Honorable Mention: Anna Jay and Tay Melo. Anna Jay faced Ashley D’Amboise who despite having 23 Dark match was making her Rampage debut and won with a Queenslayer. After the match Julia Hart showed up beind Jay but Jay got the better of her before refs broke them up. Tay Melo cut off an interview with Sammy Guevara to tell him that MJF isn’t his friend and to think about what young Sammy on his shirt would think about him before walking away. This was a needed piece to the Sammy story and I still think Sammy could eventually get a face push if he’s allowed to be more of who he is in the vlogs and on All Access.
5. The Acclaimed and “Daddy Ass” had a trios match against Ryzin, Dante Casanova and Cameron Stewart making this the 6th traditional jobbers/”local talents” used on the night and really solidifying Rampage as the new Dark. There was a funny spot as Ryzin tried to attack Caster mid rap only for Bowens to take him out as Caster kept rapping. Bowens took out 1 of their opponents with a thrust kick before he even got his jacket off and Billy Gunn hit the other with a Fameasser after he attempted to scissor with the rapping regiment to no avail. An Arrival and Mic Drop later and the trio had a win and shockingly, for the first time in Rampage history, nobody came out to attack or confront them after.
4. “Rock Hard” Juice Robinson and Jay White. The duo known as Bullet Club Gold defeated Ricky Starks and Shawn Spears after a solid opener when White countered a C4 from Spears and hit a Blade Runner on him for the win. After the match Starks jumped White and tried to hit Robinson with a spear but he ducked out of the ring before he could connect. This match was really just there to further the Starks v. White story as is the announced Starks v. Juice match for this week’s Dynamite but I’m not a fan of AEW doing more of the WWE style handling of this with guys meeting in tag matches before a singles match. I much rather people kept out of the ring until the PPV or big match.
3. Naturally Limitless. Thanks to Tony Khan’s inconsistent, infrequent booking of certain angles I totally forgot AEW had stuck Dustin Rhodes and Keith Lee together but they were in action tonight against Brady Pierce and Charlie James. They made quick work of their foes when Lee yeeted Dustin into one of their opponents and then hit a Spirit Bomb for the win. After the match Mogul Affiliates, now including The Embassy came out and stood menacingly on the ramp mean-mugging Lee and Dustin. Kaun, Liona and Swerve all wore ski mask like face coverings and it helps the look of the stable a lot to me. I liked Trench’s look but on a whole The Embassy works so much better behind Swerve than Parker Boudreaux and Trench. I’m still excited for Lee and Swerve despite this being dragged out forever.
2. Jay Lethal. In the most exciting thing this week the triple box was back before the main event! Jay Lethal avoided a question about them cheating and said they’re going to win and come for the tag titles. Cash Wheeler said of course they expect Lethal’s side to cheat so they have Mark Briscoe to even the odds. Briscoe got an entrance and was announced as the “special enforcer” and took a chair to sit next to the ring. Early on Lethal gave Briscoe a hug on the outside which commentary called out for being disingenuous. Briscoe was wearing the 13x hat Jay took was wearing in his final picture and that was really sweet to see. Lethal tried for a Lethal Injection but Cash caught him and turned it into a Gory Bomb for 2 as Sonjay Dutt got in the ring to distract the ref. Briscoe and Dutt argued on the apron and Lethal sent Cash crashing into Mark before hitting the Lethal Injection for the win. The ref stopping the count because Dutt got in the ring made no sense at all but other than that the match was solid and I don’t mind this FTR v. Lethal & Jarett story even if it does kind of remind me of Cornette trying to bring the N.W.A. to Raw during the Attitude Era. It is a change of pace from the rest of the show which isn’t terrible.
1. The Firm. Matt Hardy was with Jeff and Hook in the back demanding to know where Isiah Kassidy was because he knew The Firm had something to do with it. Stokely Hathaway showed up on TV with Lee Moriarty. Stoke said they caught him lacking at Applbees while he was sitting in a booth, eating cornbread and drinking Long Island iced teas with Mary J. Blige playing. Stokely is always comedy gold and the mental picture of Kassidy solo enjoying himself in this situation is great. Though to my knowledge Applebees does not have cornbread and now I wish they did. Page and Big Bill had Kassidy on a scaffold as Hathaway demanded to know when their match would be. Page cut him off and said it’s happening next Friday on Rampage at the Compound. He had Bill hold him in a chokeslam position and told Matt if he agreed they’d let Kassidy go. Matt agreed and he told Bill to go ahead and let him go and Bill chokeslammed him to the floor. Hathaway said they’ll be seeing all of them except probably Kassidy next week and he was going to run through the Compound turning all the lights on and running Matt’s electric bill up as Matt yelled that he was a dead man! Hook said “The Firm’s getting deleted!” which was a nice touch since he basically never talks. Again, Hathaway is brilliant and Page is so underrated too. As down as I’ve been on Rampage this is the first match I’m looking forward to. I hope this gets most, if not all of the show next week and it would be really run for Rampage to become the home of cinematic wrestling going forward even if I’m not sure what other cinematic matches I’d want.
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