AEW Dark

AEW Dark, or simply Dark, is an American professional wrestling streaming television program that was produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), running from October 8, 2019, to April 25, 2023, on AEW's YouTube channel. The show was originally hosted by Tony Schiavone and Dasha Gonzalez in a studio called the "AEW Control Center". Both Dark and its spin-off, Elevation, were canceled due to the addition of AEW's weekly television program, Collision. The program made a one-night return for a special holiday episode on December 16, 2025, titled "Stocking Stuffer".

The program featured matches taped either before or after the preceding episode of Rampage (if it was live), a pay-per-view, or at Soundstage 21 in Universal Studios Florida, which served as the main location for the tapings of Dark's weekly episodes. Prior to this, it was taped before and after the preceding episode of AEW's flagship program, Dynamite, and had featured segments highlighting the previous week's Dynamite and interviews with AEW personalities.

History

On October 2, 2019, All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) flagship professional wrestling television program, Dynamite, premiered on TNT. During the event, there were four dark matches, two before and two after the live broadcast.^[2] 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, then-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 were part of AEW's storylines and counted towards the wrestlers' match statistics.^[3][4][5]

During the November 5 episode, Tony Schiavone announced AEW Spanish commentator Dasha Gonzalez would be his co-host going forward.^[6] Schiavone and Gonzalez hosted segments on Dark from the "AEW Control Center," highlighting matches and storylines within AEW.^[7][8] On December 31, AEW aired a special episode called AEW Dark – 2019 Year in Review, featuring highlights of the show from the past year.^[9]

On February 24, 2021, AEW announced that a new spinoff of Dark would premiere on Monday, March 15 titled Dark: Elevation. This was the promotion's third program, after Dynamite and Dark, and aired on Monday nights at 7pm ET, also on AEW's YouTube channel.^[10][11] With the premiere of Rampage in August 2021, 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.^[12] With Rampage airing in the 10pm ET slot on Fridays, it replaced Dark as the go-home show for pay-per-views.^[13]

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—the same studio which previously hosted weekly episodes of TNA Impact!—while Elevation would continue to be taped in conjunction with Dynamite.^[14][15] The first set of tapings for Dark at Universal Studios occurred on September 11, 2021. AEW taped Dark episodes about once a month, recording four shows per taping with each show lasting about 90 minutes. During the weeks that Rampage or Battle of the Belts aired live, AEW taped Dark in conjunction with that program.^[16] AEW had also occasionally taped Dark in conjunction with Elevation, notably in December 2021.

Dark aired its last episode on April 25, 2023. Both it and Elevation were canceled in preparation for the addition of AEW's television program, Collision, which premiered on TNT in June 2023. This was due to an amended deal with AEW's broadcast partner Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), in which all of AEW's programs would air exclusively on WBD's channels.^[17][18] It was also reported that Rampage would begin showcasing younger wrestlers, essentially becoming what Dark and Elevation were for the company.^[19]

In an interview with Iridian Fierro in July 2025, Khan stated that he was open to bringing back Dark and/or Elevation, but it would have to align with AEW's media strategy and television partnerships. He also said it would have to make sense to bring either back, but the ultimate decision was with WBD.^[20] While in Cardiff, Wales on December 13 that year for the live special of Collision: Winter Is Coming, Kahn announced a one-night only return of Dark for a special titled "Stocking Stuffer". Three matches were taped that day for the special that streamed on YouTube on December 16.^[21]

Episodes

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2025

References

1. ^ "AEW Themes 2.0". bandcamp.com. All Elite Wrestling. July 30, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
2. ^ "AEW Dynamite off-air results: Four dark matches". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. October 2, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
3. ^ "Post-AEW Dynamite Dark Match Results". Wrestling Inc.. November 6, 2019.
4. ^ Cody Rhodes (October 5, 2019). "BREAKING: "AEW DARK" begins this Tuesday! Featuring the matches you didn't see on Dynamite. Hosted by @tonyschiavone24". No. 1180513846471073795. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
5. ^ Pratt, Emily (October 7, 2019). "AEW Just Announced A Very Goth Number One Contender's Match". UPROXX. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
6. ^ "AEW DARK REPORT | PWInsider.com". PWInsider
7. ^ "AEW Dark coming to YouTube, will be hosted by Tony Schiavone". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. October 5, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
8. ^ "AEW Hypes Matches For Premiere Episode Of "Dark" (Photos)". Wrestling Inc.. October 7, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
9. ^ All Elite Wrestling (December 31, 2019). "AEW DARK - 2019 YEAR IN REVIEW". YouTube. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
10. ^ Defelice, Robert (February 24, 2021). "AEW Dark: Elevation Announced As Third AEW Program, Will Air Mondays On YouTube". Fightful. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
11. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (February 24, 2021). "Premiere Date And Paul Wight's Broadcast Partner Announced For AEW Dark: Elevation". Fightful. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
12. ^ Thomas, Jeremy (May 19, 2021). "Tony Khan Reveals New Details About Move to TBS, Says He Was Offered a Third Hour of Dynamite". 411mania. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
13. ^ Shrivastava, Arpit (June 17, 2021). "Tony Khan discloses interesting details about AEW Rampage". Sportskeeda. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
14. ^ Lee, Joseph (August 27, 2021). "UPDATED: AEW Dark To Be Taped In Studio, Note On Likely Location". 411 Mania. Retrieved June 14, 2022.
15. ^ Sean Rueter (August 27, 2021). "AEW Dark set to become a studio show (Updated)". Cageside Seats. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
16. ^ Gagnon, Joshua (September 11, 2021). "First-Look At AEW Dark At Universal Studios". Wrestling Inc.. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
17. ^ Nason, Josh (May 3, 2023). "AEW Dark & Dark Elevation done for now due to new exclusivity deal with WBD". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
18. ^ Rueter, Sean (May 25, 2023). "Tony Khan on AEW vs. WWE, WBD deal, Collision secrecy, more". Cageside Seats. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
19. ^ Nason, Josh (May 5, 2023). "Update on future direction of AEW Rampage". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
20. ^ Johnson, Phil (July 30, 2025). "Tony Khan Addresses Possible Return Of AEW Dark & Elevation". PWMania. Retrieved July 30, 2025.
21. ^ Carey, Ian (December 14, 2025). "Matches announced for AEW Dark: Stocking Stuffer". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved December 16, 2025.
22. ^ "7 Matches: Eddie Kingston & Ortiz, Hikaru Shida, Orange Cassidy & Best Friends & More | Dark, Ep 166", 18 October 2022, retrieved 2022-10-20
23. ^ "9 Matches: Toni Storm, Rey Fenix, Brian Cage, Kip, Nyla, Orange, Best Friends & More! | Dark, Ep 168", November 2022, retrieved 2022-11-07
24. ^ "13 Matches: Claudio & Yuta, Kingston & Ortiz, Toni Storm & Shida, Athena & More! | Dark, Ep 169", 8 November 2022, retrieved 2022-11-11
25. ^ "7 Matches: Dark Order, Tay Melo, Jake Hager, Willow, Rush, Yuta, Skye Blue & More! | Dark, EP 171", 22 November 2022, retrieved 2022-11-25
26. ^ "6 Matches: Trent Beretta, Dalton Castle & The Boys, Athena, Lethal, Abadon, & More! | Dark, Ep 173", 6 December 2022, retrieved 2022-12-07
27. ^ "5 Matches: Eddie Kingston & Ortiz, Tay Melo, Kip Sabian, The Factory, & More! | Dark, Ep 174", 13 December 2022, retrieved 2022-12-14
28. ^ "11 Matches: Kenny Omega, Ricky Starks, Jade Cargill, Jeff Jarrett & Satnam, & More! | Dark, Ep 175", 20 December 2022, retrieved 2022-12-28
29. ^ "9 Matches: Daddy Magic, Evil Uno, Diamanté, Red Velvet, Iron Savages, AR Fox, & More! | Dark, Ep 176", 27 December 2022, retrieved 2022-12-28
30. ^ "8 Matches: Rush, Konosuke Takeshita, Kiera Hogan, Dalton Castle & More! | Dark, Ep 182", 7 February 2023, retrieved 2023-02-10
31. ^ "11 Matches: Konosuke Takeshita, Christopher Daniels, Kip Sabian, JAS, Diamante & More | Dark, Ep 183", 14 February 2023, retrieved 2023-02-15
32. ^ "4 Matches: The Acclaimed, Hook, The Lucha Bros, Matt Hardy, Daniel Garcia & More! | AEW Dark Special", 4 March 2023
33. ^ "7 Matches: AR Fox, Takeshita, Willow, Brian Cage, Riho, Dark Order, Julia Hart & More | Dark, Ep 186", 7 March 2023, retrieved 2023-03-08
34. ^ "5 Matches: Riho, Andretti, Sonny Kiss, Julia Hart, Dark Order, The Outrunners & More! | Dark, Ep 187", 14 March 2023, retrieved 2023-03-23
35. ^ "5 Matches: Toni Storm, Juice Robinson, The Wingmen, Leila Grey, Kiera Hogan & More! | Dark, Ep 188", 21 March 2023, retrieved 2023-03-23
36. ^ Howard, Ryan (December 16, 2025). Dark Stocking Stuffer live results: Death Riders in trios action "www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/aew-results/aew-dark-stocking-stuffer-live-results-death-riders-… Dark Stocking Stuffer live results: Death Riders in trios action". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved December 16, 2025.

External links

• All Elite Wrestling Official website
• AEW Dark on YouTube
• AEW Dark at IMDb