By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Rampage (Episode 137)
Toronto, Ontario at Coca-Cola Coliseum
Aired live March 20, 2024 on TBS
Rampage opened with the conclusion Adam Copeland defeating Christian Cage in an I Quit match to win the TNT Championship (see my Dynamite report for a full review of the match)…
Footage aired from earlier in the day of Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn in a backyard pool area. Colten said they were in sunny Florida rather than in Toronto. The Gunns mocked Darby Allin. White pulled out a gold bat. White claimed he saved Allin’s life.
White said Allin is now free to do whatever, aside from climb Mount Everest this year. White said he is bigger than Everest. The Gunns yelled “no” and warned White about Allin. A skeleton was shown coming down the pool slide…
Renee Paquette welcomed fans to Rampage and then introduced “The Acclaimed” Max Caster and Anthony Bowens. Caster recalled being attacked by Bullet Club Gold last week. Caster claimed Billy Gunn wasn’t cleared to travel after the beating they took last week.
Caster said White didn’t want to come to Canada, whereas The Acclaimed shows up when they are demoralized or hurt. He said White is a fake tough guy who hide behinds the Ass Boys. Caster offered White a one-way ticket to New Zealand or New Japan. Caster said White wouldn’t take him up on the offer because he’s not smart. He said he knows he’s not smart because only a stupid man would go after The Acclaimed.
Bowens apologized to the fans for not being as happy go lucky as he normally was. Bowens said he was pissed about the Bullet Club Gold members not coming to Canada. Bowens said those guys know they are not elite enough. Bowens said there was a beautiful video package on the AEW Tag Team Titles and the Gunns weren’t in it.
Bowens also pointed out that White entered the Continental Classic tournament and lost. He said White also got an AEW World Championship match and lost to MJF when MJF was on one leg. Bowens said White needs to stop blaming everyone else for his shortcomings. Bowens said White is a coward and he’s counting down the days until he beats them all silly.
Bowens had the fans hold up their scissors hand, then told them to lower their one finger to show the Bang Bang Gang how they feel. Caster and Bowens both flipped off the camera and then closed out the promo…
Powell’s POV: Wow, that was weak. The Caster part of the promo was forgettable, and Bowens made White look like a joke by bringing up his key losses. By the way, with Rampage airing right after Dynamite, I’m covering the show tonight, but Don Murphy will return with his usual Rampage coverage next week.
The brackets for the tournament that will crown new AEW Tag Team Champions was shown. Excalibur, who was on commentary with Tony Schiavone and Matt Menard, said the tournament started with a major upset with The Infantry beating House of Black… Entrances for the opening match took place…
1. Powerhouse Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher (w/Don Callis) vs. Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta in a wildcard qualifier for the tournament for the vacant AEW Tag Team Titles. Hobbs and Fletcher were in offensive control heading into a picture-in-picture break a few minutes into the match. [C]
Cassidy had a flurry of offense until Hobbs clubbed him down and tagged out. Cassidy hit a Stundog Millionaire on Fletcher and then Beretta was there to follow up with a suplex. Cassidy and Beretta did the Best Friends’ hug and were immediately put down by Hobbs, who clotheslined both men.
Hobbs and Cassidy ended up at ringside where Hobbs tossed Cassidy into the LED board. Beretta caught Hobbs with a kick from the apron and then helped Cassidy perform a Beach Break on Hobbs. Fletcher took out Beretta. Back in the ring, Fletcher performed a leaping tombstone piledriver on Cassidy for a two count. Fletcher bled from the mouth.
Fletcher caught Cassidy with a kick in the corner and set up for a superplex, but Beretta returned to break it up. Beretta performed a half-and-half suplex from the top rope. Cassidy followed up with a jump from the ropes into a DDT. Cassidy hit Fletcher with the Orange Punch and then scored the pin…
Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta defeated Powerhouse Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher in 10:30 in a wildcard match to qualify for the tournament for the vacant AEW Tag Team Titles.
Excalibur said Katsuyori Shibata would be in action after the break… [C]
Powell’s POV: Fletcher had the highly competitive banger with Will Ospreay two weeks ago just to turn around and take the loss in this match. Why am I not surprised? Cassidy and Beretta will face Matt Taven and Mike Bennett in a quarterfinal tournament match.
Katsuyori Shibata made his entrance while his opponent was already in the ring…
2. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kevin Matthews. The broadcast team hyped Shibata’s match with Will Ospreay for next week’s Dynamite. Shibata hit Matthews repeatedly in the corner and then dropkicked him. Shibata suplexed Matthews and covered him for a two count. Matthews caught Shibata with clothesline. Shibata came right back with a sleeper. Shibata released the hold and then hit Matthews with a PK and pinned him..
Katsuyori Shibata beat Kevin Matthews in 1:25.
Powell’s POV: A logical dominant win for Shibata heading into his match with Ospreay. Matthews also worked as KM in Impact Wrestling.
Backstage, Adam Copeland had a champagne celebration for his TNT Title win with Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, Chuck Taylor, Dante Martin, Darius Martin, Action Andretti, Daniel Garcia, and Matt Sydal… Entrances for the next match took place…
3. Konosuke Takeshita (w/Don Callis) vs. Rocky Romero. Takeshita no-sold Romero’s chops. Takeshita wound up for a strike, but Romero dropped him with a punch. Takeshita took offensive control heading into a PIP break. [C]
Takeshita hit a Helluva Kick in the corner and followed with an inverted piledriver. Takeshita performed a Blue Thunder Bomb and covered Romero, who kicked out at two. A “this is awesome” chant broke out. Romero came back briefly, but Takeshita cut him off with a clothesline. Takeshita removed his elbow pad and hit a rolling elbow strike. Takeshita hit a Falcon Arrow and scored the pin…
Konosuke Takeshita beat Rocky Romero in 8:55.
Excalibur told viewers they wouldn’t want to miss the street fight main event… [C]
Powell’s POV: Romero kicking out of Takeshita’s big burst of offense was an eye-roller for this viewer, but the live crowd liked it. At least the right guy went over clean. By the way, it was a nice move to show Copeland’s champagne celebration for the title change.
Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale made their entrance with Stokely Hathaway. Statlander and Nightingale wore white gear and had chairs. Skye Blue made her entrance holding a kendo stick, and then Julia Hart made her entrance with a kendo stick of her own…
4. Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale vs. TBS Champion Julia Hart and Skye Blue in a Street Fight. Stokely Hathaway sat in on commentary. Statlander and Nightingale went to ringside and fought their opponents to start the match. Excalibur said no tags were needed and there were no disqualifications.
Statlander put Hart’s body through a chair and then Willow kicked Hart. Statlander picked up Hart and the chair and slammed them and then Willow hit her with another kick. Statlander covered Hart for a two count. Willow introduced a table.
Skye took out Willow at ringside. Hart grabbed a spike and tried to hit Statlander with it, but Statlander broke away from Blue, who took the spike to the head before the PIP break. [C] Statlander and Willow set up two tables next to one another at ringside in between the ring and the broadcast table.
Blue performed a Code Blue on Willow on the broadcast table, but the table did not break. Blue poured a bag of thumbtacks inside the ring. Statlander pulled out a bag of her own and added to the thumbtack pile. Blue ended up powerbombing Statlander from the middle rope onto the thumbtacks.
Blue picked up a handful of thumbtacks and put them in Statlander’s mouth before superkicking her. Blue covered Statlander for a two count. A “you sick f—” chant broke out. Blue smiled before going to the ropes. Willow cut off Blue and then performed a Death Valley Driver off the apron and through the two tables on the floor.
In the ring, Hart set up a stack of chairs in a corner of the ring. Statlander backdropped Hart onto the pile. Statlander went up top and performed a 450 splash that Hart avoided, causing Statlander’s knees to hit the chairs. Hart applied her Hartless finisher and forced Statlander to submit…
TBS Champion Julia Hart and Skye Blue defeated Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale in 11:30 in a Street Fight.
Excalibur ran through next week’s Dynamite lineup and also hyped FTR vs. The Infantry in an AEW Tag Team Title tournament match for the March 30 edition of AEW Collision…
Powell’s POV: The wrestlers worked hard and produced a good street fight main event. I’m surprised they didn’t reward viewers who watched the three-hour marathon by sending out Mercedes Mone at the end. Speaking of the marathon, if I learned anything tonight it’s that I don’t want AEW to expand Dynamite to three hours on a weekly basis. Dynamite was a good show and Rampage was actually a little above average compared to the usual throwaway Friday night shows, but three hours is just overkill for a weekly pro wrestling series. WWE might be doing well with Raw these days, but it doesn’t erase all those years when they really struggled to fill the three hours. I will be back later tonight with my weekly same night audio review of Dynamite along with some brief Rampage thoughts for Dot Net Members (including our Patreon patrons).
“Romero kicking out of Takeshita’s big burst of offense was an eye-roller for this viewer, but the live crowd liked it.”
The AEW live crowd would like prison rape in the middle of the ring as long as it’s done by boring indie twats that nobody actually wants to see in a pro wrestling ring.
Yet here you are every week commenting on the product.
Darren, he’s one of those poor souls who make themselves feel better by being negative about things. Pathetic individual, but I do laugh every time he posts…..
Gee, you came here to make a negative comment about AEW. LMAO. You truly are funny.
Want a tissue bud? Go cry somewhere else
Maybe the extra hour was too much for you. The acclaimed promo was actually refreshing instead of the usual sophomore stuff, they showed they were pissed off. Better than funny haha jokes.
Fletcher is expendable to take pins. If Hobbs would have been pinned, you would have said something. Someones gotta lose.
Romero deserves better but to be a squash for Takeshita so im glad he kicked out of some big moves.
Main event was what it needed to be. Mone didnt have to come since they lost the battle clean. She doesnt have to show up 3 times a night.
Maybe give the review to someone with fresh eyes. 3 hours is too much for you it seems.
Disagree all you like. I stand by my opinions and you are certainly entitled to yours. But three hours is too much for me? I’ve covered three hours of Raw nearly every Monday for more years than I care to remember. I’ve covered countless PPVs/PLEs during my 26 years of covering pro wrestling. Trust me, it wasn’t the third hour.
I talked about a lot of this in my audio review. And normally, I’d cover it in tomorrow’s Hit List. But I won’t be doing one for Rampage, so I’ll break it down here to give you a better understanding of where I’m coming from.
The acclaimed promo was actually refreshing instead of the usual sophomore stuff, they showed they were pissed off. Better than funny haha jokes.
***Yes, it was nice that they didn’t do their usual schtick. I just didn’t find them to be all that believable in their anger and felt it was a flat segment. I also thought that Anthony Bowens bringing up Jay White’s AEW failures was counterproductive and pointless.
Fletcher is expendable to take pins. If Hobbs would have been pinned, you would have said something. Someones gotta lose.
***I would have been fine with this outcome had I not watched Fletcher have a back and forth banger with Will Ospreay. Great work from both guys in that match, but how impressive is the new sensation if he struggled to beat the expendable guy? No, Hobbs should not have taken the pin in this match. But here’s the thing. They didn’t need to book these teams against each other.
Romero deserves better but to be a squash for Takeshita so im glad he kicked out of some big moves.
***Again, if Romero deserved better, then they didn’t have to put him in this role. The right guy went over strong so I’m not all that worried about it, but the sequence that Romero kicked out of was more impressive than the actual finish.
Main event was what it needed to be. Mone didnt have to come since they lost the battle clean. She doesnt have to show up 3 times a night.
***I wrote that I was surprised they didn’t send her out. No big deal. I just thought it would have been a nice payoff and a good bookend to the three-hour block since she said she’d be keeping an eye on the match. A simple long distance staredown or something to that effect would have been suffice, but it’s not like I enjoyed the show any less because she didn’t come out. Anyway, I hope that helps explain my perspective even if you disagree with it.
That street fight was one of the best women’s matches in AEW history, as it was definitely the best of the first three street fights. The energy in that building to close out a great night of action for the Toronto crowd was perfect. All four ladies really bought it.
I was the most impressed with Skye Blue as her three spots were awesome. Her version of the Pop Rocks which is Code Blue was amazing on the announcer table and it didn’t even need to break it had so much impact on it. I love how sadistic and crazy she was throughout the match with the thumbtacks on Kris Statlander as well. Putting some in Statlander’s mouth too and getting the “YOU SICK FUCK” chants behind it and you can tell Skye Blue felt validated after that too.
Loved the table spot with Willow as well right after that as they just had the perfect four girls in there. The sadistic characters just really work for Blue and Julia Hart as they need to keep them together as long as possible.
I really think they need to develop a real women’s tag team belt because their division could be lit and this would be their version of The Dudley Boys vs. Christian/Edge vs. Hardys type rivalry as these four women have great chemistry in the ring.