AEW ELEVATION: August 9, 2021

The PG Era Rant for AEW Elevation Episode 22 (“Can You Speedrun A TV Show?”), August 9, 2021.

From the AEW Arena.

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and Eddie Kingston. Man, Big Show even jobs on commentary.

TONIGHT! Pretty Peter Avalon looks to re-arrange the Captain, Shawn Dean! In what should be a hoss war, Rickey Shane Page returns to face the Machine, Brian Cage! And it’s a family affair as Matt and Mike Sydal face Penta El Cero Miedo and Rey Fenix – the Sydal Brothers vs the Lucha Brothers!

Plus: Hikaru Shida, Red Velvet, Jurassic Express, and Jade Cargill!

Opening match: Red Velvet (next challenger, #3 women, 13-2) vs. Renee Michelle. On Rampage’s debut episode, Velvet will face Britt Baker…

Sorry, Michelle jumps Velvet from behind and clubs away on her. Spin kick and Michelle works over Velvet in the corner with kicks and back elbows. Running forearm, but Velvet escapes a slam and gets a single leg lariat. Clotheslines cue the comeback into a casadora bulldog. Standing moonsault, but no cover. Final Slice ends it at 1:13. That’s about how that match should have gone when there’s a future title contender in it. NR

Rampage ad.

Peter Avalon (w/Cezar Bononi, JD Drake, and the LOVE SLED OF DOOM) (4-4) vs. Shawn Dean (1-3). So here we have two guys who started out as losers… and although Dean only has one win, this is a good idea to get another one. Both men get entrances, so it’s not like this is a showcase match by design. If they put Chicago native Dean on Rampage: the First Dance, it’s gonna be a huge pop. Tickets are still available in Pittsburgh.

Avalon shoves down Dean off a lockup and chops him. Dean comes off the ropes with a clothesline and slam to take over, then gets a suplex. Salute into the Lumbar Check… wins it at 43.7 seconds! I’m not even mad, the guy deserves it! NR Dean then salutes some Wounded Warriors in the front row.

Dynamite is in Houston on August 18.

Hikaru Shida (#5 women, 36-4) vs. Tesha Price (0-9). Okay, much as I love Hikaru, Tesha’s fun as well and let’s give this match time, please. Kingston explains that he’s thinking Statlander won’t be champ until 2023 because Hikaru Shida will be in the way. Price has a bouquet of flowers and gives one to both Shida and the ref, then throws the rest to the crowd.

…and then the bell rings and Price loses her mind. She gets kicked, but tanks it and gets a headlock takedown on Shida. Shida with a neck-scissors, Price gets out and legsweeps, then goes ground-and-pound. Shida reverses a corner whip and slaps Price mid-scream, then adds a HHH facebuster and running knee in the corner. Shida goes up top to celebrate, so Price shoves her to the apron and ties her up Sheamus-style before kicking her. The referee gets separation, so Price argues, which allows Shida to smash Price. Price reverses a suplex into a small package for one. They criss-cross, and Shida with a jumping knee and Falcon Arrow for the win at 1:44. Well, they got more time than the other two matches… NR But seriously, this is about maximizing. It’s actually a good two-minute match, even if it gets a technical no-rating. Check it out anyway.

Last Week, 2.0 and Daniel Garcia were interviewed. In the future, Daniel Garcia will face Fuego Del Sol. Garcia says he picked AEW for the challenge. Fuego picked AEW for a long time, but AEW didn’t pick him. Garcia wants a match with Darby Allin on Dynamite in Pittsburgh.

Speaking of, here’s an ad for the Pittsburgh double-shot.

BONUS MATCH: Bad Romance (Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss)…

…NEVER MIND, as Janela gives Kiss the SUPERKICK after asking him to spin around! The crowd buys into the heel turn and boos Janela, who walks off. The opponents (Baron Black and DMC) check on Kiss, so Janela turns around and beats both of them up too! Black eats the post, and DMC gets tossed off the ramp down the steps! Janela returns to Kiss and carries him along the ledge in front of the crowd… then piledrives him on it! Janela rips up their team shirt and poses in front of some middle fingers as officials check on Kiss. So much for the bonus match. Kingston says that if this is the Joey Janela he remembers, AEW is in for it.

AEW Elite GM App ad.

Brian Cage (12-3) vs. Rickey Shane Page (0-1). For whatever reason – probably because we have too many Pages as is – Rickey is known as RSP. The face turn for Cage stuck, as the crowd cheers him.

We start hot, as Cage gets a tilt-a-whirl headscissors and dropkick on Page early. F-5 is tried, but Page escapes. Cage with a big kneelift, but Page ducks a discus clothesline and lands a 540 kick. Slam and Page goes up, but the half-senton airballs. Discus lariat by Cage sets up a powerbomb into an F-5 for the pin at 1:15. Maybe we shouldn’t have had that Friday Dark episode if everyone else was rushed. NR

All Out ad.

Jade Cargill (w/Smart Mark Sterling) (8-0) vs. Amber Nova (0-3). I don’t think this’ll break the string of quickies. I know we asked them to tone down the length of shows, but I don’t think this is what we had in mind. Sterling gives the referee his business card.

Nova taunts Cargill, so Cargill gives her a pump kick. Pumphandle flip facebuster follows and Cargill taunts the crowd. Jaded ends this at 45.8 seconds. I would’ve mixed up the matches on Dark 101, Dark 102, and Elevation a tad just to make the shows important. NR

Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy Perry (#1 men, 13-2) and Luchasaurus) (w/Marko Stunt) (#4 team, 8-1) vs. Cyrus and Carlie Bravo (first time teaming). Cyrus had a heck of a power match with Cezar Bononi in his first appearance, and Carlie Bravo has looked good teaming with Shawn Dean.

Cyrus and Bravo jump the opponents from behind, but Perry with his rebound clothesline to Bravo and Saurus powers Cyrus out by the throat. Chokeslam to Bravo and Snare Trap gets the win at 32.0 seconds. What is this, Wrestling Challenge? NR

Rampage ad #2.

Main event and it’s not even 7:30 – Sydal Brothers (Matt and Mike) (3-5) vs. Lucha Brothers (Penta El Cero Miedo and Rey Fenix) (w/Alex Abrahantes) (15-8). Meanwhile, they finally talk about the August 25 Dynamite – Milwaukee – after hyping the one before it and the one after it. Kingston refers to Penta as “my best friend”, so the Penta/Kingston tag team hasn’t been fully forgotten. Fenix does some rope acrobatics, slips off, catches himself on the apron, and finishes the drill. I give it an 8.5 just due to the mandatory deduction.

Mike and Fenix start with a Code of Honor. Lockup, and Mike gets a side headlock. Fenix reverses, so Mike re-reverses, and when Fenix tries to shove off, Mike turns it into a headscissors, then another. Fenix with a big chop to get the knuckles of Mike and leap up the ropes, and he stops himself from being crotched by Mike to leap back up and get an armdrag. Mike ducks a roundhouse with the splits and gets a pair of rollups for two, and the two go for dropkicks at the same time before kipping up and showing full respect to a huge ovation.

Now it’s time for Matt and Penta to take over, and it’s Third Eye vs Cero Miedo. The MIEDO shove by Penta, but Matt tries to poke Penta in his third eye. Penta stops him with a spin kick and catches Matt trying to back roll to his feet with another one. Blind charge misses and Matt with a backflip into an armdrag, then a spinkick to floor Penta. Calf kick follows and Matt mounts Penta in the Victory Roll, getting a rana out of it to send Penta to the floor. Baseball slide is dodged and Penta tries to throw Matt on the apron, but Matt handstands so Penta kicks him in the gut! A chop against the guardrail follows, and back in, Fenix is brought in as I’m about 10 seconds behind the action.

Big punt by Penta sets up the Casadora Spin Splash by the Lucha Brothers for two. Fenix ties up Matt in the corner and gets a Silencio Chop on him. TKO try by Fenix, but Matt reverses it to the Slice and a mariposa splash for two. Fenix and Matt slug it out now, with Fenix rattled by one of the shots, and Matt gets kicks until Fenix gets a roundhouse enzuigiri, so Matt follows with a spinkick for the double-down. Fenix can’t stop the tag to Mike, who comes in with a spinning DDT (like five rotations) for two. Mike clubs down Penta and gets a splits Falcon Arrow for two, Penta saves. Mike backs Penta into the Sydal corner and brings in Matt, but Penta launches both guys to the apron.

The Sydals get double roundhouses and both go up the same corner, so Fenix climbs that corner and Penta tries to follow but gets knocked off by Mike. The Sydals knock Fenix to the mat and gets the Steiner Brothers dive into a double meteora (with Mike diving onto Penta) for a very close two. Matt goes up again, and this time Penta shoves him off into a cradle by Fenix for two. Running kick to Matt as Penta tosses Mike onto the ramp (and then Fenix with a twisting plancha onto him). Fenix leaps over Matt and tags in Penta, then catches Matt with a legsweep. Wazzup Dropkick by Penta, and a spike Fear Factor gets the pin at 8:18. Can one match save the show? It can on Elevation when it’s this! ***1/2

Well, I think I can safely say that the main event is worth the show by itself, but Janela also turned heel and Shida/Price was fun while it lasted. As for that Dark from earlier in the week, I missed it live but went back and did a recap. I was going to post it Thursday, but given how quick this was, I’ll throw it in in a new post tonight.

STATS:

BELL-TO-BELL – 14:32 over seven matches, or less time than it takes Greg Valentine to warm up.

MATCH OF THE NIGHT – The only one that went over two minutes.

THREE STARS:

1. Penta El Cero Miedo
2. Matt Sydal
3. Joey Janela

Okay, let me call up that Dark for y’all.