Top 3 Takeaways for Rampage – 14th April 2023

It’s Saturday morning, and you know what that means – top 3 Takeaways from last night’s Rampage, coming at you from Milwaukee, WI!

#1 A Less than Perfect Return

Nope, this is in no way a knock on Shawn Spears’ in ring work; he looked as sharp as ever in his return to AEW competition. Instead, I refer to him not being able to pick up a win against one of the four pillars - Jack Perry. I guess it came as no surprise that Jungle Boy would walk away with the win on this night, in order to continue the build up to an inevitable 4-way dance for the World Championship.

We’ve seen in previous weeks, that fellow pillars - Darby Allin & Sammy Guevara, have picked up 2 wins a piece, and now JB has joined them, after he snagged a win over Spears with a quick reversal & pin. The 2 men showed mutual respect for one another after the match, so it would seem that Spears may be having a run as a baby-face, should he decide to stick around.

#2 An International Opener

To open Rampage we had 2 Australians, defend their Japanese Championship, on American soil. And they did so tremendously, showing off exactly what they are all about in this match against Best Friends. Kyle Fletcher was the one who gained the win, after he & Mark Davis hit Chuck Taylor with their impressive finisher – the Coriolis, retaining their IWGP Tag Team Championships.

The match did a great job in hyping up the returning PPV, Forbidden Door, giving us a taste for some of the potential dream matches that could occur, as well as giving the NJPW stars a chance to shine internationally.

#3 Rapping ain’t Hard, but Daddy Magic’s nipples are

We know the saying, “The Jericho Appreciation Society, the epitome of Sports Entertainment”... and in typical JAS fashion, they attempted to do just that, in their same silly-ways! This week, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker & Jake Hager took to the ring to try and show us that rapping is easy, and as expected, it was far from great, but they get an A for effort from me.

Despite Sports Entertaining us for a few minutes, The Acclaimed eventually saved the day, completely skipping Max Casters rap & charging at the JAS. During the skirmish Anthony Bowens & Daddy Ass wanted to find out just how hard Menard’s nipples really were, by wielding an actual pair of scissors and charging straight for him. All before fellow JAS members saved his skin, well, areolas...