AEW Rampage 5/19/2023

AEW Rampage 5/19/2023

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/aew-rampage-5132023.html

The Blackpool Combat Club vs Best Friends and Bandido

Mox hits knees on Bandido then Bandido hits bad punches. Bandido goes up and over, back rolls and dropkicks him. Yuta and Trent trade forearms and Trent armdrags then lariats him. Chuck throws Yuta into the rails and pounds him. CC and Chuck go at it and Chuck is suplexed.

Trent germans Mox then half nelson suplexes him. Mox then falls overs. CC gets in and goes over the top then the faces do a triple dive. Trent comes off the top and takes a euro on the way down. We go to PiP break and return. Mox hits corner lariats on Trent then is tornado ddt'd. Bandido tornillo's off the top into the ring then hurricanrana's CC. Bandido springboard hurricanrana's CC for 2.

Yuta comes off the top and is caught by Bandido then suplexed. Trent suplexes Yuta after a soul foot then the Best Friends and Bandido hug. Chuck short piledrivers Yuta for 2. Everyone comes in, hits a move and leaves. Chuck throws CC out and Yuta rolls up Chuck. Mox hits a death rider DDT and CC throws Yuta off the buckles onto a splash on Chuck for the BCC win.

It was fine with some highlights and the heels picking up the win. Chuck was a terrible face here.

Kyle Fletcher said he is more international then Orange Cassidy and said he will be the new International champ.

TBS Title - Open Challenge - Jade Cargill (c) vs Dani Bee

Jade forearms Dani in the chest then fallaway slams her. Jade then hits a pump kick and wins.

This was another total waste of time to get Jade up to 58-0.

Mark Sterling gets on the mic and said he lined up other talent in the back as they didn't expect much.

TBS Title - Open Challenge - Jade Cargill (c) vs Genesys

Gen hits forearms then is lariated in the corner. They said Genesys had a stroke and had to learn how to walk and speak again. Jade spears her then hits a Jade end and wins in another waste of time.

TBS Title - Open Challenge - Jade Cargill (c) vs ?

Someone else comes out then Taya Valkyrie comes out. The girl pushes Taya and she decks her.

Taya knocks Leila Gray off the apron and lariats Jade. Mark argues with the ref then Taya says, "now, whose that b!tch". Taya then says she will see her at Double or Nothing. I have no idea how this open challenge thing was supposed to work, but clearly it wasn't open.

I don't know what the point of doing Taya vs Jade is again. Taya hasn't been on TV since losing to the Jade where she lost any heat she had and we've already seen it.

The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn vs The Varsity Athletes (Tony Nese, Ari Daivari and Josh Woods)

Max armlocks Woods and tags out. Billy and Josh push each other then Billy shoulders him over. Billy side slams Nese when he gets in and we go to PiP break. We return and Bill sends Ari into the rails outside while Woods lariats Max. Bowens gets the hot tag in then he hits kicks and an over the back leg drop on Nese.

Nese spin kicks Bowens in the face. Bowens hits the arrival on Nese and Max hits the top rope elbow and wins it.

This was all cut up by the break and we saw very little of this.

We go to QTV. Aaron Solo is asked if he attacked Matt Hardy. QT said they are going to be in the Double or Nothing Blackjack Battle Royale. Solo and Harley argue over who Hobbs can take out in the battle royale. These segments are a waste of time and help nobody.

The Hardy's and Isaiah Kassidy are interviewed. They said they will face The Gunns and Ethan Page, and Matt says he will be in charge of Page's contract if they win. Ethan Page comes out. He said he asked the Gunns for help, not for a match or anything else. He said he's done with Matt and Jeff. Page tells Kassidy that they are cool and to tell his boys to trust him. Page says he and Kassidy will become a tag team - The Moan Event. Page says they need to hug it out then he hugs him. Page makes him shake his hand then he grabs him. The Gunns then hit The Hardy's with chairs. Page holds Kass and throws him into the Gunns, who then chair him. Page then pillmanizes Kassidy's throat and says he will never moan again. He said who knows if he will ever even wrestle again.

We see clips of Jericho vs Strong from Dynamite. Jericho says Cole is a coward for getting involved and said he is not a man of his word. He said he would beat his @ss if he were here right now. Cole then appears outside the building on video. Cole says he will beat his @ss anytime he leaves the building. Jericho challenges him to an unsanctioned match and rips up the legal agreement he has. He says Cole is now allowed in the building again. Cole said this is what he wanted then he walks in the building. We go to break.

We return and Cole runs up to Jericho. They start fighting on the ramp and security comes to break it up. They fail to break it up of course until Jericho eventually gets away.

Bishop Kaun vs Dustin Rhodes

Kaun attacks him from the start then Dustin does a bad body block and a bad lariat over the otp. Dustin chops him outside. Kaun takes an atomic drop and Dustin has his head banged off the camera.

Dustin's bleeding and we go to PiP break. We return and Kaun air raid crashes him. Dustin kicks out at 1 and fires up. Dustin hits a powerslam then does corner punches. Dustin hits a code red and a piledriver for 2. Kaun shotgun dropkicks him, misses a corner splash and is bulldoged. Dustin hits a twisting brainbuster and wins it.

This was cut up a lot by the break as usual with Rampage main events. The match format was fine and I did like Dustin's comeback.

Brian Cage comes out after and powerbombs Dustin. Swerve Strickland then comes out. Keith Lee then comes out. He punches Kaun and throws Cage into the rails. Swerve and Keith go face to face then Keith is jumped from behind. Swerve doesn't help at all as Cage and Keith trade shots then Kaun chairs Keith. Cage hits an F5 on Keith. Keith is then seated in a chair and Swerve top rope double stomps him.  

I was not a fan of the beat-up angle at all. It was slow. Nobody's offense looked good and everyone felt like they were phoning it in.

Overall thoughts: It's Rampage. It's not a must see show and while the trios match was fine, the rest wasn't.