This week's AEW Dark Elevation was filmed before last Wednesday's Dynamite in Fresno, CA, at the Save Mart Center. This week's show is actually the 99th Dark Elevation in history. Who knows what they have planned for next week? Ian Riccaboni, Paul Wight & Matt Menard were on the call.
Skye Blue defeated Zoe Dubois
There was a good pop for Blue per usual. I couldn't find any prior matches or info on Dubois, but Riccaboni did mention she was a rookie from the Las Vegas area. She started the match with a big knee and three back-to-back suplexes. Dubois looked good in this match and she got over well. They went back and forth some more until Blue hit her Skyfall finisher for the win.
The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny) defeated Beef Candy (Flex McCallion & Richie Slade)
Blade started the match hitting some impressive knife-edge chops onto Slade. The Bunny also got involved early behind the ref's back. Butcher entered and dominated McCallion just the same. Slade tried to help his partner, but Butcher and Blade stacked them up and hit Drag The Lake for the win.
After the match, Lexy Nair was backstage while ROH Women's Champion Athena was backstage looking for Yuka Sakazaki and found her. Their build to a future match continues:
La Faccion Ingobernable (Preston Vance & Rush) (w/ Jose The Assistant) defeated Papacito Blanco & Papacito Negro
I had no idea who these two were as they looked like a couple of buff guys from California that put on a mask for this match and the gimmick after. Rush wanted to go bump for bump with Blanko, but resorted to chops and threw him to the outside and then threw him in each corner. Vance tagged in and they looked ready to do some kind of double-team move, but it was really awkward instead. Negro tagged himself in, but Vance dominated him with strength and striking.
Rush and Vance set up another double-team move, but it just ended up being them mocking a football field goal, perhaps a jab at the Fresno fans after the Chargers lost last week. Rush hit a cannonball dropkick in the corner. Vance hit a discus lariat and they stacked them up for the pin followed by their traditional ripping the mask off their opponents.
Emi Sakura defeated Brooke Havok
The commentary team started by mentioning Havok is a graduate of the Nightmare Factory in Georgia. It's good to see them still mentioning that stuff. She started hot, but Sakura started pulling hair and being an old-fashioned heel. She even bent Havok over her knee and gave her a spanking. Never thought I would type that. Sakura hit her with the "We Will Rock You" chops to set up a backbreaker and a moonsault from the top for the win.
Ari Daivari & Tony Nese (w/ Mark Sterling) defeated Big Fonz & Jordan Cruz
Before the music could even get going, Sterling stopped it and talked about how there's a law that you can't be ugly in San Francisco. He then said they were going "down" to San Francisco to party with the pretty people. San Francisco is actually north of Fresno.
Nese started posing with Cruz who has been on NJPW Strong recently. Nese and Daivari cut off the ring and pummeled Cruz until he was able to get the hot tag to Fonz. The heels interfered again though with Nese hitting a running knee on Fonz for the win.
Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno & John Silver) defeated The Wingmen (Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth) & Serpentico (w/ Luther)
No offense to these teams, but I feel like I see some sort of combination of this match every week. Nemeth started with some gyrations and Luther screaming about how sexy he is. Silver came back with his own gyrations and Serpentico was so offended he jumped off the apron. Reynolds got a hot tag, but the heels attacked him on the outside and then cut off the ring.
Eventually, Avalon took out Silver on the apron, but it opened up a hot tag to Evil Uno. He delivered a move to each one of the opponents. Dark Order set up the Abyss, but Silver was tripped. It was all-out chaos after this as everybody took their turn until Silver and Reynolds singled out Avalon and hit a lariat/pinning combo for the win.