Top 3 Takeaways for Rampage – 5th May 2023

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

#1 Firmly Deleted

he main even on this week’s Rampage saw the end of the Hardy/Firm storyline in ‘The Firm Deletion’ match. For anyone who has seen these wacky matches that take part at the Hardy compound, you will know exactly what to expect. For those that don’t, brace yourself for some silliness!

Matt & Jeff Hardy, along with Isiah Kassidy & Hook, had the last laugh in this rivalry, taking the win over The Firm (Ethan Page, Stokely Hathaway, Big Bill & Lee Moriarty) in dominant fashion. The Firm hardly got any offence in, for that matter neither did Hook, who rarely featured in this segment!

Some of the highlights from the match was Gothic Baby’s (of TikTok fame) AEW debut, Reby Hardy delivering a Twist of Fate, Maxel Hardy gave us a great Swanton Bomb, and the rest of the Hardy children beating up Hathaway in their swish cinema room! We also saw “Brother Zay” make an appearance, with his usual orgasmic noises, before jumping off a shipping container & claiming he “always comes”... and of course we got to see a bit of Jeff in action, in his return since his rehab. All in all a crazy match/segment, which is sure to p**s Mr. Cornette off.

#2 Jokes on You?

In a small backstage segment, Lexy Nair attempted to interview Chris Jericho (hot off being attacked by Adam Cole & Britt Baker on Dynamite) to try and find out why he’s not on commentary. Jericho eventually opened up his locker room door to speak to her, only after the usual Jericho antics.

He proclaimed that from now on Adam Cole will no longer be allowed in the same building as him, and will have an announcement next week on this. I can’t help but feel this is poking fun at the internet rumours of CM Punk’s “imminent return” and that “he and the Elite will have to be kept on separate shows”. But we will see!

#3 Hot Start

Rampage opened with a strong Trios match, between the Lucha Brothers & El Hijo del Vikingo vs QTV (Hobbs, QT & Solo), in the fall out from the Trios battle Royal on Wednesday. The match also continued the rivalry of Hobbs/Lucha Bros which started with Powerhouse Hobbs’ TNT title reign. My biggest question here though is, where is Pac? Why has Vikingo suddenly replaced him without an explanation? We haven’t seen the Bastard since losing the Trio’s championship to The Elite...

The match ended when Hobbs was too occupied with Alex Abrahantes on the ramp, beating him down after he put an end to Harley Cameron’s interference, this momentary distraction (as well as a table blocking Hobbs’ path to the ring) prevented him from breaking up the pin fall on Aaron Solo.