AEW Rampage Grand Slam 9/23/2022 Match Ratings and Commentary

(Credit: AEW)

Here’s where we landed with the Rampage edition of Grand Slam taped from Arthur Ashe Stadium. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.

AEW Rampage Grand Slam - 9/23/2022

• Sting and Darby Allin def. The House of Black: ★★★

• Hook and Action Bronson def. 2.0: ★

• Wardlow and Samoa Joe def. Tony Nese and Josh Woods: ★

• “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry def. Rey Fenix: ★★★★

• Sammy Guevara def. Eddie Kingston: ★★★

• Jade Cargill def. Diamante to retain the AEW TBS Championship: ★

• “Hangman” Adam Page won the Golden Ticket Battle Royal: ★

• Ricky Starks def. Powerhouse Hobbs: ★★★

(Credit: AEW)

Show Highlight—

• Jack Perry vs. Fenix.  Match of the night and a great high-flying battle that channeled old school cruiserweight action on Nitro.  “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry needed a victory here, and because of his incredible offensive display, Fenix is not getting hurt by eating a loss, either.  It’s incredible that they never had a match together.  I wanna say they paired off in a battle royal at Double or Nothing years back (?) and this match more than lived-up to the high expectations set way back then.  And even Jericho mentioned it’s so great it’s going for three segments!    

What Worked—

• Darby Allin is a bad influence.  Who would have thought that radical, born-again, evangelical Sting would succumb to peer pressure?  Earlier this week, when I watched the first Grand Slam, I thought about the renaissance that Sting has had in AEW, but part of what I left out, and what was on display on Rampage Grand Slam, is Sting’s crazy desire to do dumb, Jeff Hardy hardcore spots.  I have a known dislike of most hardcore wrestling and I especially dislike older wrestlers putting themselves at greater risk, but it just works for Sting somehow.

• That’s how you spray all over a man’s face.  Didn’t think we’d see The Great Muta at Grand Slam as far as random ass debuts go.  I did see the spoilers but thought his return was nice, albeit random as all-get-out.

• High fashion.  I know I sometimes genuflect at the alter of kayfabe too much, but there’s something about wrestlers tagging-up for the first time as a means to color coordinate that makes me smile.  “Hey uh, Joe, umm, I was thinking…I have neon green trim on my singlet, right?  So if you like wear green on your fighting shorts—we can’t lose!”

• Invisible dirt kicking.  I missed heel Christian so much.  And with MJF still getting a tweener response, someone has to be the most insufferable prick, and that’s what our Christian does best.  Nothing revelatory, nothing new, just perfect pro wrestling heel shit.

• “You fat piece of shit.”  Well I guess they’re still going to lean into worked/shoot storylines, but in this case, even if you didn’t know they were suspended in real life stemming from that line, it worked into the logic of the match and feud.  Eddie is the people’s champ and his crowning moment is going to be tremendous to watch.  I may be in the minority here but I loved the finish.  Much like how AEW doesn’t do DQs and count-outs excessively and keeps them protected, a referee reversing the decision works great as a way to let Eddie maintain his oath that he’d kill Sammy, while giving Sammy heat for not really winning.  Next step is having Eddie beat Jericho for the ROH belt at Full Gear, please, and then Jericho can have a program with Garcia for the Pure Belt at wheneverthehell the next ROH PPV is.

What Didn’t Work—

• Julia Hart’s bad landing.  That was hard to watch.

• Ow, his hole!  Ricky Starks took a back-bump on top of the two sitting chairs that was especially risky.  Thankfully on the replay we saw that he took it mostly on his ass.  I hate seeing him do anything too crazy.  If there’s a guy on a pitch-count for bumps, you’d think it’d be him.  He’s too big of a potential star to risk doing this shit.   

Show Cringe—

• Battle Royal entrants.  Random mix of activity/inactivity.  On one hand you don’t want to lambast the promotion too hard for giving the boys TV exposure on one of the biggest shows of the year, but it just makes no sense as to who is in or out, and hampers the ability to advertise with the great graphic work AEW posts on Twitter (that we repurpose here).  If Daniel Garcia can appear in backstage segments whilst wrestling, why not Dax and Cash?  Have the Gunn Club and FTR all eliminate each other.  Is Andrade injured?  How about Dustin or Ethan Page?  Or fucking Miro?!?  And by Christ, don’t let us forget about the Trustbusters!!! If the title is the most important thing to the boys in the promotion, it defies logic that there’s no reason for their absence.  Skipping this match for Dark is not an answer.

  Minor grumblings about the entrants of the battle royal aside, nothing on this Rampage was bad or vastly insulted your intelligence.  Let’s hope this quality becomes the norm for Rampage moving forward!

Schwiiiiing! (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

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