AEW Dark results: Varsity Blonds & The Acclaimed in six-man tag action

It’s Tuesday and you know what that means. 

This week’s action was taped last Wednesday in Garland, Texas, after AEW Dynamite. Well, I’m guessing it was after as the house lights were turned down, probably because a good amount of poepl epeople left after Dynamite wrapped.  

Red Velvet defeated Alejandra Lion (2:37) 

Velvet is an entirely different performer from when I first saw her on Dark in January. Also, coming from a lit up arena with a hot crowd that was hot for all the matches made a huge difference.

Lion got the advantage with a front facelock and from that position, she raked her long fingernails against Velvet’s exposed back. Ouch. Lion missed a charging knee in the corner and Velvet battered her larger opponent with a pair of clotheslines, a double knee onto her prone opponent in the ropes, and a standing moonsault. Velvet finished Lion with a new finisher (the Final Slice) which starts out like Marty Jannety’s Rocker Dropper, but Velvet rolled forward instead of dropping down. Nice finish.

— Joey Janela cut a promo with Sonny Kiss, reaffirming their partnership. (The last I saw, things were rocky here). Janela promised on next week’s Dark 100, they would get a big win to make them the top contenders, but he didn’t mention any opponents other than the Young Bucks. Even if it’s Dark 100, I don’t think they are gonna get the EVPs on Dark. 

Abadon defeated Killa Kate (3:04) 

Kate wasn’t much of a “Killa” here, getting knocked to the floor early on and ground and pounded into the mat by Abadon. Back in the ring, Kate tried a triangle choke, but Abadon pushed through and punched Kate in the mouth. Abadon missed a charge into the corner, but hit Kate with a spinning back fist. Kate tried to mount an offense, but Abadon nailed a snowbomb and her DDT variation to finish her off. This was another dominant win for Abadon. 

Diamante defeated Big Swole (5:37) 

They showed a recap of last week’s angle with Diamante and Big Swole before the match to set things up.

Swole and Diamante exchanged deep armdrags to start. Swole caught Diamante with a kick for a near fall and then a crucifix for another near fall. Swole worked over Diamante with a bodyscissors, but Diamante escaped. Diamante took over with chops and strikes in the corner, caught Swole with a hot shot and then a clothesline from behind.

The commentators speculated that Swole might have been caught with a chop in the throat because she was struggling to breathe like Billy Gunn a minute into a match. Diamante wore down Swole with a chinlock. Swole escaped a comeback with a pair of chops and a big Glasgow Kiss-like headbutt. Swole was knocked over the ropes and tried to come back in with a sunset flip over the ropes. But Diamante cradled Swole’s leg with one arm and grabbed the top rope with the other while referee Rick Nox counted three. Good stuff here. Diamante is becoming a player. 

Evil Uno & Stu Grayson defeated Zach Mason and Warren Johnson (5:04) 

The entire Dark Order came out to a nice pop from the crowd, but none of the other members stayed at ringside. Johnson and Mason are regulars on the Texas independent scene and got to look pretty impressive working over Uno in their corner. Uno came back, reversing a suplex on Mason. Tags were made on both sides and Grayson dominated Johnson with an overhead belly to belly suplex and an uranage. Grayson hit both his opponents with a tope con hilo. Uso hit a delayed suplex on Johnson and the original Dark Order duo finished Johnson with the running knee strike from Grayson, setting up the piledriver from Uno for the win. 

Dante Martin & The Varsity Blonds (w/ Julia Hart) defeated The Acclaimed & Nick Nemeth  (7:43)

There was a recap of the hostilities between the Acclaimed and Varsity Blonds from the last two weeks. 

Max Caster’s raps continue to be the best part of Dark, starting with talk of repealing the Second Amendment (in TEXAS!) and ending with a line about Ezekiel Elliott’s dog. 

Martin and Caster started out and Martin defied gravity with every move. They started by exchanging arm ringers and Martin leapfrogged his opponent, spun around him, and then bounced off the bottom rope to hit a dropkick. The Acclaimed tried to double team Martin, but he escaped and got the tag to Brian Pillman Jr., so the Acclaimed bailed and left Nemeth to get worked over by the Blonds. Pillman hit a dropkick on Nemeth while Griff Garrison held him up (like the Hart Foundation’s old Hart Attack finish) and worked over Nemeth.

When Nemeth distracted the referee, Caster floored Pillman with a clothesline and the Acclaimed and Nemeth triple-teamed Pillman. Pillman tried a comeback with some chops, but Anthony Bowens responded with a sleeperhold.  A Northern Lights suplex got a near fall for him. Nemeth got the tag and — after a lot of preening — he hit a shoulder in the corner to Pillman’s midsection. Nemeth and Bowens tried a double team, but Pillman came back and took both guys down with a crossbody off the top.

Pillman got the tag to Garrison, who dominated all the heels, hitting Bowens with a kick, Caster with a splash in the corner, and then both members of the Acclaimed with a splash in the corner. Garrison hit Caster with a flapjack for a near fall, but Caster kicked out. Garrison tried to set up a back suplex, but Caster countered into his own. Garrison flipped through and hit a rolling elbow. Pillman got the tag and went for Air Pillman, but Bowens ran in and caught him with the uranage to take him out. 

Bowens took out Garrison with a superkick and then Martin flew in with a double jump moonsault to take out Bowens. Caster went for a top rope elbow on Pillman, who rolled out of the way and almost beat Caster with a rollup. 

Pillman got the tag to Martin, who came in and hit Caster with a shotgun dropkick off the top. The Acclaimed and Blonds got into a brawl on the floor while Nemeth and Martin battled in the ring. Nemeth went to whip Martin into the corner, but he leapt over the corner and hit the four guys on the floor. Nemeth looked shocked and Martin took advantage, hitting a flip cutter and jacknife cover on Nemeth for the win. Martin is amazing. 

After the match, Pillman cut a promo on the Acclaimed and said the Blonds would run through a concrete wall to get the Tag Team titles. 

Final Thoughts:

This is exactly what Dark needs to be with enough time to show short history packages on all the angles before the important Dark matches. Velvet, Martin, the Acclaimed and the Blonds looked very impressive this week. The extra hour of television can’t come soon enough as these performers need to be featured on Rampage, especially the women.

It is well worth checking out the six man tag and Swole vs. Diamante. 

Also, a non-Dark note: I had the Road to FIght for the Fallen on YouTube while I was finishing this and that was also a fun fifteen minutes to get you hyped up for tomorrow night’s Dynamite.