Arena: Colonial Life
City: Columbia, South Carolina

It’s Saturday morning, and you know what that means…  it’s time for our Rampage Review!

Coming off the show’s lowest ever rating (in the regular timeslot), would Tony Khan make tonight more of an ‘A’ show as he first promised.

YOUNG BUCKS VS TOP FLIGHT

Story going in: The Bucks eliminated Darius Martin from the tag battle royal in his return

Well, this was a hell of a start.  Hard to think of a more entertaining combo than these two teams.

Kicking us off, Nick Jackson and Dante Martin exchanged a bunch of flips, counters and stalemates at lightning pace until Top Flight each received a cheap shot.  Tagging in, Matt was the victim of quick in-n-out tags from the Martins, culminating in a senton from in-to-out by Dante as Nick Jackson was sent packing with a double dropkick.

Continuing their control, Darius grounded Matt but was clocked by Nick, who elevated in from the outside right into an inverted atomic drop from the older Martin.  After receiving a Poetry in Motion variation and a tope suicida, the frustrated veterans remained on the outside trying to regroup.

Luring the younger brothers into a superkick trap, the Bucks hit a buckle-bomb/enziguri combo on Darius and a shotgun dropkick to Dante.

Returning the favor as we returned, Dante hit one of his own from the top rope.  Raking the eyes, Matt tagged in Nick for his patented ‘comeback’, though Dante was ready, a step ahead at every turn before a senton brought a two-count.  As did a combo German suplex.

Attempting the Nose Dive, the younger Martin was shoved to the outside by Matt.  Unphased, Dante continued to thrive until a blind tag allowed the Bucks to slip-into a BTE Trigger for the 1,2,3.

While they needed a win ahead of their clash with the revival, this was nowhere near enough time for these guys.  Top Flight were a little sloppy at times, and a couple moves were a bit too choreographed but this was a fun, fast-paced seven or eight minutes of action to open the show.

Lastly, the crowd were very into this but the Bucks were not remotely heels to the folks in Carolina: ‘too sweet, whoop whoop’ etc. etc.

WINNER: The Young Bucks

A random Kris Statlander video package followed where her hair color and facepaint switched sides throughout.  Apparently, this is the ‘other side of Statlander’.

We were joined by the Men of the Year, Dan Lambert and Paige Vanzant.  Stood in the ring, Lambert called-out Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti’s ‘King and Queen of the Prom gimmick.’  Ethan and Paige made a bunch of masturbation jokes until Lambert cut them off, screaming that ‘they (Tay and Sammy) were never getting this match’.  Cut to Guevara in the parking lot with a sledgehammer, he and Tay then destroyed Lambert’s car with sledgehammers and spray-paint.

It’s worth noting that the TNT champ never got a word in.

Next was what everyone’s been waiting for.  Tony Schiavone was waiting to speak with Hook.  Before he could speak, Danhausen interrupted before attempting to ‘curse’ Hook again.  Frustrated, he failed.  Meh.

HOUSE OF BLACK VS FUEGO DEL SOL, EVIL UNO & STU GRAYSON

Story going in: Fuego challenged the HOB last week, before a stare-down with Dark Order

Malakai and co. were incredibly popular with what was a very good crowd.

‘Fuego’ chants filled the air as Grayson and Matthews got us off to a furious start ending only when del Sol tagged himself in.  Brodie King was nice enough to reintroduce him to his partners via air-mail.

Back from the break, Fuego made the hot tag, Grayson and Uno ran wild unleashing a combo powerbomb but Brodie cut-in with a clothesline before launching a cannonball from the apron onto both Dark Order members.

Very tentatively, with Malakai alone in the ring, Fuego crept back in only to find himself surrounded by the House until Murphy and King were dragged back out feet-first by the Order.  Taking advantage, del Sol got a quick roll-up for 2, before planting Black with a poisonrana and springboarding off the ropes.  Straight into a devastating heel kick which was followed by a nonchalant cover for the win.

They were then honored with Jericho’s ‘Sports Entertainer(s) of the Week’ award.

WINNER: The House always wins

Replying to Wednesday’s challenge, the Bucks listed their accomplishments as Matt acknowledged that they could just as easily be listing FTR’s.  With one difference, they’ve never beaten the Young Bucks.  The match is set for this coming Dynamite.  That’s a big one, particularly now that Dax and Kash are double champs.  Has to be the main event.

There was too much ‘shutup Brandon’ here: they’re great in the ring but Matt and Nick are over the top as heels.

JAMIE HAYTER VS SKYE BLUE, OWEN HART TOURNAMENT QUALIFIER

Story going in: N/A

For the geographically curious, Wolverhampton is nowhere near Southampton, as implied by Starks.

A tentative start with both ladies trading standing switches until Blue landed an arm-drag which was followed by her charging towards the corner only to be snatched and suplexed into the buckle.

Viciously, Hayter then provided a tour of the buckles – headfirst.

Attempting a suplex, Skye reversed it into a series of two-counts: cradle, crucifix bomb, roll-up.  After which Jamie snapped-off a mean backdrop-driver.  Retreating to the top-rope, Skye was crotched by the Englishwoman before being stuck with a superplex rolled-through into a brainbuster and finally the short-arm clothesline for the W.

Hayter was impressive here, lots of high-impact moves.  Blue veers between pretty good and tentative.

WINNER: Jamie Hayter

‘You continue to play with Fuego, you’re gonna get burnt’, was the translated warning from Penta to the House of Black.

KEITH LEE VS POWERHOUSE HOBBS

Story going in: Lee & Team Taz have been going at it since he arrived, now it’s time for the battle of the behemoths (written before goddamn Excalibur stole it!)

Excellent promo from the Powerhouse on Wednesday hyping this.  Followed up by another here pre-match.  Hobbs really presents as a star: the look, the charisma, the music/entrance combo.  His confidence seems to be growing by the week.

To the backdrop of ‘oooh bask in his glor-ry’ both big guys started slowly.  Attempting to outmuscle the other, there were a series of lock-ups, headlocks and shoulder charges – all amounting to a draw.  Until Lee finally plowed right into Hobbs, dislodging him from the ring as the ads arrived.

Things had switched as we returned: Hobbs controlling Lee who fought from his knees before being blasted with a lariat for two.

Returning to the battle of strength, each man grabbed a two-count: Lee blocking a hip-toss into a clothesline; Powerhouse reversing a powerbomb into a backdrop and a snap powerslam.  Pulling himself up by the ropes in the corner, Lee dodged his charging opponent – hip-toss, headbutt, Hobbs down.

Which brought a chair-wielding Ricky Starks to the apron until Swerve Strickland evened the odds.  Ultimately costing his fellow Team Taz member, Starks and Swerve grabbed the ref’s attention just as Hobbs hit his Last Will and Testament Spinebuster.  Upon the ref’s return to the ring, Lee capitalised, muscling Hobbs into the off-the-shoulder powerslam to bag the victory.

Made to pay for it, Starks nailed Swerve with a Roshambo though a table while Hobbs did the same to Lee with a crushing Spear as we went to black.

Even if – most weeks – the rest of the show could be spiced-up a bit, AEW are showcasing up-and-coming talent in the main event because these guys have been dominating Rampage for weeks now.

The action itself was nothing special but it made sense in that it was all about brute strength and the two were pretty evenly matched, not to mention continuing the feud, presumably a tag beckons.

WINNER: Keith Lee

GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO WATCH…

• This was on Dynamite but go and watch the Yuta/Danielson match in front of a red-hot crowd if you haven’t seen it.  That’s how you make a star.
• Bucks vs Top Flight

Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend & enjoy the crap-ton of wrestling!