Sanders’ AEW Rampage Review 8.19.22

What’s good you kind people out there! Lee Sanders here and it’s Friday which means it’s time for another edition of AEW RAMPAGE! Hope your week has been good and you’re staying hydrated in this scorching weather! Been taking it easy at my end gearing up to return to classes for the semester as one of my classes is on Sociology. Besides that I sat down with my good friend Julian Cannon of Digiday.com and The Knockturnal to talk about the series finale of BETTER CALL SAUL. If you haven’t checked out my chat with him you can do so by clicking here. For now…LET’S TALK RAMPAGE!

Location: West Virginia
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, and Jim Ross

We’re kicking things off with the new RING OF HONOR World Champion Claudio Castanogli. The champ is happy to be among the fans but most importantly in front of a man he respects greatly, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Claudio doesn’t like being in street clothes as he issues a challenge to anyone to face him next week. Claudio is putting his championship on the line as Dustin Rhodes comes out to accept. Dustin has never held a world championship and wants a chance to at Claudio. Claudio is appreciative of the challenge and can relates to Dustin and his incredible journey as he accepts the challenge. These two we’ll see lock it up for the ROH Championship next week.

Ortiz and Ruby Soho are interviewed backstage now as they’ve got unfinished business with Sammy Guverra and Tay Conti. They challenge the newlywed couple to a fight, anytime, and anyplace!

MATCH 1: AEW World Tag Team Championship Match-Swerve in Our Glory(c) vs Private Party

Big man Keith Lee (from Swerve in Our Glory) kicks things off against Isiah Kassidy by tossing him like a sack of potatoes with ease, followed by a double overhead chop to the chest. Lee tags in Swerve now as he’s caught by a back elbow from Cassidy after leaping from the top rope. Swerve tries looking for a back suplex as Mark Quinn tries leaping onto Sweve. Nobody is home as Quinn misses and crashes outside to the canvas. Swerve gets countered by Kassidy with a leg scissors takedown that sends Swerve to the outside. Kassidy connects with a spinning tornado crossbody to crash into Swerve as we head into a commercial break. We’re back as Keith Lee is single-handedly destroying Private Party! A splash and a big potato-sack throw from Lee to Kassidy, followed by a clothesline that gets him a near fall. Kassidy is trying desperately to go for a tag and is successful as Quinn is now the legal man. Quinn tries leaping from the top rope and attack Lee as Keith Lee bounces off the ropes and shoulder tackles him silly! Swerve gets the tag-in as he delivers a step-up kick to the head of Quinn! Nasty and cool spot as that should’ve been it but somehow Quinn kicks out. Swerve now connects with the JML Driver and it’s officially over. That’s all she wrote!!!

Winner: Swerve in Our Glory Hole (7:15)
Rating: **
I don’t know what match Excalibur was watching as he was going on and on about Private Party putting up one helluva fight. This was a glorified squash which was unfortunate as I’ve seen Private Party have more of an exceptional offense. It wasn’t on display here folks.

QT Marshall and The factory are interviewed now as they are asked about Powerhouse Hobbs by Lexi. She wants to know if they are concerned about Hobbs as the man himself appears and flips a table, ready to fight! Hobbs reminds Marshall how his (QT’s) word is his bound that he’d take care of Ricky Starks. QT assures Hobbs that his word is his bound and he’ll get the job done.

MATCH 2: FTW CHAMPIONSHIP-HOOK(c) vs Zach Clayton

Clayton tries pushing HOOK, followed by a swing at the champion and misses as HOOK automatically applies the REDRUM to make Clayton pass out to retain the championship. Blink and you missed it people!

Winner: HOOK (0:30)
Rating: N/R
I was going to say maybe this match was designed in a way where Clayton could say this was a fluke, and that he wasn’t ready. I legit was about to say that but then we get the following segment below which you’ll read in a bit. This match though? GLORIFIED SQUASH SQUASH! .

2Point0 is backstage as they looked on at HOOK’s title defense as they question what if that tile was held by a couple of Sports Entertainers? I can get behind this especially if it means HOOK will maybe mix it up with Jericho and/or Daniel Garcia.

Lexi is interviewing Billy Gunn about the act of betrayal by his sons. Next week on DYNAMITE, Billy is bringing The Acclaimed to help kick their asses. Meanwhile, a standby match awaits us…

MATCH 3: Buddy Matthews vs Serpentico

And a white hot start as Buddy connects with a shotgun dropkick to send Serpentico to the outside. Buddy rams him into the barricades before tossing him back in the ring. Serpentico tries going for a leg scissors takedown from the corner but Matthews catches him and delivers a turnbuckle powerbomb followed by a boot to the face, and a pump handle slam to end this one. Two squash matches back-to-back.

Winner: Buddy Matthews (1:33)
Rating: N/R
GLORIFIED SQUASH SQUASH! At least Murphy was made to look strong for a few seconds…

Post-match Miro appears and tosses the mask of Malaki Black onto the ground as he and Buddy go swinging at it in front of the fans. Miro is owning Matthews as Julia Hart looks on as Miro delivers haymakers after haymakers, and lots of stomps. Miro delivers one mean ugly side-step kick to send Matthews out the ring as Julia looks on pissed.

Backstage Lexi is talking to Britt Baker and Jaime Hayter when Rebel takes over the interviewing. Britt loves what she’s seeing with ThunderStorm (Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm). Britt promises they’ll be watching the drama unfold and enjoy it all as she can’t believe the games Thunder Rosa is playing to keep her championship.

MATCH 4: Athena vs Penelope

Nice, fast paced action here. Athena has a clothesline scouted by Ford as she tries to look for a back suplex. Ford counters with an elbow strike to setup a rollup that somehow sends Athena to the ropes. Ford follows up with a dropkick to the ropes as Athena was resting in the middle ropes on the ground. Kip Sabian is looking on while wearing a box over his head that reads “OVERRATED, OVER IT” as we head into a commercial break. We’re back as Athena connects with a dropkick to Ford to send her crashing into the barricades. Athena tosses her back inside the ring, climbs to the top and connects with her beautiful cutter to end this one.

Winner: Athena (4:00)
Rating: **
Wish it wasn’t for the commercial break as we missed half the action. Literally this match came on and was done in less than 30 seconds. Lost a whole rating for me on that one.

Post-match Kiera Hogan and Leila Gray put a stomping on Athena from behind as they hold her for the TBS Champion, Jade Cargill. Cargill has a sledgehammer as she destroys the wings Athena made herself. Athena is trying to fight the girls off but Jade delivers a sledgehammer shot to the midsection of Athena. Numbers game is too much as Athena lays victim to a vicious onslaught by Cargill and her baddies.

MATCH 5: AEW WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT-TrustBusters Ariya Daivari, Slim Jay, and Parker Boudreaux vs Best Friends Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Barretta

Taylor kicks things off as Daivari kicks him from behind before tagging in Slim Jay. It’s a 2-on-1 game on Taylor for a bit. Taylor goes behind Daivari and sends him crashing into Slim before tagging in Trent. Slim tries attacking Trent in the corner as Chuck comes from behind and is setup for a combo powerbomb-pin attempt that gets interrupted by Daivari. Best Friends double team on Davari as Parker Bourdreaux has seen enough and lays everyone out. Parker sends Chuck crashing into the barricades on the outside while Daivari and Trent are fighting on the opposite side. Meanwhile, Slim is fighting Orange Cassidy as we head into our final commercial break. And we’re back as Slim J gets a half & half by Trent as Cassidy is tagged in finally. Cassidy delivers his light trademark kicks to Slim while unleashing on Davari. Diving crossbody takes out Slim, while Cassidy connects with a running DDT on Daivari. Parker goes inside and lays out Cassidy while Best Friends come in and try to double team. They get a double clothesline as Parker delivers double body splashes on them. Trent and Barretta double team with clotheslines as all three of them deliver a triple dropkick on Parker. Cassidy gets put in a cutter by Slim J who then goes to the top rope and does a suicide dive onto Best Friends. Slim and Daivari double team on Cassidy that sets up a near fall as Parker gets sent over the steel barricades. Cassidy connects with the orange punch to lay out the big man. Cassidy now to the top rope looking for a high risk maneuver but Sonny Kiss pushes him while the referee isn’t looking. Slim J capitalizes and goes for a cover as it’s a near fall. Danhausen appears from out of nowhere to put a curse on the TrustBusters as Cassidy delivers an orange punch to Daivari as Best Friends have Slim J setup like a table while Cassidy connects with a body splash after stepping off the backs of Chuck and Trent to pick up the victory to advance.

Winner: Best Friends (11:00)
Rating: ***
A great main event match and I’m not just saying that because this was honestly the only actual full-length match we got for this weeks’ RAMPAGE. It actually was a solid Trios match. I’m somewhat surprised that TrustBusters didn’t advance considering everything that’s been playing out with them in recent weeks on the Youtube shows. At the same time if any team is fine with me in ultimately becoming the first Trios tag team, Best Friends could go all the way. My money is still on House of black though. Parker did pretty good in his spots tonight as he looked like an absolute beast! I loved how they booked him in such a way that you had to have numbers on your side in taking him down. Best Friends have never looked any better ring wise as Cassidy continues to impress me. That Slim J dude reminds me of Nunzio and Rey Mysterio as I’m liking his skills.

End of Show

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Wasn't a fan of the squash matches stacked on top of each other back to back for this week. Furthermore, roughly 25 minutes total I have for in-ring action this week. I normally don't keep notes like that on RAMPAGE except this week I was so taken back by how quickly some of these matches were going down that I had to double check my notes. Normally I'm keeping track of the lengths with a stopwatch and was amazed to add up the totals for this week. Some of the matches should've gone a bit longer like Athena and Ford for example or HOOK for Clayton. Heck have your AEW World Tag Titles match go longer and if anything close out your show that way. This felt like an edition of Sunday Night Heat or Velocity and I was never a fan of those. It would appear the way this show was designed was to emphasis the Trios Tag Tournament, nothing more and nothing less. Building towards your next DYNAMITE is good and all but give us some incentives for watching the next RAMPAGE. Least we got Dustin vs Claudio for the ROH World Title for next week right? Right? Right... Not the best RAMPAGE for the month of August in my book. Weakest so far from what I've seen and I hate saying that folks. Let's hope there's a nice rebound next week as we get closer to AEW ALL OUT. On a side note, nice seeing Sonny Kiss on my TV again for a consecutive week! For more great talk of all things wrestling and beyond, be sure to follow me on Twitter @THERCWRSHOW and check me out on YouTube.com/thercwrshow Enjoy the weekend y’all!