It’s Tuesday and you know what that means: a half-dozen AEW Dark matches, taped in early-November in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with Excalibur and Taz on commentary.
This show featured a pretty good Dark main event between Trent Beretta and Anthony Henry. Overall, this wasn't a bad way to kill an hour.
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Dalton Castle & Boys defeated Justin Corino, Jaden Valo & Defarge in a non-title match (2:30)
This was a fun little comedy match where Castle got the pin on Corino after the Bang-A-Rang. Excalibur intimated that the champions would be doing something at Final Battle, but nothing was officially announced.
Abadon defeated Leva Bates (2:39)
Abadon was injured a few weeks after this was taped, so this is probably her last AEW match for awhile. Bates delivered a nice looking Northern Lights suplex while Abadon hit a sweet cutter while diving into the ring. Bates delivered a release German suplex, but Abadon capitalized with a hook kick when Bates hesitated. Abandon hit the Black Dahlia to get the pinfall. .
Brian Cage (w/ Prince Nana) defeated Leon Ruffin (5:35)
Ruffin had a neat spot where he sprung off of all three ropes in one corner to avoid Cage and then hit him with a dropkick. Cage responded by backdropping him into a different orbit and breaking him in half with a side backbreaker.
Cage caught Ruffin on the floor and power bombed him into the ringpost. Back in the ring, Cage went for a power bomb but Ruffin escaped and responded with an enziguri. Ruffin got one last hope spot in with a springboard cutter, but Cage then took his head off with a clothesline, followed by a power bomb and Weapon X to get the pinfall.
Nana and Cage cut a brief promo after the match.
Jay Lethal & Satnam Singh (w/ Sonjay Dutt) defeated The Brick City Boyz (1:54)
Jeff Jarrett didn’t come out with the rest of the TNAtion tonight (my own name for Jarrett’s group) so I guess he doesn’t work Dark tapings.
Dutt cut a promo on the Boyz (Newark, New Jersey natives Julio Cruz and Victor Chase). Dutt said that Lethal was the King of New Jersey, and Taz quipped he didn’t know why anyone would want to be known as that.
Singh press slammed Cruz out of the ring onto Chase on the floor. Back in the ring, Singh hit Cruz with a spinning bossman slam, and Lethal finished him off with the Lethal Injection. The commentary was more fun than the match, but that’s not unusual for Dark.
Athena defeated B3CCA (3:11)
B3CCA blew off a handshake from Athena and ate a forearm. B3CCA hit at least the third variation of a springboard cutter on this show thus far for a near fall. Athena picked her up for a suplex, but instead of falling backward, she dumped B3CCA out to the floor. Back in the ring, Athena tied up her legs and locked in an inverted dragon sleeper to force her opponent to tap out.
Trent Beretta (w/ Chuck Taylor) defeated Anthony Henry (10:49)
Beretta countered a front guillotine with a backdrop and then clotheslined Henry to the floor. Beretta followed up with a slingshot plancha. Henry avoided a charge from Beretta, who flew into the barricade. Henry then ran a lap around the ring and crashed into Beretta with a leg lariat, sending him over the barricade and into the crowd.
Back in the ring, Henry worked over Beretta's often-injured neck with a chinlock. Beretta countered a piledriver attempt with a jackknife cover, but Henry came back by cranking on Beretta’s neck. Henry went to the middle ropes, but Beretta yanked him down into a backdrop suplex. Beretta followed up with hard chops, a German suplex, and a half-and-half suplex. He got a near fall after a spinning DDT.
Beretta went to suplex Henry out to the floor, but he caught his own neck on the top rope in an awkward spot. He fell to the floor and hit Henry with a spear. Back in the ring, Beretta got a near fall after a knee to the back of the head. Henry crotched Beretta on the top and brought him crashing down to the mat with an avalanche falcon arrow. Henry hit a double foot stomp to Beretta’s back and Beretta landed awkwardly on his neck.
The fight went to the apro where Henry tried to set up a piledriver. Beretta countered and caught Henry with The Crunchy on the apron.
Back in the ring, Beretta and Henry exchanged chops and forearms. Henry cranked Beretta's neck again and hit a piledriver for a near fall. Henry tried to go for the pin with a jackknife cover, but Beretta countered into a cradle of his own and held Henry down for the three count.
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