AEW Rampage 10/28/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
(Credit: AEW)
Here’s where we landed with this week’s live Rampage from Connecticut. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Rampage - 10/28/2022
Jon Moxley def. Matt Menard to retain the AEW World Championship: ★
Keith Lee def. Serpentico: ★
Tay Melo def. Madison Rayne: ★
Warldow def. Matt Taven to retain the AEW TNT Championship: ★★
Mohegan Sun Arena (Credit: AEW)
Show Highlight—
Rampage with a purpose. Don’t let the star ratings fool you, this was a stronger Rampage than they’ve put on—minus Grand Slam, which is an anomaly—in months. One of the failings of Rampage was a lack of star power and matches for the sake of matches with little storylines flowing in and out of the show. This week had both, with AEW Champion Moxley, and storylines and implications for all three major titlists. In the best way, this show was almost like a glory days NXT episode.
What Worked—
Lee Moriarty. A staple of AEW is having a babyface run the gauntlet of the heel’s stable, and with the breakup—OR WAS IT?!?—of MJF and The Firm, they get to run a neat little inverse of that storyline. Mox will get a good match out of Moriarty, and he put Lee over on the mic by saying he wanted him in the BCC. Oh, and cool fucking theme music invoking RZA!
Solo Lee. This effectively served a few masters at once, giving Keith Lee a squash independent of the team that reinforces he’s the babyface, while giving Lee’s character plausible deniability for not being aware of what Swerve did to Daddy Ass, all the while pushing towards the third installment at Full Gear.
What Didn’t Work—
Tay Melo vs. Madison Rayne. While nice to see Tay get TV time to wrestle as opposed to being a valet, this match was lousy, looking phony and choreographed as any poorly-agented Laurinaitis-era Divas Raw match. What does Madison Rayne bring to AEW as a coach if this continues to be the in-ring output?
Show Cringe—
Reservoir Swerve. Swerve was in the Halloween spirit, but the tone was just totally far too dark for a scissoring-blocking, hand injury angle. Strickland has been a heel, but this was a 0 to 60mph advancement that was unnecessary. Billy Gunn is a silly character now that’s supposed to be fun, nobody wants to see him get torture-porned in a film student’s homage to Eli Roth’s homage to Tarantino. The non-diegetic sound was as silly as it was when used under Bray Wyatt’s backstage promo the week previously on SmackDown. Pull it way back.
(Credit: AEW)
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