And a Good Friday you all! Lee Sanders here and AEW RAMPAGE is here! Let’s goooooo!

Commentators: Excalibur, Taz, Chris Jericho, and Ricky Starks

Atlantic City, New Jersey
Venue: Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall

MATCH 1: YOUNG BUCKS VS. TRENT BERETTA & ROCKY ROMERO

We’re joining this match off the break as the bell rings as all four men are in the ring. Romero and Beretta are taking it to the former AEW Tag champions. Young Bucks are so rattled that they leave the ring and head to the top of the stage ramp. Beretta and Romero give chase and are both super kicked! Young Bucks quickly run to the ring as the ref begins to count Beretta and Romero down. Rocky makes it back in as Matt Jackson rams him head first into the turnbuckle. Nick Jackson tagged in now as we see great double team action on Rocky while also slowing down Beretta from helping out his tag partner. Nick Jackson bounces off the top ropes with help from his brother as he crashes into Roppongi Vice. Orange Cassidy looks on at the Bucks as they want a piece of him. Cassidy backs off and goes under the ring. As Bucks try to give chase we see Danhausen who gives them a curse posed as Beretta and Romero do suicide dives in-between the ropes to leave Bucks laid out. Back from commercial break as Matt Jackson connects with a lariat to lay out Romero. Bucks go in for a super hug, mocking Best Friends. Rocky gets in a double leg takedown on both Bucks as he makes the hot tag to Beretta. Big back-elbow strike to Nick, followed by a tornado style ddt from the top rope. Trent fights Matt outside the ring as Nick tries to kick Trent. Doomsday device / knee strike combo sequence happens involving Romero taking out Nick once he’s on Beretta’s shoulders! An excellent spot! Back inside the ring now, face stomp, knee strike combo by Beretta and Romero on Nick for a near fall. Released German suplex now from Trent and Nick as they exchange them on each other. Double German suplex now on both Bucks now as Bucks come right back with stereo superkicks as Rocky and Trent take Bucks down with clotheslines. Rocky and Matt now teeing off on one another, back and fourth blow exchanges. Nice back-heel kick by Romero followed up with a slice bread attempt that gets countered by Matt as Matt is looking for a piledriver as Rocky counters the hold into a rollup for a near fall. Trent tries to apply the strong zero pin once he’s the legal man on Matt but gets bumped into as the match continues. Meltzer Driver attempt applied but pin attempt is denied as later we see a BTE trigger on Romero to end the match.

Winner:Young Bucks (14:00)
Rating: ***
Thoughts: Nice opener, very solid tag match. Not too many false finishes but some spots will leave you going surely this is it and yet the match kept going. Wasn’t really a fan of the no selling of suplexes and superkicks but regardless a fun and solid match.

Orange Cassidy applies a Orange punch on Brandon Culter as Bucks come in superkicking Cassidy. Beretta gets in as Bucks leave but Jay White is behind him. Once Beretta turns around he’s taken out with the Bladerunner.

Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs are at the commentary table as Ricky reveals next Friday, Dante Martin will face Hobbs in a Revolution qualifying match.

Tony Schiavone is with Bryan Danielson as he’s aware of Moxley teaming with CM Punk from DYNAMITE this week. Far as he’s concerned that is a one time deal but that what he’s offering is a long term relationship. Lee Moriarty and Matt Sydal show up as Sydal has issues with what Danielson said a few weeks back about recruiting Lee. Danielson gives Sydal his props as a coach but that Lee needs to learn about ultimate violence and brutality. Lee steps up to Danielson and tells him if he wants to see violence, he’ll show him first hand as he wants a match with him next week. Danielson smiles and credits Lee for stepping up as he’s looking forward to seeing what the young prospect can do against him. That should be a great match!

MATCH 2: ROBYN RENEGADE VS BRITT BAKER

We begin with a lockup as Robyn quickly gets Baker down to the canvas. Baker regains her vertical base and takes Robyn down and applies a headlock on her in the process. Nice technical exchanges from both girls so far as Robyn is holding her own pretty good. Robyn into the ropes, she grabs Britt as Britt sends her into the ropes, catches her and is looking for a DDT but Britt gets out and manages to grab a handful of Robyn’s hair to slam her down to the canvas as we go into a commercial break. Robyn with a nice John Woo dropkick followed by double knees to the face of Baker. She goes up to the top turnbuckle and connects with a big frog splash on the AEW Women’s champion to get only a near fall. Robyn picks up Britt and tries looking for a suplex as Britt counters out of it with a gator roll followed by a thrust kick to Robyn’s face. Elbow strike to Britt’s face followed by a fisherman’s neckbreaker followed by the stomp to end this one.

Winner:Britt Baker (7:00)
Rating: **
Thoughts: All about the unraveling storyline between Thunder, Britt, Mercedes, and Hayter. The match itself wasn’t too shabby as Robyn was pretty smooth in her RAMPAGE debut match. Wouldn’t mind see more of her on TV.

Post-match. Britt applies the lockjaw as Thunder Rosa comes running down the ramp, lays out Rebel, and pounces on Baker with punches to Britt‘s face and body. The attack doesn’t last long as Jaime Hayter comes in for the save. Hayter is taking it to Rosa when Mercedes Martinez comes down for some action as she pushes Hayter out the way to get her a piece of the action. Hayter comes right back and gets in the face of Martinez as they are jawing off now. Britt calms the two down as the stand victorious…For now.

MATCH 3: BLAKE LI AKA CAW GREEN MAN VS HOOK

HOOK gets a takedown off the break with a quarter nelson maneuver as Blake is grounded. HOOK comes in with punches and strikes as he goes through a hip toss counter attempt from Blake with a waste lock transition turned El Camino! Blake Li gets side thrown by HOOK as it looked like HOOK was going to be done with this one when QT Marshall gets on the apron to complain. Blake tries gets in an elbow strike but when he tries to look for a move off the middle rope, now one is home as he lands flat on his stomach. HOOK ends this poor guy with the REDRUM…Jesus!

Winner:HOOK (3:15)
Rating: NR
Thoughts: Barely any offense from the Blake fellow. HOOK! HOOK! HOOK! QT’s MAD MAD!

MATCH 4: AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP—LUCHASAURUS(C) AND JUNGLE BOY(C) VS COLTEN AND AUSTIN GUNN

Nice roll through by Austin from Jungle Boy. Austin gets Jungle Boy in a headlock as Jungle Boy uses his body to send Austin into the ropes. Coming off the ropes, Austin shoulder tackles Austin to the canvas. Swing and a miss by Austin as Jungle Boy connects with a chop. Jungle Boy aka JB connects with a comeback lariat off the ropes to send Austin to the mat followed by rolling outside the ring to regroup. Luchasaurus is tagged in as the big man connects with snake eyes on Austin. Stomping senton applied to Austin as JB and Luchasaurus performed great tag team action on him as it sets up our last commercial break in Picture in Picture. We are back now as Austin managed to get in some offense on Jungle Boy. JB sends Austin crashing over the ropes but Colten gets in the blind tag as as Jungle Boy tries getting in a leaping tag to Luchasaurus but Austin takes out the legs of Luchasaurus to deny JB the tag. Luchasaurus manages to grab on the wrist of Austin that sets him up for a fast German on him as he staggers to his corner for the tag to Colten. JB gets in the tag to Luchasaurus who’s coming in taking out both Gunn brothers like pancakes being flipped in the skillet. Luchasaurus plants Colten with a chokeslam and a moonsault, pin attempt made as Colten kicks out. Austin gets inside as he manages to sweep the leg of Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy ends up doing a dive between the ropes as he crashes into Luchasaurus. Austin gets JB in the ring and goes for a pin as Christian stops Austin using the legs illegally. Billy Gunn takes out Christian which sets up Austin to help his brother use the tag belt to the head of Jungle Boy while ref is distracted. Pin attempt made and somehow JB kicks out! Luchasaurus grabs on the legs of Colten to take him off the apron as he chokeslams him into the fans. Christian Cage meanwhile, outside the ring, connects with a spear on Billy Gunn as Jungle Boy, inside the ring, connect with a killswitch on Austin to retain the tag titles.

Winner:Jurassic Express (11:00)
Rating: ***
Thoughts: Excellent tag match as the tag champions continue building momentum and solidifying their place in the tag division. An impressive outing from the Gunn brothers as I have to be honest they’ve come a long way since I first saw them join AEW. This was a great test for them but for the love of God can we do something more worthy with Christian Cage already?

End of show

If you all would like to hear my thoughts on this past weeks’ DYNAMITE that featured Keith Lee and Jay White debuting, be sure to check out my podcast /webcast via YouTube.com/thercwrshow and be sure to subscribe so you never miss out on all the great talk of wrestling and beyond. Audio version available wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on Twitter @TheRCWRshow

THE FINAL SCORE:  REVIEW

GOOD

Not too shabby of an episode this week as it was the return of tag team action on RAMPAGE. Great opener of a tag match and great main event tag match. Everything else in-between was so-so for this week. HOOK continues to impress me but this forced feud with QT Marshall is serious buzzkill. I appreciate the touch of detail that was put in Thunder Rosa coming after Britt Baker now that she knows Britt is the one that hired Mercedes. By the way, we got Mercedes versus Thunder in a NO DQ match on DYNANITE this week so that should be awesome. Bryan Danielson did double duty this week on the shows for TNT and TBS and I’m down for that! That Statlander vs Hirsch feud? Not so much but I appreciate the video package they aired of them tonight. Have a good weekend y’all!