AEW Dark recap (Oct. 19, 2021): Law and (Dark) Order

Episode 113 of AEW Dark is in the books! If you missed the live broadcast click here for the Cageside Seats stream. Let’s talk about what went down on YouTube. Your commentary team for this edition was Excalibur and Taz.

Jamie Hayter (w/ Rebel & Britt Baker) vs. Tiffany Nieves

Hayter brought a singles record of 1-2 so far in her 2021 return to AEW, but that hardly matters if you’re the right hand woman to the champion. Nieves was waiting for her in the ring to make her AEW debut. Hayter overpowered her into the corner immediately but Nieves turned her around to throw forearms. Hayter responded with a hand full of hair, a takedown, some ground and pound, and a big vertical suplex. Hayter stomped on Nieves repeatedly and finished her with a short arm lariat for a strong and decisive squash match. Hayter’s gonna hate.

The Gunn Club vs. Alex Chamberlain, Dean Mercer & Diamond Sheik

Billy Gunn and family brought an undefeated trios record of 15-0 to the ring, where Chamberlain, Mercer & Sheik were already waiting to make their team debut in the trios division. Taz put over Diamond Sheik and Excalibur said (paraphrasing) “Yeah you did that the last time he was on Dark!” Mercer tagged out to Chamberlain after taking a two-on-one beating from the younger Gunns. Austin tagged in his dad to a roar from the Miami crowd. Chamberlain made a very brief comeback before Billy gave him a scoop slam and went for the pin. Sheik came in to break it up but Billy quickly took over again. Colton begged his dad for the tag and hit the Colt 45 for the pin. A longer squash is a squash just the same.

Thunder Rosa, Kris Statlander & Red Velvet vs. Nyla Rose, Emi Sakura & Diamante (w/ Vickie Guerrero & Lulu Pencil)

Rose, Sakura and Diamante came out first for the match, but their opponents were certainly not waiting for them in the ring. Velvet and Diamante started the match but Statlander quickly tagged in and Diamante quickly tagged out to Rose. She overpowered everyone’s favorite alien into the heel corner, Diamante tagged in, and Rose threw her on top of Statlander for a near fall. Statlander caught her on a crossbody and slammed her down hard before tagging Thunder Rosa, and she too got a nice pop from the crowd in Miami. Rose tagged herself in but got the worst of it for a minute before she tagged out to Sakura. Rosa unloaded on her with chops and kicked her right in the neck. Velvet tagged in but Sakura gave her a Glam Slam. It turned into a cluster with all six women hitting the ring at will until Velvet hit the Final Slice on Sakura for the pin. I won’t say I didn’t enjoy it... but it was also a little chaotic even by multi-person Dark match standards.

Before we could get our next match, Jade Cargill and “Smart” Mark Sterling interrupted commentary as they were promoting Rampage and Dynamite (Friday and Saturday night respectively). Sterling declared Cargill “the future TBS champion” and said Rampage would announced the tournament brackets this Friday. Sterling said Cargill shouldn’t even be in the tournament — she’s undefeated, just hand her the belt. Cargill threatened to “walk Thunder Rosa like the dog she is” and Cargill rebranded TBS as “That Bitch Show.” Shouldn’t that be “That Bitch’s Show?” Oh well, whatever.

Lance Archer (w/ Jake Roberts) vs. O.T. Fernandez

Per his usual Archer threw Fernandez down to the ring, stopping only momentarily to give Roberts a fist bump. Eddie Kingston joined commentary and said he had no fear of Archer this Saturday because he’s a man, not a boy, so let Archer play with his toys. Archer hit a Black Hole Slam and Kingston told him to “hurry up” and finish Fernandez already. Archer wasn’t interested though and gave Fernandez chop after chop as Roberts laughed and the crowd roared. Fernandez tried to jump off the top rope and got punched right in the face. You know what comes next — The Blackout. Archer stood on his opponent to make the pin. Archer’s victories on the Dark shows are the most deliciously violent of them all.

Frankie Kazarian vs. Aaron Solo (w/ QT Marshall & Nick Comoroto)

Marshall replaced Kingston at the commentary position for this match. Excalibur immediately proclaimed it an upgrade. Taz said the only way that Solo could win was by making Kazarian lose his temper. The crowd erupted in the middle of the match, which makes me think Comoroto did something we couldn’t see. Kazarian must have thought so too because he went outside and got in his face, and when he went to get back in the ring Comoroto grabbed a leg and yanked him off the apron. Solo came out to take advantage. He speared Kazarian into the apron, threw him back in the ring, and laid in the boots and the chops before a pair of hard Irish whips. Kazarian nearly caught him with a roll up but Solo hit him with a Coup de Grace for a near fall of his own. Back and forth they went, move for move, strike for strike. Solo hit a corkscrew kick and teased a Pedigree but got reversed. Kazarian hit him with a leg drop and got a near fall. Comoroto interfered again and Solo went for a roll up. Kazarian kicked him off, the two bonked heads, and Kazarian immediately caught Solo in the crossface chicken wing for the submission. A very fun match!

The Dark Order (Stu Grayson, Colt Cabana, Alan Angels & 10) vs. Daniel Garcia, 2point0 & Serpentico

Serpentico, 2point0 and Garcia came out first for the eight-man main event. Thankfully this also meant Luther was nowhere in sight. A full compliment of The Dark Order accompanied Grayson, Cabana, Angels & 10 to the stage before they went down to the ring. AEW didn’t even bother to put up record for either team, because by the time you get to four-on-four it isn’t even a “division” in AEW any more. Angels was the face-in-peril as the heels cut off the ring with quick tags to work him over. Aubrey Edwards finally got fed up with the numbers game and admonished them to get out of the corner. Angels made a hot tag to 10 after giving Serpentico a Spanish Fly, and he cleaned house until Grayson tagged himself in. Garcia caught him with a knee to the gut but he responded with a power slam before Matt Lee broke it up. 2point0 warned Serpentico not to tag himself in but he did anyway. Cababa tagged in to give Serpentico the “boom boom” but kept getting interrupted, so he finally hit Garcia instead. Serpentico got sent flying backward into Vance, who immediately locked on the Full Nelson for the win. The Miami crowd threw up their Dark Order signs in response!

What to watch/skip

Tonight’s “what to watch/skip” is brought to you by Law & Order. Not my greatest pop culture reference, but since the eight man tag was the featured bout tonight, it’ll have to do. This was another short show clocking in at just over 40 minutes, but the “must watches” are Archer’s squash, Kazarian vs. Solo and the main event-o. The women’s trios match is a close runner up. I ha(y)te to say this but Hayter didn’t get enough time to do much so you could easily skip her match, even though I wish she was featured on Dark and television more.

Cageside commentary crew! Get up off your seats and leave your feedback in the comments section below. See you next Monday for a new episode of Elevation!