AEW Rampage Review - April 22, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Cole def. Tomohiro Ishii to Qualify for the Men's Owen Hart Cup

Ishii has only had one other match in AEW, and it was a tag team match with Orange Cassidy against The Butcher and The Blade on the post-Full Gear edition of Dynamite in November. We didn't get too much of him in that match, so this was much better. I was disappointed by the lack of televised entrances here, but this was a lot of fun and Ishii was protected in defeat with Jay White causing a distraction at ringside. I assume Cole and White (and maybe others) will end up in a tag team match of some sort at Forbidden Door.

Lance Archer def. Serpentico

It was announced this past week on Dynamite that as part of MJF's quest to make Wardlow's life hell, Wardlow will battle Archer next Wednesday on the show. In other words, they're dusting Archer off so he can lose once again when it matters most. It's a comical formula at this point. Thankfully, this was a short-and-sweet squash, but I have no idea how anyone could possibly take Archer seriously after all the bad booking he's endured.

Eddie Kingston def. Daniel Garcia

This was a rematch from several months ago, though I can't say I cared any more about this encounter than I did their first one. Garcia is a good worker and all, but like Archer, he nearly never wins the high-profile matchups. This was well wrestled and the action was enjoyable, but it didn't reach that next level. I know they're building to a rematch between Kingston and Chris Jericho at some point, but they need to hurry up and get there because this latest faction feud has been underwhelming, to say the least.

AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill def. Marina Shafir

It isn't often AEW puts the women in the main event of Rampage and especially Dynamite, so while I applaud the decision to showcase the TBS title here, this was the wrong match to put in this spot. This "feud" has been built over the last month, mostly through video packages, but this crowd couldn't have cared less about Shafir and I don't blame them. To be fair, this was better than I thought it would be and the effort was there, but this was hardly a special 30th win for the undefeated Cargill.

Overall Show

I already miss Rampage starting at 7 p.m. east coast time and it's only been a week. On the bright side, Rampage will have to switch up its time slot in the coming weeks due to the upcoming NBA playoffs, but here's hoping it airs earlier as opposed to later. As for this episode, it was solid but below-average by Rampage standards. The main event was just sort of there, the stuff in the middle was mediocre, and the only thing really worth noting was Ishii's appearance in the opener.

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