We’re still coming to you from the city of brotherly love, the city that booed Santa Claus, the city that Bill Burr cut the most epic 12-minute promo in the history of promos on… Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!
- 6-Person Tag: Skye Blue, Trish Adora, & Willow Nightingale vs. Jade Cargill, Kiera Hogan, & Red Velvet
- Keith Lee vs. Colten Gunn
- Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Qualifying Match: Swerve Strickland vs. Darby Allin
- ROH World TV Title Match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Trent
Make sure to keep refreshing the page as the most recent results are below!
AEW Rampage 4/29/22
As usual on Rampage, we don’t have a lot of time to waste so we’re getting right to the action.
Match #1. Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Qualifying Match: Swerve Strickland vs. Darby Allin
These guys have wrestled a bunch before coming to AEW, so we’re looking forward to a good match here. Lock up early but Swerve gets to the ropes. Top wrist lock by Darby as the crowd is split down the middle. Swerve flips out of a lucha style arm drag by Darby. Head scissors by Swerve but Darby rolls through and locks in a rear chin lock. Swerve dumps Darby to the outside and teases a dive and lands on his feet. Darby with an over-the-top stunner on the outside! Darby landed HARD on the tail bone, but he gets a two count. Back outside, Darby looking for the lope through the bottom rope but Swerve catches him with a rising knee in mid-air. Pump kick by Swerve from the apron as Darby is down. Swerve hits a diving European uppercut to a seated Darby’s back, inside the ring. Swerve putting the boots to Darby in the corner, but Darby grabs a toe hold and rolls Swerve to the center of the ring. Swerve delivers some palm strikes to Darby to break the hold. Swerve graves a headlock and rolls through, landing a beautiful jumping vertical suplex. Swerve misses a double stomp off the top rope and Darby takes advantage with a running Code Red. Darby trying to take advantage of the situation with a Coffin Drop, but Swerve gets his knees up! Swerve nails the running back kick, but Darby gets his foot on the rope before the three count! Swerve to the apron, deadlift suplex from the apron to the outside! Brutal landing! Swerve rolls Darby back in, but Ricky Starks, who was on commentary, stalks Swerve! Not on Sting’s watch, as Sting runs Starks to the back. Swerve is back in the ring, but Darby picks the ankle and ties up Swerve in a pin! He’s got him!
Winner: Darby Allin
Rating: ***1/4. I feel like this match was cut for time, because these two can do absolutely anything in the ring together. Darby needed the win and makes a great addition to the Owen.
Santana and Ortiz come out from the back and start swinging on Jericho, as footage of Jericho burning Eddie with a fireball is shown. Santana gets some good shots in as they send their message.
Match #2. 6-Person Tag: Jade Cargill, Kiera Hogan, & Red Velvet vs. Skye Blue, Willow Nightingale, and Trish Adora
Skye and Jade to start. Correct, Skye and Red Velvet to start as Jade tags out. Single leg lariat by Velvet gets a two count. Willow has seen enough and POUNCE to Velvet. Skye gets the tag to Trish Adora who’s just tremendous if you’re not familiar with her. Hogan Irish whips Trish into a bicycle kick from Jade. Jade picks Trish up… Jaded. Hogan and Velvet stop Skye and Willow, and that’s the end of this one.
Winner: Jade Cargill, Kiera Hogan, & Red Velvet
Rating: NR. Not long enough to be anything meaningful.
Darby and Swerve are in the back with Tony Schiavone. Darby said he didn’t want to win that way, and they can go another five minutes if Swerve wants to. Swerve doesn’t blame Darby, and said he and Keith Lee have some unfinished business with Team Taz.
Match #3. Keith Lee vs. Colten Gunn w/ Austin
Lee powers Colten into the corner early. Colten isn’t happy and he shoves Lee in the middle of the ring. Colten with some elbow strikes but all he’s doing is making Lee mad. Lee puts Colten in the corner and delivers the double chop. Lee with snake eyes to Colten but Austin grabs Lee from the outside. Colten drives Lee face first into the mat and rolls him back in the ring. Colten has Lee in the corner and continues to punish him with stomps and elbows. Colten stops to hug his brother as we head to commercial break. Back from commercial and Lee is in control with some big shoulder blocks. Another big chop from Lee sits Colten down in the corner. HUGE toss out of the corner by Lee. Lee looks for a splash in the corner but Austin pulls his brother out of the way and eats the splash himself. Colten looks for the FameAsser but Lee ducks under and teases a Spirit Bomb. Colten slides out, but not for long as Lee gets him up on his shoulders… Big Bang Catastrophe!
Winner: Keith Lee
Rating: **. Well, this was a match that happened on Rampage. Keith Lee needs something to do, and wrestling Colten Gunn on Rampage just isn’t it.
Jeff and Matt Hardy are in the back with Tony, and they say miss Owen Hart. Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Fish in a qualifier match on Monday.
The Undisputed Elite say they’re not worried about the Hardly Boys. And that’s Elite.
Danhausen is here! Very nice, very evil. Danhausen is here to decimate and eviscerate the one they call Hook. Without further ado…SEND. HOOK. Hook and Danhausen are face to face and Danhausen is having second thoughts. “Let’s do this another time!” “We’ll do this right now” says Hook. Mark Sterling is here and Tony Nese attacks both Hook and Danhausen from behind. Hook snatches Sterling with a hip toss and a t-bone suplex to Nese! Danhausen is up and he threatens to curse both Nese and Sterling! Nese and Sterling back off but Hook is there behind Danhausen. The crowd is chanting “Hookhausen” and that needs to be a shirt. Danhausen wants a hand shake, but Hook is having nothing of it.
Match #4. Ring of Honor TV Title: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Trent
Ian Riccaboni on commentary and Bobby Cruise announcing is a great touch. Top wrist lock by Joe as Trent reverses into a headlock. Joe shoves Trent off and lands a running shoulder tackle. Joe with some heavy strikes in the corner followed by some big Kobashi-like chops. Diving back elbow in the corner by Joe followed by a Pele kick. Trent rolls outside and Joe tries to follow with a tope, but Trent moves out of the way. Sliding knee by Trent followed by an Asai moonsault. Trent laying in the chops on the outside but a big boot by Samoa Joe stops Trent in his tracks. Joe with some more chops to Trent, a snap mare, and then a nasty chop to Trent’s back. Two count. Joe with a neck vice as we head into picture-in-picture. Big back elbow by Joe and Trent is down. Trent and Orange Cassidy lock eyes and that would be pretty fun at some point. More chops by Joe followed by a hair takedown. Joe looks for a powerbomb but Trent flips out and lands a dropkick to the teeth. Running baseball slide to the outside by Trent. Trent with a big diving cross body block from the top rope to the outside. Trent repays the favor with some heavy chops to Joe. Joe answers. Trent answers. Joe answers. Trent ducks a clothesline and hits a big Saito suplex to Joe! Tornado DDT by Trent gets a long two count. Trent looking for Strong Zero but Joe counters into a powerbomb! Trent kicks out at two but Joe seamlessly transitions to an STF. Trent just barely able to get his boot on the rope. Joe puts Trent on the top rope and he’s looking for the Muscle Buster… but Trent rolls out into a cradle for two! Sexy Chuckie Knee by Trent. One, two, no! Trent with a running back elbow to Joe in the corner but Joe catches him… uranage! Joe dives on Trent and locks in the rear naked choke, and that’s it!
Winner: Samoa Joe
Rating: ***. Good, strong win for Samoa Joe over Trent who seems to be “plug and play when you need a very good professional wrestling match.”
The Code of Honor was adhered to, which is great to see. Tony Schiavone is in the ring with Samoa Joe, but before Joe gets to speak… here comes Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, and Satnam Singh. Orange Cassidy steps right up to Singh but that doesn’t last. Lethal jumps on Joe in the ring and we’ve got a pull apart here to end Rampage.
Final Thoughts: I truly believe Rampage would benefit going from four matches to three. Four matches feel rushed, the matches are clipped, and there doesn’t seem to be enough time to be able to tell the full story. That being said, Rampage knows it’s lane and sticks to it. Good win for Samoa Joe, the Owen is coming together nicely, and we saw some storyline progression with Jericho and Santana. The “Baddie Section stuff isn’t geling with me yet, but it was nice to hear Excalibur explain Red Velvet’s heel turn (she was upset the fans turned on her vs. Willow), apparently. Easy sixty minutes. 7/10.