It was Good Friday for Christians all around the world but it was also a good Friday for wrestling fans as AEW brought us another solid episode of Rampage! We’re conditioned to expect props like presents or trees used on Christmas editions of WWE programming but AEW took that idea a bit further when they had a modern wrestling equivalent to a crown of thorns in their main event. Offensive? Possibly. Coincidental? Also possible, but I doubt it. But a great match nevertheless. So let’s rank the happenings of tonight’s show!
Honorable mention: William Regal. I didn’t write any specific quotes but he was on commentary and was his always entertaining self.
5. The Butcher. I’m not a fan of The Butcher and The Blade and I think The Butcher facing Wardlow right now is kind of lame because he’s been etsbalished as a guy who isn’t a real threat to anybody but I’ll give them credit for at least giving Butcher a singles win tonight. He shouted “I got something for you Wardlow!” as he beat Aaron Solow with a powerbomb of his own. If nothing else Butcher sure does look the part of scary monster heel. I just wish he was actually treated that way for more than this 1 match.
4. Ruby Soho. Finally back on TV Ruby Soho essentially beat not just 1 but 2 Renegade sisters to qualify for the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. Her scheduled opponent Robyn Renegade racked the eyes at one point causing the ref to attend to Soho and letting her pull the old switcharoo with her sister Charlotte. This was a fun surprise as I had completely forgotten Renegade was a twin and only knew becauase of a random tweet I saw a while back. It also made a very predictable match on paper feel more up in the air. I really thought Soho would get screwed over, especially when Charlotte got the knees up during Soho’s top rope back senton attempt and I’m actually a little disappointed we didn’t get that. They could have done that and then had Soho stop her from pulling twin magic in her tournament bout but regardless this was fun for what it was. Soho got the win with a Sister Abigail type finisher and I’m happy she’s at least on TV and winning even if this match made me want more of the Renegade sisters.
3. Wheeler Yuta. Jon Moxley is a former WWE and AEW Champion. He walked away from a very lucrative WWE deal, in his prime, to be the first big name to jump to AEW. Bryan Danielson was the most popular face in WWE who main evented a packed Superdome and got cheered over Triple H, Batista and Randy Orton on the same night. Bryan’s existence was the single biggest roadblock in WWE getting the intended reactions for Roman Reigns. And yet with those 2 on his team 25 year old Wheeler Yuta, who wasn’t officially announced as a roster member until a couple of weeks ago, somehow got the biggest reaction in this match. “Yu-ta!” chants filled the arena multiple times over the course of the match. It just reaffirmed that last week’s main event was a star making performance. Tonight was a solid follow-up though as Yuta got the pinfall on Billy Gunn when he avoided a Fameasser attempt and rolled Billy up and bridged back for the pinfall. Yuta’s music played as the Blackpool Combat Club celebrated putting an end to The Gunn Club’s undefeated streak. My only criticism here is that Yuta needs better, more easily identifiable music. Or the BCC needs a group theme because Yuta’s music sounds very generic.
2. Adam Cole. It feels like the quality of Cole’s work in traditional matches has made people forget that he’s also one of, if not the best hardcore guys as well. In ROH he had brutal wars with Kyle O’Reilly in a “Hybrid Rules” clash. We’ve seen him war with the likes of Jay Briscoe and current stablemate Kyle O’Reilly in ROH. We saw him have brutal battles with the likes of Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano in NXT. And he was a major part of 2 of the best War Games matches to have ever happened. Despite coming up on the losing end tonight this was another great match to add to that list. I’d love to watch what Cole could do in a GCW deathmatch even if the odds are we never see it. At one point Cole said “You will never be me. You will never be Kenny Omega. You are a joke of a champion.” and it felt like more seeds being planted for Undisputed Elite v. The Elite and I love it! There was also a couple of little BTE callbacks during the Mark Henry pre-match interviews as Page said Cole should have spent the last few months writing a will and Cole said that Page would be a dead man.
1. Adam Page. Hangman’s one of the weirdest wrestlers to figure out in AEW. Between his title he feels virtually non-existent. He gets very little mic time, very little character development and we have very little reason to care whether or not he successfully defends his title. But yet his 4 defenses in 2022 are all “Match of the Year” contenders for me. I wish AEW would navigate the choppy waters a bit better and make better use of him on TV between defenses so this match quality could really sink in. This was another classic of a defense. Page overcame a clothesline with a chain, a superkick out of the air while attempting a moonsault to the floor, a Panama Sunrise on to a bunch of chairs and a host of superkicks over the course of the match. The “Cowboy sh*t” he pulled off included a moonsault with a chair, a Dead Eye counter to a Panama Sunrise attempt and a top rope fall away slam on to a pile of chairs. Page finally got the win when he decided after untying Cole and being low blowed to go to that dark place and rip the barbed wire off the barb wire chair he took out and wrap it around his arm. Cole tried a Panama Sunrise off the apron through a table but Page caught him with the barb wire wrapped arm, then wrapped the barbed wire around Cole’s head (a not so subtle nod to the day this took place?) and nailing a Dead Eye off the apron through a table. “Texas Death Matches” are quickly becoming a Page signature match and I hope if we’re getting Page and Punk at Double or Nothing as signs seem to indicate that Punk turns heel during the build and this is the type of match we get. Or that Punk turns in the match to win and we get a Texas Death Match in the rematch.
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