AEW Dynamite and Rampage 5/10/2023 Match Ratings and Commentary
AEW Set (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
Here’s how we rated last week’s Dynamite and Rampage that we attended from Detroit. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Dynamite - 5/10/2023
Willow Nightingale and Skye Blue def. Marina Shafir and Nyla Rose (Dark Match): ★
Ethan Page and Preston Vance def. QT Marshall and Aaron Solo (Dark Match): ★
Claudio Castagnoli def. Rey Fenix: ★★★★
Orange Cassidy def. Daniel Garcia to retain the AEW International Championship: ★★★
Julia Hart def. Anna Jay: ★★
The House of Black def. Bandido and Best Friends to retain the AEW World Trios Championship: ★★★
Jon Moxley def. Kenny Omega: ★★★★
Cage (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
Lower Bowl (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
Cage Lowering (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
Cage Match (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
AEW Rampage - 5/13/2023
The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn def. Kip Sabian and The Butcher and The Blade: ★★
Toni Storm def. Allysin Kay: ★★
Kyle Fletcher def. Action Andretti: ★★★
Swerve Strickland and Brian Cage def. Dark Order: ★★
Lower Bowl (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
Show Highlight—
Moxley vs. Omega. Nothing says camaraderie like slicing each other’s backs with barbed-wire. Their great chemistry continued. The V-Trigger through the cage was an all-timer spot, like footage spliced into the opening signature of Raw Is War circa ’99. Like many a Moxley hardcore matches, there were things to nitpick, like the logic of having your back turned for minutes to fuck with the turnbuckle when your enemy would be free to use a chair wrapped in barbed-wire (as if another weapon would be necessary). The inevitable Don Callis turn got ungodly heel heat live.
What Worked—
Detroit. We did it! We didn’t embarrass ourselves on national TV! Hip hip hooray. This was a rabid audience and was louder than the crowd for last year’s Blood and Guts. Based on comments on Twitter and SquaredCircle, the sometimes questionable audio capturing by AEW’s production team was no issue as they heard our passion and participation loud and clear. Oh and fuck you, it’s pop not soda. Welcome to Michigan.
Claudio vs. Rey Fenix. It’s an idiotic cliche written by wrestling media types, but it really is crazy how crazy-strong Claudio is in-person. His body type is as visually noteworthy as anyone else on the roster, but his ability to just toss the shit out of people is a sight to see and why he’s a must watch for a live setting. The one time he chucked Fenix out into the crowd for the count-out tease spot—which was successful in that it was one of the few times when you could actually credibly doubt a wrestler would be able to get back in time—he freaked out these two old security guards bored to tears and not paying attention. Great chemistry, perfect clash of styles, and an obvious match of the night.
Christian Cage. His heat was otherworldly. One of the best heel reactions I’ve arguably ever heard live. You could not hear a goddamn thing he said. I can not stress how loud it was. I saw a few clips online and it doesn’t do justice to how much Detroit fucking hated him in the best possible way. This pairing with Christian is going to be very fruitful for Wardlow.
Orange Cassidy. Another great outing. OC is having one of the best title runs for any title in AEW’s history. If MJF does end up having a long reign, they’d be idiots to not have him challenge at say, Full Gear or Revolution.
HOB as faces. They’re back for another spin on the ol’ spooky dial to separate themselves on the roster aesthetically, which, the biggest helping hand they could use in that effort, is to clearly be a heel or a face stable. The audience wanted to cheer for them. Or, at the very least, Brody King, who was incredibly over, getting the barks from the crowd a la JYD.
Max Caster’s freestyle. Live, with all that noise, shit got muddled in my hard-of-hearing ears, but there was a good line about Vince’s mustache, and to appease the local crowd, references to Gov. Whitmer’s kidnapping, and the implication that someone in the heel stable enjoyed a prolapse from a romantic uppercut from the Joe Louis Fist Monument.
What Didn’t Work—
The Pillars promos. Maybe this worked better on television, but live, it landed like one of those endless bumpers for Bobby Lashley on the ‘Cock that you’re just trained to ignore.
Julia Hart vs. Anna Jay. No idea who the face or heel was. I guess Julia? Goth girls like her song?
TK’s PPV promise. Tony did this last time as well. He thanked the Motor City for his family’s generational wealth in the auto industry after teasing a PPV down the line that everyone took as a guarantee as if he’d move fucking All In from Wembley to LCA.
Show Cringe—
Rampage. As tribalist as wrestling fandom is, and even with libraries of so many promotions’ A-shows easily available to stream, it would be a bad faith argument to say Dynamite isn’t one of the best wrestling shows ever. At the very least, you’d have to admit it’s exceptionally entertaining. Same can not be said for Rampage. Every Dynamite ends on some sort of peak, and sitting through Rampage feels like such a drag, even if, like this weeks’ episode, it was perfectly acceptable wrestling. With no more Dark or Dark Elevation, there’s no reason why Rampage can’t be taped first with plenty of buffer time before going live. It’s not like anything happens in-ring that’s going to cause some WCW-esque continuity error. The crowd gets dead and wants to go home, and that just makes Rampage less valuable for the talent and the audience.
Tony Khan (Credit-Chris Scott Moore)
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