AEW Rampage 8/26/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
Dustin and Claudio (courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
Here’s where we landed with Rampage this week. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Rampage - 8/26/2022
The Dark Order def. The House of Black: ★★
Wardlow def. Ryan Nemeth: ★
Powerhouse Hobbs def. Ashton Day: ★
Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo def. Ortiz and Ruby Soho: ★
Claudio Castagnoli def. Dustin Rhodes to retain the ROH World Championship: ★★
HOB (courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
Show Highlight—
Claudio def. Dustin. So what if Dustin hadn’t really put together a right to challenge for the belt in kayfabe, he always brings it in the ring and makes the guy he puts over look fantastic. And just the little things he does, like I don’t know if when he took the ass-over-tea-kettle back bump into the bottom rope that that was intentional, but he sold it brilliantly and paused to make it seem like his noggin was scrambled.
What Worked—
Better Rampage. You could sorta steal the analogy of what differentiates a good Oasis song from a mediocre Oasis song for a good/bad episode of Rampage. This was a step up from the afterthought dreck we’d been getting for however many weeks on Fridays. This episode had more stakes, and bigger stars (Wardlow, Claudio) whilst promoting the future, (Hobbs).
Wardlow lays down the goon hand. That new, extra emphasized bitchslap of Wardlow’s looks great.
Cody’s entrance. It’s not looking to far into it to assume that incorporating some of Cody’s shifting of the stage can only mean a bright future for Hobbs.
Old and young. There’s something that tickles me about the partnership of Dustin and Arn. Dustin seems to never age whilst Arn had looked elderly in his youth. My Twitter feed fed a flashback clip of the passionate segment from Nitro where Arn gave his spot to Curt Hening. He was goddamn 38! Whatever, maybe it’s just me that’s amused by that, I dunno.
What Didn’t Work—
Mystery partner. So was that a fuckup in the graphic department? Was Ten supposed to be replaced next week or so for Hangman? Or, are they pulling an audible on the plausible swerve and putting Hanger in a triple threat for the belt at All Out? Weird, radio silence on that non-reveal.
Show Cringe—
WWE finish. I’m sure it inevitably happened sometime, somewhere in AEW’s three year history, but I have no memory of them running the ol’ distraction/school-boy roll-up finish. What a weak way to 50/50 HOB with Miro to boot.
Pretty Powerhouse (courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
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