Reviews

The John Report: AEW Rampage 02/04/22 Review

By John Canton • Published 5th February 2022
aew rampage feb 4

This week’s AEW Rampage saw the FTW Champion Ricky Starks defend his title against Jay Lethal while Adam Cole faced Evil Uno.

This is going to be a condensed review. I’m not going to write out long match details or anything like that. I watched the show on the couch instead of sitting at a laptop writing as I watched. I just need a bit of a writing break, so here are my thoughts on this 60-minute show.

This is AEW Rampage from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. It was taped on Wednesday. Follow me on Twitter @johnreport. Let’s get to it.

It’s Friday and you know what that means. The commentary team was Excalibur, Taz and the yeller Chris Jericho. No Ricky Starks because he was in a match this week.

Adam Cole defeated Evil Uno

It was just a short match to put over a top contender in Cole against a guy that rarely wrestles singles matches on TV, Evil Uno. They just don’t use Evil Uno or most of the Dark Order much on TV anymore. Cole won clean with the running knee Boom for the win in under three minutes.

After the match, Cole made it clear he’s going after the AEW World Title. Since Cole is at the top of AEW’s precious rankings (that are supposed to matter), he’s probably going to get that AEW World Title match at the Revolution PPV on March 6th. It makes logical since Cole is a heel while Hangman Adam Page is the babyface World Champion that should beat Lance Archer next week on Dynamite.

TNT Championship: Sammy Guevara defeated Isiah Kassidy

Two great athletes here. The problem with a match like this is nobody thinks that Kassidy has a shot to win, nor should they think that. It’s just a way to have Sammy win a match. Sammy hit his GTH knee to the head for the pinfall win. It went around nine minutes. I’d rate it at **3/4 or so.

After the match, Andrade El Idolo went after Sammy Guevara until Darby Allin made the save. It also appeared as though Darby was interested in the TNT Title. It looks like Sammy has a couple of potential future opponents.

They announced that Hook will face one of QT Marshall’s students next week on Rampage. I predict a quick win for Hook.

Leyla Hirsch did a cheap attack on Kris Statlander during an interview segment. Leyla hit Kris with a chair to the back. That feud has slowly started to build after Leyla turned heel. It’s fine. AEW needs more non-title feuds for the women.

Thunder Rosa defeated Mercedes Martinez by disqualification

They worked hard and it felt like an intense fight. That’s the good thing about Martinez is that she’s got a lot of experience while also having credibility. She’s not going to be lazy out there. Rosa is very good as a face too, so they worked well together. Martinez hit Rosa with a steel pipe, so she was disqualified. It went about six minutes and I’d rate it at **1/2. The last time Tony Khan booked a DQ finish, he put himself over on Twitter for not doing DQ finishes. Anyway, it should lead toa Rosa/Martinez rematch that is probably a Street Fight type match where they are allowed to use weapons. Nothing wrong with boking a DQ finish sometimes.

After the match, Mercedes was interviewed, and we found out Britt Baker paid her to try to take out Rosa. Baker took a shot at her friend Jamie Hayter for not being effective in her role. It puts over the story that Baker is afraid of Rosa while also teasing the Baker/Hayter split that should lead to a feud. I think Rosa will beat Baker for the title at Revolution on March 6th if that’s the title match.

FTW Championship: Ricky Starks defeated Jay Lethal

This was the best match of the show for the least coveted title on AEW television. These guys worked well together and are similar in size. There was some involvement outside the ring with Lethal missing a suicide dive on Powerhouse Hobbs, so then Dante Martin hit an impressive springboard dive onto Hobbs. They got a couple of nearfalls after that. The finish was excellent. Lethal was going for his Lethal Injection move off the ropes, but Starks caught him and hit the Roshambo powerslam into a pin for the win. This went about 12 minutes and I’d rate it at ***1/2. They need to put Starks in TV matches more often. Same with Lethal. They’re both good and they’re both underutilized. They can probably do a Starks/Hobbs vs. Lethal/Martin tag team match as well.

After the show, the enthusiastic AEW boss Tony Khan promoted a new wrestler starting in AEW on Dynamite next week. Hopefully his big surprise is better than his Jacksonville Jaguars. Thank you for that Jalen Ramsey trade. Go LA Rams in the Super Bowl.

Final Thoughts

I’m not going to do the stars and the scoreboard as usual. It was in the 7 or 7.5 out of 10 range if you really care about that. Solid matches throughout and good story development. Nothing major happened as usual on Rampage, but it’s a solid wrestling show as usual.

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Thanks for reading. You can contact me using any of the methods below.

John Canton

Email: mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter: @johnreport