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 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. 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 television program, ''Collision''.

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, 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.

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 was the promotion's third program, after ''Dynamite'' and ''Dark'', and aired on Monday nights at 7pm ET, also on AEW's YouTube channel. 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. With ''Rampage'' airing in the 10pm ET slot on Fridays, it 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—the same studio which previously hosted weekly episodes of ''TNA Impact!''—while ''Elevation'' would continue to be taped in conjunction with ''Dynamite''. 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. AEW had also occasionally taped ''Dark'' in conjunction with ''Elevation'', notably in December 2021.

''Dark'' aired its last episode on April 25, 2023. Both Dark 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. It was also reported that ''Rampage'' would begin showcasing younger wrestlers, essentially becoming what ''Dark'' and ''Elevation'' were for the company.

References

External links

*
*
*

{{Professional wrestling in the United States

Dark
2019 American television series debuts
2019 web series debuts
2010s YouTube series
2023 American television series endings
2023 web series endings
2020s YouTube series
American professional wrestling television series
American non-fiction web series
YouTube original programming
American English-language television shows