TJR: AEW Rampage (Quick) Review 04/01/22
This week’s AEW Rampage featured The Young Bucks in action against Top Flight while Powerhouse Hobbs faced Keith Lee in the main event.
This is going to be a very quick review on my part because I’m overwhelmed with all of the WWE WrestleMania and NXT Stand & Deliver coverage. I put the show on this morning, I watched it and I’ll just write thoughts about the results. Simple enough.
The commentary team was Excalibur, Taz, Ricky Starks and Chris Jericho as usual. They were at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina and it was taped after Dynamite.
The Young Bucks defeated Top Flight
A lot of the matches on Rampage have predictable outcomes and this is an example of that. I really like the Dante/Darius Martin combo and hope that they can get a significant push this year although now that AEW has the Hardys I doubt any team is going to be pushed that much compared to them. Lots of athleticism here by both sides. The Bucks got the win with the BTE Trigger after about 12 minutes. I’d rate it around ***1/4 or so.
There was a video about Kris Statlander going through some changes in her presentation. I guess she’s less of an alien now? Good, I guess.
There was a promo with Dan Lambert and crew ripping on some people like Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti saying that Sammy wasn’t going to get a shot at Scorpio Sky’s TNT Title. Sammy and Tay wrecked Lambert’s car and sprayed graffiti.
Danhausen tried to put a curse on Hook, but Hook no sold it again. Hilarious. I guess? I don’t know. I’m old. I guess it’s mildly better than the bad 24/7 Title comedy segments.
House of Black defeated Stu Grayson, Evil Uno & Fuego Del Sol
Easy win for House of Black obviously. Grayson might be the most under-utilized wrestler in AEW, but when you have 100+ wrestlers then a lot of people aren’t going to be used right. Anyway, Malakai Black got the win for his team while Brody King and Buddy Matthews looked impressive as well. They got around nine minutes. I think a few minutes shorter would have been better. I’d go **1/4 for this.
The Young Bucks accepted the challenge from FTR so that tag team match is set for Dynamite on Wednesday. That’s going to be great.
Jamie Hayter defeated Skye Blue in the Women’s Owens Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier
Hayter is the more established of the two women, so once again it’s a match with a predictable outcome. I thought that Blue had some good moves in the match, but Hayter used her power to dominate the closing portion and hit a brainbuster to win. This went about seven minutes. I’d go *3/4 for it.
Penta Oscuro did a promo warning House of Black about Death Triangle. I guess whenever Death Triangle is healthy again we’ll see that six-man tag team match.
There was a main event interview conducted by Mark Henry as usual.
Keith Lee defeated Powerhouse Hobbs
It was a good and competitive power match that got about 12 minutes. Lee continues to look strong in singles matches. While Lee did lose in the Ladder Match, they are booking him to be a winner in these singles matches, so that’s a great sign. I think Hobbs has a lot of long-term potential and wrestling a guy that’s also big with experience like Lee is going to make Hobbs better. Ricky Starks and Taz tried to get involved to help Hobbs, but Swerve Strickland was there to prevent the cheating. After Hobbs hit a huge spinebuster, the referee was distracted by what was going on out of the ring. Lee came back with his finisher that he used to call the Big Bang Catastrophe for the pinfall win. Let’s go ***1/4 for this one as well.
There was some post-match action as Starks hit Swerve with a Roshambo slam through a table at ringside. Lee was able to fight off Starks briefly, but then Hobbs hit Lee with a chair. Starks hit Lee with a dress shoe and Hobbs tackled Lee through a table that was against the turnbuckle. The heels Starks/Hobbs dominated Lee to end the show. This should set up Starks/Hobbs against Lee/Swerve in a big tag team match soon.
I’ll skip the final thoughts stuff because it was a condensed review. I’d recommend the opening tag and main event as good matches worth checking out if you enjoy AEW programming. I’ll have a normal Rampage review next week.
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Thanks for reading. Go Toronto Raptors, Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Maple Leafs. You can contact me using any of the methods below.
John Canton
Email: mrjohncanton@gmail.com
Twitter: @johnreport