AEW Rampage
May 1st, 2024
By: John Siino
Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Commentary: Excalibur, Matt Menard & Tony Schiavone
RESULTS:
*Jay White over Dante Martin by pinfall (9:27)
*Kyle O’Reilly over Rocky Romero by pinfall (10:00) (Recommended)
*TBS Championship Manitoba Massacre: Willow Nightingale over Skye Blue by pinfall (10:40) (Recommended)
We Have To Change The World
As the show transitions, FTR and doctors are checking on Kenny Omega, as The Elite is leaving before a stretcher comes out for Omega. We cut to commentary who talk about how serious this could be for Omega before we see Omega being transported into an ambulance. The Elite stop them and take out FTR before they can start hovering over Omega who’s strapped on the stretcher. Matthew Jackson says he loves Omega to death, but this is just business and they have to change the world before they flip the stretcher over.
Jay White vs. Dante Martin
Jay White teases staying on the outside, but the match starts pretty fast as Dante Martin is able to headscissors White to the outside and keeps him there where he meets him with a dive. White takes over and ends up sweeping Martin off the ropes, as he comes crashing down going into picture-in-picture.
Martin is able to fight off White, dodging him in the corner where he hits a springboard crossbody for two before clotheslining White to the outside. White takes over and delivers a bunch of chops, that only fire Martin up with chops of his own, before hitting the Nose Dive, as White just kicks out at two. White is able to escape out of a Half & Half and hits a Sleeper Suplex followed by the Blade Runner to get the pin and the win.
Winner: Jay White by pinfall at 9:27
White goes to help Martin up after and raises his hand, and as soon as Bryce Remsburg leaves the ring, White takes out Dante with another Blade Runner, before Action Andretti & Darius Martin run out to chase White away.
Jersey Girl
We go to Arkady Aura, who is in the back with Deonna Purrazzo, and ask her why she attacked Thunder Rosa last week. Deonna says she has a question for her, and asks when is enough is enough and she’s not just a random girl who walked in. She brings up her accolades in wrestling and after last week she’s starting to feel like herself and it’s about time the entire locker room feels her also. If Rosa wants to make this personal, they can, and asks if Arkady knows what happens when you make things personal with a Jersey Girl, which she says no, so Deonna says she hopes she never finds out.
Respect Rush
We see a video for Rush who talks about his heritage and being the first Mexican to be a Ring of Honor World Champion and now he’s known as the most hated man in Mexico and you will put respect on his name.
Big Bill Enters The Jericho Vortex
Renee is with Big Bill who says he has always believed that he has all the tools to make it to the top of this industry but what has been missing is the proper guidance, and Chris Jericho is the one who takes him to the promised land and proclaims to Jericho one more time to teach him; Learning Tree. Jericho walks in and waves to the camera before thanking Katsuyori Shibata and calls him a ‘great wrestler’. Jericho talks about the cheers getting louder for him every single week and the way Bill cheered made him realize that he’s right, and he would love to take him into the Jericho Vortex and make him a part of the Learning Tree. Bill says he will not let him down, as Jericho says with the big redwood by his side, he will hold the FTW Championship for a long time.
Swerve Won’t Be Alone
Swerve Strickland is in the back with an ice pack on his head and says Christian Cage has forgotten something and he will remind Cage and the rest of the family who he is, and next week on Dynamite they will have a talk and this time he won’t be alone.
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Rocky Romero
Excalibur brings up this being the first time facing off in AEW but mentions their history in NJPW. They start the match a bit slow, each one trying to take the other down before Kyle O’Reilly is able to hook on an ankle lock, but Rocky Romero is able to get out of with an Enziguri, sending O’Reilly to the outside where Romero hits him with a pair of tope suicidas, but O’Reilly catches the second attempt and puts on an arm breaker as we go to picture-in-picture.
We return to see them kicking away at each other before O’Reilly bounces off the ropes and clotheslines Romero down as commentary raves about these 3-hour blocks… oh boy. They head to the top rope where Romero hits the Sliced Bread for a close two. O’Reilly puts on body scissors, but Romero escapes as they start going back and forth with pin attempts. Romero tries to put on a Kimura, but O’Reilly rolls him up for the pin and the win.
Winner: Kyle O’Reilly by pinfall at 10:00
Tiny Storm
Arkady Aura is in the back with Saraya & Harley Cameron, as Saraya says she demanded this time as they start calling Mariah May ‘Tiny Storm’ and saying losers breed losers. Saraya talks about her beating Toni Storm and says May is a chip off of the old box. Cameron suggests a match against May on Dynamite next week and says she’ll make her quit again.
After the break, Arkady is with The Undisputed Kingdom who say she isn’t Renee or Lexy, and talk about Roderick Strong not being too hurt to travel and how he’s truly neck strong. Strong talks about Will Ospreay retiring the Tiger Driver 91, and how he better resurrect it as he’s going to need every bullet in his chamber. And as we celebrate the 5-year anniversary of AEW, they will decide where AEW will go from here and Ospreay will fall to the Messiah of the Backbreaker.
SIINO NOTE: There was a match advertised for Rampage between Konosuke Takeshita vs. London Lightning, that you can only assume was cut due to time.
AEW TBS Championship Manitoba Massacre Match: Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Skye Blue
Willow Nightingale heads to the ring with a trash can lid as Skye Blue is there to meet her on the ramp and they start the match right away and take it into the crowd. As they head back ringside, Willow stops Blue with a chair shot and goes for the pin, making us realize that one of the rules for this match is that its falls count anywhere. Willow sets Blue on a chair and goes for a cannonball off the apron, just for Blue to move and Willow goes crashing onto the chair and floor. We see Blue busted open as she takes out Willow with a trash can lid shot to the head and gets a two. Back in the ring, Blue starts punching away at Willow before setting up a chair in the middle of the ring. Blue tries to suplex Willow onto the chair, but Willow reverses it and slams Blue onto it before taking her to the outside again. Willow starts grabbing chairs, including one from a kid in the crowd and tosses them all in the ring.
After the break, Willow stops Blue on the outside with a pounce, and sends her back inside, where she puts her in the corner with a chair and goes for a cannonball, just for Blue to toss the chair into Willow’s face and hit a superkick for two. They bring tacks into the ring and head to the corner where Blue sends another chair to Willow’s face, but Willow is able to drive Blue down onto the tacks for a two. Willow sets up a table on the outside before dodging a Code Blue attempt and slamming Blue down. Willow heads to the top rope but misses the moonsault, going crashing onto a chair, knee-first. Blue grabs a barbed-wire board from under the ring and puts it on top of the table. Blue & Willow start fighting on the apron before Willow sends Blue onto it with a Doctor’s Bomb to get the pin and win.
Winner: Willow Nightingale by pinfall at 10:40, to retain
Final Thoughts
I’ll be honest, I am dreading the possibility of a 3-hour AEW, especially on Wednesdays. It seemed to flow better on a Saturday, and Dynamite even flew by tonight, but by the time they got to Rampage, it felt like everything just slowed down. It didn’t help to have the first two matches of Rampage be pretty similar, and I think it would have made more sense to start with O’Reilly & Romero and have the previously scheduled Takeshita match in between that and the main event. That being said, that main event was wild and definitely woke me up and some of those spots were scary, but I can’t say I wasn’t entertained the whole time. It had the opposite effect of the Jericho-Shibata match on Dynamite, where the dangerous spots actually felt better executed and more fun overall. Not the best Rampage in the third-hour spot we’ve seen in the last month or so, but it’s hard to carry on another hour when a big angle is shot at the end of Dynamite. Just like it wouldn’t have had worked if they tried last week after the Tony Khan attack.
No Collision this weekend, but we will see another 3-hour block next week when they are in Vancouver.
