AEW Rampage Review - March 3, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Blackpool Combat Club (ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli and ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta) def. Aussie Open, Top Flight, and The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) in a Four-Way Tag Team Match

It's comical that this was more appealing on paper than the scheduled AEW World Tag Team Championship match for Revolution. Dark Order mean nothing at this point and Aussie Open aren't under contract to AEW, but there's no reason why Blackpool Combat Club and/Top Flight couldn't be in that four-way matchup on Saturday. Nonetheless, this was very entertaining with all four teams getting time to shine. I'm all for Blackpool Combat Club developing more of an edge to give them some direction.

Riho def. Emi Sakura

Riho is coming off what I'd call an upset win over Toni Storm on Wednesday's Dynamite. Considering she scored her second straight win here, it looks like she is indeed being built up for an eventual title opportunity, presumably the AEW Women's World Championship. This felt like a match you would've seen in the early days of AEW when the women's division was very thin. It was well wrestled, but Riho's appearances nowadays are so far and few between that I find it difficult to care about her.

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Serpentico

Hobbs was very over in front of his home state crowd on Dynamite and he received a similarly strong reaction here as well. I'm happy he's finally getting his just due after being relegated to Dark for several months. Unfortunately, I don't see him winning the AEW TNT Championship on Dynamite next week, but hopefully he can look good in defeat and get a storyline soon. This was a simple squash to showcase Hobbs' dominance. The post-match promo addressing the audience was a nice touch.

Keith Lee and Dustin Rhodes def. Mogul Affiliates (Swerve Strickland and Parker Boudreaux)

Man, Boudreaux is just awful. I thought he had potential at one point based on what little I had seen from him in WWE NXT and on the Dark shows, but he has not looked good at all in his last few appearances on AEW TV. He really dragged this match down, which was well wrestled otherwise. The lack of heat/buzz around the Lee vs. Strickland feud is disappointing given how talented both guys are. It's also a bummer they won't be on the Revolution card, though Lee's recent absence may have had something to do with that.

Overall Show

The pre-pay-per-view editions of Rampage tend to be more eventful than your average episode, but that was not the case this week. That main event was nothing special, largely because of Boudreaux. He needs to be sent back to Dark duty immediately and it's caused Strickland's new heel faction to have a rough start. The opener was a treat, but everything else was business as usual. This felt like a waste of a live show with an energetic crowd.

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