This week's edition of AEW Dark: Elevation was taped last Wednesday before Dynamite in Worcester, MA, with the wonderful Tony Schiavone and Mark Henry on the call.
Julia Hart defeated LMK
In the second AEW match of her career, Little Mean Kathleen (LMK) from Beyond Wrestling faced the menacing Hart.
LMK started with a huge slap that really seemed to tick off the newest member of the House of Black. Hart used her gymnastics background to hit a cartwheel clothesline in the corner followed by a nasty forearm to the back of LMK's head. She then locked in her finishing submission for the win.
Leila Grey defeated JC
Grey, who is coming off a loss against TBS Champion Jade Cargill, has been getting looks from Stokely Hathaway as of late. Hopefully, he didn't see this one because it was sloppy. Gray hit a fisherman's suplex, a senton, and then an odd-looking knee to the face for the win.
AFO's Angelico, Private Party and The Butcher & The Blade defeated Joey Ace, The Brick City Boyz & Waves & Curls
This was a lot of sweaty men in this one. As Henry said, it looked like a battle royal was about to break out. It was basically a spotfest with the AEW regulars getting in at least one spot each on the Northeast indie guys. Angelico was the one to end the match with a crazy submission hold that neither I nor Schiavone knew the name of.
The Factory (Aaron Solo, Anthony Ogogo, Nick Comoroto & QT Marshall) defeated BRG, Shook Crew (Bobby Orlando & Bryce Donovan) & T.U.G. Cooper
We just finished up a quick 10-man tag, so now it was time for an eight-man. This featured another group of Northeast Indie wrestlers squashed by The Factory.
The Factory was their normal disrespectful selves. This match was a lot slower and more calculated than the last multi-man match. Comoroto looked really good as a powerhouse just throwing these guys around. Solo connected on a double stomp from the top rope and tagged in Marshall who hit his cutter for the win. This was a really good match for what it was: a Factory squash match.
Cole Karter defeated Serpentico (w/ Luther)
Karter has only been back in AEW for about a month after signing with WWE NXT and seems to be getting a push as his record is now 2-1. The only loss comes from the now former FTW Champion Ricky Starks.
Luther and Serpentico played the heels, distracting the referee and using dirty tactics to get the upper hand. On the other hand, Karter was giving off this pretty boy persona that I don't particularly see as a babyface. Serpentico actually had most of the offense in this match. He went for a high-risk move off the top, but Karter turned it around into two lariats and a high boot. He followed that with a powerslam that Michael Cole would have called "vintage Randy Orton" to set up a 450 splash for the win.
Later, Karter was backstage for an interview. He was asked about Marshall offering him a spot in The Factory. Before he could even get a word out, The Factory showed up and Marshall put them all over. Karter accepted and is now part of The Factory.
Athena defeated Christina Marie
Athena was great in this match, showing out against Marie with an early tornado springboard splash for a two count. A big forearm and knee set up a half exploder where it looked like Marie got dropped right on her head. Athena followed that with a forearm and double knees which set up the Eclipse for the win. Schiavone pushed for a TBS title shot for Athena after the win.
Hikaru Shida, Toni Storm & Willow Nightingale defeated Emi Sakura, Marina Shafir & Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero)
They really made sure they called this a trios match instead of a six-woman tag team match. Also, the babyface team got a huge reaction from the crowd.
Storm started across from Shafir and they engaged in some great pure wrestling to start. Rose made her way in and hit Storm with a bodyslam and a pin attempt that Nightingale broke up. Each one of the women took their time with Storm, getting the heat in this main event.
After about five minutes of offense from the heels, Nightingale got the hot tag and took out Rose with some forearms in the corner and then Shafir with a pounce that almost sent her out of the ring. Shida got tagged in and the heels just took the advantage again. The entire babyface team ended up hitting a double suplex onto Shafir and Rose. The former AEW Women's Champion hit the falcon arrow on Sakura while Storm kicked the others out of the ring for the win.