By Briar Starr, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@briarstarrtv)
AEW Dark (Episode 130)
Taped January 21, 2022 in Washington DC at Entertainment & Sports Arena
Streamed February 10, 2022 on the AEW YouTube Page
Excalibur, Taz, and Mark Henry were on commentary.
1. Sonny Kiss vs. Aaron Solo (w/Q.T. Marshall, Anthony Ogogo). Late in the match, Kiss rolled up with the bridge on Solo and nearly got the victory, but Solo turned it into a backbreaker. Shortly thereafter, Kiss hit a leg lariat and performed the splits, only getting a two count in a cover that followed. After missing a moonsault, Kiss was caught with a facebuster from Solo, who ended up gaining the victory.
Aaron Solo defeated Sonny Kiss via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: A great way to open up this special edition of Dark. Solo and Kiss were very competitive and the match turned out better than expected.
2. Gia Scott vs. Abadon. Abadon was on top of Scott early, but Scott lifted up Abadon and planted her with a backward powerslam. Abadon then sat out with a stunner and drove Scott’s head into the mat for the quick victory.
Abadon defeated Gia Scott via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: Abadon is currently on a five match winning streak. I’m not much of a fan for the hocus pocus stuff, but it seems as though she’s been spinning her wheels ever since losing to Britt Baker back in October on Rampage.
A Lee Johnson “Fully Loaded” promo was shown with Johnson discussing his new theme music.
3. Lee Johnson (w/Brock Anderson) vs. Powerhouse Hobbs (w/Ricky Starks). Johnson tried getting the upper hand on Hobbs with strikes and even hit the dropkick that sent him out to the outside. As the two fought on the outside, Hobbs threw Johnson into the ring post, laying out Johnson. Once Johnson and Hobbs returned to the ring, Hobbs dropped Johnson with the standing suplex.
Johnson attempted to regain momentum with an enzuigiri that didn’t even phase Hobbs. Johnson was able to land a vertical suplex on Hobbs that saw a big pop. Hobbs came back with a spinebuster and locked in the Torture Rack for the submission win.
Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Lee Johnson via submission.
Briar’s Take: Johnson was allowed to show some fight in his match. All in all, not a bad match.
4. Dante Martin, Matt Sydal, and Lee Moriarty vs. The Blade and “Private Party” Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy. The Blade and Private Party sneak attacked Martin, Sydal, and Moriarty as the bell rang. Later, Kassidy and Quen doubled teamed Sydal, preventing him from making a tag. The Blade tagged in and planted Sydal with a powerslam. Sydal eventually found a breakthrough by escaping out of the double suplex from Private Party and hitting double knees on Kassidy before tagging out. Moriarty stayed in for a brief while and called in Martin for the tag. Martin hit an assisted powerbomb on The Blade. Martin got the win for the team by finishing off The Blade with the double jump moonsault.
Dante Martin, Matt Sydal, and Lee Moriarty defeated The Blade and Private Party via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: A solid crowd pleasing tag team main event to close out the show. It turned into somewhat of a spot fest near the end with everyone hitting their spots after the HFO trio isolated Sydal throughout the majority of the match.
If you were like me, you were probably caught off guard with a special edition of AEW Dark that floated out there in the YouTube land. This is one of my smaller gripes, but it sure would be nice if AEW had said something about this episode on Dynamite instead of dropping the episode out of the blue. I know they used to do this a lot several years ago the day after a pay-per-view and drop a small episode without notice. With that in mind, if you’re one of the few people who caught the show, then the episode was quick and painless and I think it was definitely better than Tuesday night’s episode. There wasn’t a bad match on the card excluding the quick Abadon squash. The match of the night is Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Lee Johnson. As I normally say, the shorter the show is, the better the action is to follow along as you’re not trying to cram in tons of matches in one hour. Episode 130 clocked in at 38 minutes and 38 seconds. Final Score: 8.0 out of 10.
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