplex. Grayson came back with a hurricanrana. Tags were made and Morales got spiked into the turnbuckle by Cabana who later got the win after the Chicago Skyline on D3.
Jurassic Express (Marko Stunt and Luchasaurus) (w/ Jungle Boy) defeated Adam Priest & KC Navarro (1:42)
Priest and Navarro aren’t so big that they look ridiculous taking moves from Stunt. Luchasaurus got the tag and hit both Priest and Navarro with a chokeslam, pinning them both.
Diamante defeated Vipress (2:57)
This was a dominating performance from Diamante. After a trio of short arm clotheslines, she got the submission with a head and arm choke while Vipress was in a bodyscissors.
Team Taz (Brian Cage, Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs) (w/ Hook) defeated Jake St. Patrick, Sage Scott and Chandler Hopkins (4:56)
The dissension among the members of Team Taz continued to be teased here as Hobbs and Starks refused to tag Cage in. While the ref was distracted, Hook hit a nice gutwrench suplex on the floor. Starks hit the Roshambeaux, but Cage tagged himself in and finished with the Drill Claw for the win.
Big Swole, Red Velvet and KiLynn King defeated Ashley Vox, Delmi Exo and Vertvixen (7:44)
King is fresh off a loss on Elevation last night, but is now on the pushed face team. Vox and Exo are sisters who work as The Sea Stars.
Swole and Exo started out. Swole used a cravat and then took her down with a tackle into a headlock. Swole tagged out to Red Velvet and there was a bit of a miscommunication among their team, but Velvet eventually got a near fall after a leg lariat. Exo came back with a side slam for a near fall and Velvet wound up in the heel corner where Vox hit her with a forearm. Vox held Velvet open for a clothesline, but Velvet ducked and Exo hit her sister instead, leading to the hot tag to King.
King wound up on the floor and ate a clothesline from Vertvixen, who I believe she has a previous issue with from past Darks. They wound up knocking each other out on simultaneous kicks and tags were made to Swole and Vox. Swole dominated both Sea Stars, taking Exo down with a out-of-the-corner uranage, a la Samoa Joe. Vox charged Swole in the corner, but she dodged it and hit Vox with a cutter for a near fall. Vertvixen ran in to knee Swole in the face and everyone got in the ring to brawl.
Vox and Exo tossed King and Velvet on the floor and hit them with stereo planchas. Swole joined them on the floor and Vertvixen came in for JR’s favorite spot: the suicide dive onto the pile on the floor. Back in the ring, Exo threw Swole back in and helped her sister deliver a senton, but Swole got the knees up. Tags were made and Velvet hit Vertvixen with the Chef’s Kiss. A roundhouse kick from King, a rolling elbow from Swole and another Chef’s Kiss finished off Vertvixen for the win.
This was all action. Post match, Jade Cargill came out to confront Velvet once again.
Michael Nakazawa defeated Mike Magnum (4:07)
And from that, to this.
Nakazawa was introduced as “coming from the desk of Kenny Omega” and was dressed as an AEW page. Not Adam Page or Ethan Page, mind you, but like an unpaid assistant type page.
This was a comedy match. Nakazawa wore a headset in the ring and was constantly getting notes on the headset from the back. The headset was eventually destroyed during the match although Nakazawa kept trying to fix it. Then, he decided to choke his opponent out with it. After getting untangled from the headset, Nakazawa walked into a DDT from Magnum for a near fall.
Nakazawa hit Magnum with a laptop and then hit him with, well, let’s just call it a tombstone powerslam to got the win. Nakazawa was positioned to deliver a tombstone, but instead fell forward into a powerslam. It was acknowledged on commentary that it was inspired by Kenny Omega and Don Callis’ live interview a few weeks ago.
This was a match that did not need to happen.
Miro & Kip Sabian (w/ Penelope Ford) defeated Baron Black and John Skyler (2:31)
Before the bell, Miro destroyed Black on the floor. Then in the ring, he destroyed Skyler. Sabian hung out in the corner and talked to Ford while Miro beat on Skyler and soaked in the boos of the crowd. A thrust kick and Game Over finished Skyler.
I 100% support Miro crushing several jobbers at a time in three minutes until he’s the number one contender for the World title.
Max Caster (w/ Anthony Bowens) defeated Alex Reynolds (w/ John Silver) (8:22)
In his rap to the ring, Caster said Reynolds helped train him, but he “hates him anyway.” Caster also called out Hangman Page again. Poor Anthony Bowens has to feel like Marty Jannetty about to go through the Barber Shop window any minute.
Caster is fundamentally sound in the ring and has great psychology. He worked over Reynolds’ arm and would constantly go back to it to get the advantage. Reynolds started to make a brief comeback, but Caster pulled him by the hair into a backbreaker. Caster then went to a top wristlock. He missed a charge into the corner and Reynolds came back with a series of elbows and a dropkick. A flipping neckbreaker got two.
Reynolds went for a fisherman’s suplex, but Caster broke free by attacking Reynolds’ bad arm again. Reynolds came back with a pop-up high knee and went for a moonsault, but missed. Caster went to use the boom box as a weapon, but Silver got up on the apron to break it up. This distracted the referee and allowed Bowens to toss Caster a big chain which was used to waffle Reynolds. Caster dropped the elbow off the top to get the win.
Final Thoughts:
Compared to Monday, ninety minutes is a lot more reasonable length. Max Caster continues to develop and is going to be a huge star. Caster’s match and the women’s trios match are both worth seeking out.