AEW Rampage Review - February 4, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Cole def. Evil Uno

Uno not getting a televised entrance should've told you everything you needed to go about how this was going to go and it was exactly what needed to happen. Uno and the rest of The Dark Order are booked like goofs more often than not, so Cole killing him in a matter of minutes was imperative. I also appreciate that he's becoming more serious following his loss to Orange Cassidy at Beach Break. During his intense post-match promo, he announced his intentions to challenge for the AEW World Championship because he's still technically undefeated. There's your Revolution main event, folks.

AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara def. Isiah Kassidy

Is Guevara coming out with two TNT title belts really necessary? How long is he going to carry them around for? At any rate, this was another match where the outcome wasn't at all in doubt, though I was fine with this being more competitive because Kassidy is closer to being on Guevara's level than Uno was to Cole's. This was a nice little match with a hot closing stretch. Darby Allin made the save for Guevara afterward and teased going back after the TNT title. I'm confused, can the TNT title only  be held by the same three people?

Thunder Rosa def. Mercedes Martinez by Disqualification

AEW really needed to do more to heat this feud up and get people to care about Martinez, so I appreciate that this attempted to do that. The match itself was very good and exactly what I was hoping for from them. I know she didn't get a chance to showcase her skills too often in WWE, but Martinez is talented as hell and Rosa is obviously a star. It's odd that AEW barely did any disqualifications in their first three years and now we've gotten two in the span of a month. I'm glad Martinez was protected in defeat, but it's still strange. We found afterward that it was Britt Baker who hired Martinez to attack Rosa late last year, which makes me think we might be getting Baker vs. Rosa for the AEW Women's World Championship at Revolution after all.

FTW Champion Ricky Starks def. Jay Lethal

Putting an unsanctioned championship on the line in the main event of Dynamite was certainly a choice. How anyone can care about this nonsense is beyond me. Both men feel underutilized at the moment, but at least they got a main event match out of it and it was terrific to boot. It's comical that Lethal was promoted as being undefeated in 2022 coming into this contest because I don't believe he's won on TV once since signing with AEW in November. He lost another one here, but I don't think him carrying the FTW title would have meant much, anyway. Again, though, this was fun stuff and that finish in particular was just fantastic.

Overall Show

The FTW Championship headlining Rampage reinforces what I've been saying for a while now: this show is significantly inferior to Dynamite and doesn't mean must-see in the slightest. I mean, Jurassic Express vs. Gunn Club for the AEW World Tag Team Championship next Friday night? Come on. There's a reason you wouldn't see that on Dynamite and rightfully so. With all of that being said, I'm happy that several stars we don't ordinarily see on Dynamite were showcase on this edition of Rampage, specifically the women, Starks and Lethal. Per usual, this was an enjoyable hour of wrestling, but if you missed it, you didn't miss much. If nothing else, the main event is worth making time for.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews