AEW Dark recap (May 31, 2022): Easy Come, Easy Ogogo

Episode 146 of AEW Dark is in the books! If you missed the live broadcast click here for the Cageside Seats stream via YouTube. Your commentary team was (as usual) Excalibur and Taz, plus Caprice Coleman returned on commentary after we got our first taste of him in AEW on Elevation last night. Join me below for the fifth consecutive day of All Elite action!

ROH Women’s Championship: Mercedes Martinez vs. Viva Van

Martinez brought a record of 7-3 in AEW while Van brought a record of 0-2. Bobby Cruise returned as the ring announcer for this match. Say what you will about Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor but he seems to be commented to keeping the ROH flavor. Martinez dropped Van across the ropes, gave her the Execution Forearm, and applied the Brass City Sleeper. This victory was even quicker than the one last night. Coleman: “Making short work of her opponent. This is a champion who wants to be dominant for a long time.”

The Butcher & The Blade (w/ The Bunny) vs. Hunter Grey and Paul Titan

Butcher & Blade brought a tag team record of 24-11 to this contest. Grey & Titan were teaming together for the first time in AEW for this match. Excalibur: “This is going to be a very physical match. I can tell just by looking at the competitors.” Taz was impressed by their offense, which reminds me a lot of Bear Country — throwing each other into their opponents, and not being afraid to interfere to break up a pin legally or otherwise. Titan broke up a near fall but got thrown out and wasn’t able to stop Drag the Lake from finishing Grey. Coleman: “For their debut they did a great job.” Mr. Coleman is right.

Anthony Ogogo vs. Carlie Bravo

Ogogo brought a singles record of 14-1 to date in All Elite Wrestling. Bravo brought a singles record of 0-2. Taz claimed Bravo could hand out thousand dollar bills to the fans and they’d still hate his guts. Ogogo talked trashed as he whooped Bravo, drawing praise for Coleman for being able to do both things at once. Bravo got a knee drop and a salute in as Coleman also complimented Ogogo’s opponent for his military service. That didn’t stop Ogogo from tossing Bravo high in the air, landing the right hand, and draping the flag over his body. Aubrey Edwards counted to ten to signal the match had come to an end.

Jamie Hayter vs. Danika Della Rouge

Hayter brought a record of 4-1 for 2022. Rouge was waiting for her in the ring to make her AEW debut. Coleman noted that Rouge was trained by both Rikishi and the late Buddy Wayne. Taz: “I understand she was trained by incredible people but she’s got to keep bringing that fight against Hayter.” To prove his point Hayter hit a back breaker, a rip cord clothesline, and immediately got the pin. Hayter climbed the ropes and cleaned out her ears so she could hear the response to her win, then kissed the bicep for good measure.

Serpentico, Ryan Nemeth & Peter Avalon vs. Evil Uno, John Silver & Preston “10” Vance

Serpentico and The Wingmen were working as a trio for the first time. I’m sure that fact doesn’t surprise you. 60-24, 50-28 and 61-21 were Uno, Silver and Vance respectively. Taz couldn’t help but notice how happy the crowd was to see Uno, and not surprisingly the heels and their honorary wing man took the time to beat him down and get a “let’s go Uno” chant going. Serpentico threw himself into Uno for a headbutt (since Luther wasn’t there to do it) but Uno gave him a neck breaker in return. The Wingmen grabbed Uno by the trunks to stop the hot tag but he hit a double stunner and got to Vance, who promptly cleaned house. Combination stunner and springboard German suplex. Vance was going for the full nelson but the heels broke it up. Silver returned the favor and Uno did a cannonball to the outside to wipe out the heels. Vance hit the spinebuster, tagged in Silver, and they did the Pendulum Bomb as the whole crowd counted along to three.

What to watch/skip

As I chose to highlight “The Guv’nor” in the headline this week, tonight’s recap is sponsored by “Hands of Stone.” I’ve noticed people in the comments section occasionally say they’d like to see AEW do more with Ogogo, and I’m firmly in that camp. It’s fun to watch him destroy enhancement talent, but how about putting him in the mix on Rampage or Dynamite doing the same? Then he could at least work his way up to a TNT Title shot, or get involved in a feud with someone established — say perhaps Wardlow. I think it would be fun to see two strong guys with power offenses like that mix it up. Ogogo and Vance would be a good “hoss match” too. It’s hard to rate this episode because everything but the main event was a squash, some super quick, and the whole episode was a half hour total. Judged on its own that might be a dud but after so many days of wrestling I was eager for short, quick, decisive matches and this show gave me my fix. The only “must sees” were Ogogo and the main event, but it’s easy half hour to watch on demand when you’ve got the time.

Cageside commentary crew! Share your feedback in the comments section below. If you love pro wrestling you can find me on Twitter too. See you Monday for Elevation!