By Briar Starr, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@briarstarrtv)
AEW Dark (Episode 179)
Taped January 6, 2023 in Portland, Oregon at Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Streamed January 17, 2023 on the AEW YouTube Page
Excalibur and Taz were on commentary…
1. Danika Della Rouge vs. Kiera Hogan. Hogan went to the top rope after the bell rang and hit a diving hurricarana to Rouge. However, Rouge fired back with a flapjack to Hogan. Hogan regained momentum with multiple back elbows to Rouge. Following the move, Hogan ended Rouge’s night with an inside hook for the win.
Kiera Hogan defeated Danika Della Rouge via pinfall.
2. Carl Randers vs. Brian Cage. Cage began the match with a thrust kick to Randers. Afterward, he hoisted Randers up and landed the throwaway slam. Cage would lift up Randers and power bombed him twice before scoring the victory with a discus lariat.
Brian Cage defeated Carl Randers via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: Back-to-back showcase matches for Cage and Hogan, who hit their basic moves and ended their matches pretty quickly. Randers made his AEW debut, while Rouge suffered her third straight AEW loss.
3. Brian Cook and Deimos vs. J.A.S.’S Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia. Deimos and Garcia began the match respectively for each team. Garcia got the better of Deimos, which made Cook tag. Guevara, who also tagged in, got a suplex to Cook along with a corkscrew dropkick that sent Cook to the outside. A short time later, Guevara finished off Cook with a GTH.
Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia defeated Brian Cook and Deimos via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: Good, solid tag team wrestling from Guevara and Garcia, who made short work of Cook and Deimos.
4. Action Andretti vs. Ari Daivari. Like last week, Daivari offered Andretti a spot in the Trustbusters since the Jericho Appreciation Society was beating him up weekly. Andretti said maybe joining the Trustbusters was what he needed after being attacked.
After the bell rang, Andretti pretended to lie down but rolled up Daivari instead for a two count. Andretti followed up with a flipping torpedo from the bottom rope. Andretti attempted a maneuver from the top rope. Daivari countered the move by hurting the eye that was injured when Andretti took the fireball shot. Andretti was caught afterward by a clothesline from Daivari. Andretti regained momentum with a hanging neckbreaker combination to Daivari and then flew to the outside landing on him. Andretti got the victory with a running shooting star press.
Action Andretti defeated Ari Daivari via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: A great quality match between Andretti and Daivari. AEW did a good job of following up on the fireball by having some redness around Andretti’s eye. I had no doubts regarding who would go over given that AEW is currently behind Andretti, and I’m looking forward to his match with Daniel Garcia on Friday’s Rampage.
5. Jaiden vs. Powerhouse Hobbs. Jaiden was over with the crowd. His night was over before it started, as Hobbs landed a spinebuster and flattened him out on the mat for the win.
Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Jaiden via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: The only thing to note here is this was Jaiden’s AEW debut.
6. Eddie Pearl and Ricky Gibson vs. Matt Menard and Angelo Parker. Menard and Parker attacked Pearl and Gibson before the bell rang. Menard and Parker continued to dominate and ended up winning with an elevated DDT.
Matt Menard and Angelo Parker defeated Eddie Parker and Ricky Gibson via pinfall.
Briar’s Take: It was hard to tell who was in the ring here, as Excalibur didn’t do as great of a job pinpointing who was who. Nonetheless, it was a short and sweet victory for Menard and Parker.
7. The Butcher and The Blade vs. ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta and ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli. The match was started unofficially on the outside with The Butcher and The Blade doubling up on Yuta and Castagnoli. Eventually, the bell rang after both teams got in the ring. The Butcher and The Blade hit a gut-wrench/dropkick combination on Castagnoli. The Butcher and The Blade continued their domination over Castagnoli by making cohesive tags.
Castagnoli found a breakthrough with a suplex on The Blade, who tagged out. Castagnoli looked for his partner Yuta, who was on the outside, allowing The Butcher to land a backward suplex. Castagnoli began fighting back with multiple uppercuts on The Blade. The Butcher hit a leg drop with some assistance from The Blade.
Shortly thereafter, Castagnoli dropped an enzuigiri on The Butcher and tagged out. Yuta came in with an elbow strike to The Blade and hit a German suplex. Castagnoli landed an uppercut on The Blade, and then Yuta landed a splash from the top rope to score the victory.
Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli defeated The Butcher and The Blade.
Briar’s Take: A good match. Yuta spent too much time on the outside being isolated after being attacked by The Butcher and The Blade. I suppose it it made storyline/match sense, but the comeback at the end felt a little predictable.
A short and simple episode 179. There were a lot of brief matches, which is fine, but only Action Andretti vs. Ari Daivari and the main event really stood out. The other matches were brief and didn’t amount to much. So I recommend those two matches for anyone who is to short on time to watch the full episode. Episode 179 clocked in at 43 minutes and 32 seconds. Final Score: 6.0 out of 10.
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