AEW Rampage 8/19/2022 Match Ratings:
Dustin and Claudio (courtesy of TNT)
Here’s where we landed with Rampage this week. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Rampage - 8/19/2022
Swerve In Our Glory def. Private Party: ★
Hook def. Zack Clayton: ★
Buddy Matthews def. Serpentico: ★
Athena def. Penelope Ford: ★
The Best Friends def. The TrustBusters: ★★
Swerve In Our Glory (courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
Show Highlight—
Dustin Rhodes challenged Claudio. Dustin has had a career renaissance in AEW due to being used perfectly in small doses. When he’s on TV he makes his minutes matters. Dustin does the simple so well. You believe whatever Dustin is saying is coming from the deepest reaches of his soul. Both guys putting each other over captured the ethos of ROH perfectly. Now calling it a World title…
What Worked—
Buddy Matthews being featured as a single. Based on the bracketing I’m assuming House of Black is going to the final at All Out, and with Malakai recovering with back issues and Brody hitting it out of the ballpark with Darby, Buddy needed some singles shine. Matthews and Miro will put on a banger.
What Didn’t Work—
Open challenges to titles. What works, works because of its execution. This week, with Dustin answering the call to Claudio was solid, but this trope is getting contract signing-y as a dramatic device for an inciting event. How many belts featured on AEW TV—and there’s a lot of them—used an open challenge stip lately?
Show Cringe—
Sense of urgency. Not unlike the last few weeks of Rampage, nothing landed like it was building to a bigger picture. Each match and segment, with the exception of Claudio and Dustin—while perfectly fine as squashes and inserts, seemed inessential to whatever was in store for All Out.
…eh…too easy (courtesy of TNT)
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