AEW Rampage Power Rankings: Cole Slams It Home

Scott Hall could have been the honorary host of AEW Rampage Slam Dunk tonight. Partially because he was a stablemate of 5 time NBA Champion and basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman but also because he was known to take surveys back in WCW. And at the end of each survey the results were clear; one more for the bad guys. Well the bad guys went 4-0 tonight so it’s 4 more for the bad guys. Now let’s jump into the rankings and see where those 4 fell on the list! 

Honorable Mention: Dante Martin, Dark Order’s 10 and Trent Beretta. All 3 guys lost but all 3 carried their weight in losses and helped give us 3 strong match offerings for this episode of Rampage. 

5. Jade Cargill. While in the back being interviewed alongside Mark Sterling the 27-0 Cargill asked who was next? Matt Hardy said The Bunny is and that she will be “Extremely” disappointed by the result when they meet. Jade says she “Looks like money” every week but she really does. We’ve heard people talk about “The airport test” but Jade passes it with flying colors. Everything about Jade screams star and while sure, she has plenty of room for growth between the bells she has enough about her and her presentation to make this list just by being backstage. 

4. Serena Deeb. Tony Khan might not have been able to get Mike Tenay but he found a Professor of his own and this week “The Professor” Serena Deeb again made short work of another rookie; Angelica Risk. This took a little longer than the last “5 Minute Rookie Challenge” but only because Deeb was a predator playing with her food, choosing to pull Risk up at a 1 count before finally making her tap with a Serenity Lock. I adore wrestlers having gimmicks that lend to specific match types and love short squash matches even more. I think they do so much to establish people as credible threats and I’m glad AEW is doing that with Deeb after she really impressed in her feud with Hikaru Shida. 

3. Jay White. Wrestling fans on a whole and AEW fans especially have gotten very liberal in their use of “This is Awesome!” chants but White and Beretta got them in their (*Mark Henry voice*) main event meeting tonight. There was a lot going on in the ring but one of the best parts of this match was commentary selling “Switchblade” Jay White as a credible threat. They talked up him being the first ever IWGP Grand Slam Champion, holding the top 4 singles titles and that he’s still not even 30 years old and hasn’t hit a decade in the business yet. I was generally indifferent on White based on the little I’d seen of him before this match but the back and forth here helped sell me on him. White landed a great looking knee to the face of Trent when he was charging for a spear outside. He also sent Beretta crashing through an open chair next to the barricade with a front headlock suplex. The win came when White countered a Strong 0 by rolling through and nailing a Bladerunner that Trent could not kick out of. After the match White taunter Orange Cassidy and Orange looked uncharacteristically bothered. If we’re not getting Blood & Guts between Chaotic Friends & The Undisputed Elite at Revolution with White taking the place of Cole what are we even doing here? 

2. Powerhouse Hobbs. Hobbs lived up to every P in P-P-P-P-Powerhouse when he took out Dante Martin with a thunderous spine buster to advance to the Face of the Revolution ladder match at the Revolution PPV March 6th. With Keith Lee, Wardlow and now Hobbs as our confirmed participants in this clash this could be the beefiest ladder match of all time. I hope they reinforced the rungs! Let’s just go ahead and throw Miro, Archer and 10 in the mix and try something we’ve never seen in a ladder match. Martin held his own at times in their rubber match meeting but the highlight here was him getting absolutely yeeted by Hobbs twice the way Wardlow did to Caster and Lee did to Kassidy. I could also see some smaller guys rounding out the pack to give those 3 monsters human shots to shot-put. Either way I cannot wait! 

1. Adam Cole. Every great slam dunk ends with a boom! This Slam Dunk opened with one. Cole spent the match working over the braced left leg of Dark Order’s 10 with a ring post, stomps and a bsvy of attacks. While 10 had a strong showing countering 1 Panama Sunrise attempt with a backdrop, another with a spear (commentary again did a great job here as 10 seemed hurt after and they pushed the idea that he couldn’t get as much force behind the spear because of the bad leg) and locking in a short lived Full Nelson Cole’s veteran savviness proved to be too much for the more inexperienced powerhouse (not Hobbs) of The Dark Order. When 10 tried for a 3rd Full Nelson attempt Cole walked towards the corner forcing referee Aubrey Edwards to turn into it and out of the line of sight for a low blow back kick from Cole. He followed up with Superkicks to the front and back of 10’s head, followed by The Boom for the 3 to solidify his status as the #1 contender to the AEW World Championship. Later in the night we’d get the official announcement of Cole v. Page at Revolution knocking down his #1 spot on this list like fellow undersized tough guy Nate Robinson locked down the #1 spot in his dunk contest against Dwight Howard.