AEW Dark was a professional wrestling web television program that was produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and aired on their YouTube channel.
The program featured dark matches taped before and after the preceding episode of AEW Dynamite, as well as feature segments highlighting the previous week's Dynamite and interviews with AEW personalities.
History[]
On October 2, 2019, All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) flagship program, Dynamite, premiered on TNT. During the event, there were four dark matches, two before and two after the live broadcast. During the media scrum following this event, AEW President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Khan stated that the dark matches would become available to view on video in some form. On October 5, AEW Executive Vice President and wrestler Cody Rhodes announced a sister program to Dynamite called AEW Dark, which would be the home of AEW's dark matches. On October 8, the program began airing on Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern Time (ET) on AEW's YouTube channel. During the week of a pay-per-view (PPV), however, Dark would air on Friday as the go-home show; this continued until May 2021 for that year's Double or Nothing PPV. Unlike the dark matches of other wrestling promotions, which generally do not affect storylines, these matches on Dark are part of AEW's storylines and count towards the wrestlers' match statistics.
During the November 5 episode, Tony Schiavone announced AEW Spanish commentator Dasha Gonzalez would be his co-host going forward. Schiavone and Gonzalez hosted segments on Dark from the "AEW Control Center," highlighting matches and storylines within AEW. On December 31, AEW aired a special episode called AEW Dark - 2019 Year in Review, featuring highlights of the show from the past year.
On February 24, 2021, AEW announced that a new spinoff of Dark would premiere on Monday, March 15 titled Dark: Elevation. This is the promotion's third program, after Dynamite and Dark, and airs on Monday nights at 7pm ET, also on AEW's YouTube channel. With the premiere of Rampage in August 2021, which also airs on TNT, Khan said that Dynamite and Rampage would be AEW's core properties, while their YouTube shows, Dark and Elevation, would be their peripheral properties, essentially their developmental shows. Rampage airs in the 10pm ET slot on Fridays and replaced Dark as the go-home show for pay-per-views.
On August 27, 2021, it was revealed that Dark would begin being taped at its own set within Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida at Soundstage 21, while Dark: Elevation would continue to be taped in conjunction with Dynamite. The first set of tapings for Dark at Universal Studios began on September 11, 2021. AEW plans to do Dark' s tapings about once a month, recording four shows per taping with each show lasting about 90 minutes. During the weeks that Rampage airs live, AEW will tape Dark in conjunction with Rampage.
Roster[]
AEW Dark featured both AEW contracted wrestlers and various independent wrestlers.
Commentators[]
| Commentators | Dates |
|---|---|
| Jim Ross and Excalibur | October 8, 2019 – October 15, 2019 October 29, 2019 |
| Excalibur and Taz | October 22, 2019 January 21, 2020 February 4, 2020 – March 24, 2020 April 7, 2020 May 12, 2020 – April 25, 2023 |
| Excalibur and MJF | November 5, 2019 |
| Excalibur, Goldenboy, Arn Anderson, and Chuck Taylor | November 8, 2019 |
| Excalibur and Dustin Rhodes | November 19, 2019 |
| Excalibur and Shawn Spears | November 26, 2019 |
| Excalibur and Nyla Rose | December 3, 2019 |
| Excalibur, Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy, and Britt Baker | December 10, 2019 |
| Excalibur, Vickie Guerrero, and Joey Janela | December 17, 2019 |
| Excalibur and Colt Cabana | December 24, 2019 |
| Excalibur and Chuck Taylor | January 7, 2020 |
| Excalibur and Dave Brown | January 14, 2020 |
| Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, and Excalibur | January 28, 2020 |
| Tony Schiavone and Cody | March 31, 2020 – May 5, 2020 |
| Tony Schiavone and Jimmy Havoc | April 7, 2020 |
| Tony Schiavone and Taz | August 4, 2020 – August 11, 2020 September 14, 2021 |
| Tony Schiavone, Taz, and Veda Scott | August 18, 2020 – August 25, 2020 |
| Excalibur, Taz, and Veda Scott | September 15, 2020 – September 22, 2020 |
| Excalibur, Taz, and Ricky Starks | September 29, 2020 – October 20, 2020 January 19, 2021 – January 26, 2021 |
| Excalibur, Taz, and Anthony Ogogo | October 27, 2020 – November 6, 2020 November 24, 2020 – December 15, 2020 January 12, 2021 February 2, 2021 – March 9, 2021 |
Ring announcers[]
| Ring announcers | Dates |
|---|---|
| Justin Roberts | October 8, 2019 – March 17, 2020 June 16, 2020 – March 4, 2023 Rampage-based shows. |
| Dasha Gonzalez | December 3, 2019 March 24, 2020 – June 9, 2020 August 17, 2021 September 14, 2021 – April 25, 2023 Studio-based shows. |
External links[]
- All Elite Wrestling on YouTube
- AEW Dark at the Internet Movie Database