AEW Rampage 3/25/2022

AEW Rampage 3/25/2022

Lance Archer vs Dustin Rhodes

Lance comes down to the ring with one of Dustin's students on his shoulder. Dustin then goes after him and they brawl outside to start. Lance is supposed to be this giant, but him and Dustin are essentially the same size. Dan Lambert gets involved and almost gets piledriven until Lance breaks it up. Lance pulls off a turnbuckle pad and gets clotheslined over the top. Dustin then tries to cannonball him off the apron but lands on the floor.

We go to and return from PiP break and Lance stays in control. Dustin charges into him and he puts his feet out then presses them down on him. Lance bites DR's finger then Dustin hits some lariats. Lance turns his powerslam into a belly to belly. Dustin comes back with corner punches then bulldogs him from the 2nd rope. Dustin hits a cross rhodes for 2.

Archer comes back with a belly to belly then takes a nice full nelson slam. Lance then chokeslammed him....for 2. Lance goes into the exposed buckle then Dustin rolls him up for the surprise win.

They don't say that AEW is where the big boys lay for nothing. Archer lost again here like he always does and it's really not clear why. Other people could have used the pin more and would have been more credible. Archer being in the same ring with Dustin made him look smaller. This also went too even for how low down the card Dustin is.

Archer banged Dustin's head off the steps after the match. Dustin bled after that and got a running knee to the face on the rails. Dustin's students came down and got beat up. Lance then chokeslammed him through a table.

Jay Lethal was interviewed. He is falling in the rankings after his loss to Adam Cole. He said Cole and Starks both had to cheat to beat him and said both get more chances and more money than he does. Jay says there has to be a better way and he says he has thinking to do.

Fuego Del Sol is on the mic. He is complaining about people treating him as the underdog. He calls out The House of Black and says he is ready to fight. They then teleport in and somehow can control the lights also. Buddy throws Sol into Black's knee then King hits a fire thunder driver.

The Dark Order then come out and stare them down. They tease fighting.

Dan Lambert, Scorpio and Page do a promo. Dan says there are no more open challenges for the TNT title. Sky says you have to earn the shot the hard way.

Alan "5" Angels and 10 vs Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish

Kyle hits kicks on Alan early then 10 comes in and powers over Kyle. He holds him up via his wrist then double shoulders both opponents off the second rope. We then go to PiP break.

We return and 10 tags to Alan, who does a top rope crossbody on both opponents. Alan hits a leg lariat and an enzugiri. He northern lights suplexes Kyle but Kyle rolls it into a guillotine. Kyle turns 10's mask around then 10 takes a high/low kick combo. Alan then takes a suplex/head kick combo for the quick squash win.

Not too much to say here. 10 got put over here and not much else was done.

After the match, Alan was beat up and Jurassic Express made the save. Adam Cole then stole the tag titles dring this and gave them to Red Dragon. 

I skipped the next match here.

Hook Certificate of Accomplishment Ceremony

QT talks and puts him over, then has confetti come out. He shows Hook the award and Hook throws Aaron Solow through the award for unknown reasons. Danhausen then came out and pointed at him and Hook left.

None of this made any sense and wasn't any good.

We got a split screen promo with Swerve and Starks. Starks says Swerve is entitled and says Swerve was evicted from his last house. Swerve says he's going to take his title tonight and is entitled. He says he will make it Swerve's house tonight. They argue and Mark cuts them off to get it going.

FTW Title - Ricky Starks (c) vs Swerve Strickland

RS leapfrogs and armdrags early. Swerve does a nice headscissors and does RS's pose. Swerve charges in and gets his head banged off the middle buckle. We go to PiP break and return with RS putting him in an octopus stretch variation. Swerve hits a nice jumping knee then euro's the back of his neck off the 2nd rope. Swerve then does his roll into a jumping flatliner for 2.

Swerve kicks him from the apron and does a neat running SSP from the apron that is real close to being a moonsault. Swerve top rope butt drops him for 2. Swerve goes outside and Hobbs lariats him then Starks hits a roshambo for the win.

LOLAEW stuff here. In Swerve's first non-squash match, he loses. The match was okay prior to that but it shows you how big of a star Swerve really is to these guys.

People come out with a Team Taz sign. Keith Lee then follows and throws someone through it. Lee, Swerve, Starks and Hobbs brawl with refs trying to stop it to end the show.

Overall thoughts: Not a fan of this one. The main was okay but having Swerve lose in his second match in the company and his first competitive match was just stupid. They also buried Archer here by having him go even with then lose to Rhodes.