AEW RAMPAGE HITS & MISSES 3/19: Keith Lee vs. Max Caster, Marshall talks about Hook, Hirsch vs. Velvet, Darby vs. Butcher, Jericho on commentary

Darby Allin defeated The Butcher via count out: HIT

I didn’t have high expectations for this match, but the announcers did a decent job trying to explain how Butcher’s previous injury might motivate him in this match. Butcher put brought considerable effort into this bout, and I didn’t mind the count out loss at all.

At one point in the match, Jericho on commentary said, “that’s what SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT is all about…live to fight another day.”

After the match, AFO tried to attack Darby and Sting, but the Hardy Brothers came out to rescue them. The Hardys challenged the AFO to come into the ring, but they backed off.

Hardy then challenged them to an 8-man Texas Tornado tag-team match next week on Dynamite (how is a Texas Tornado tag-team match different from an ordinary Tornado tag-team match?). He also references his brother as “Nero,” which I only vaguely know that it came from a gimmick on Impact. The announcers ought to explain that one.

Scorpio Sky + Dan Lambert + Paige VanZant Backstage Promo: UNCERTAIN

Sky and Lambert were okay here, but Paige just sounded very gimmicky. It reminded of me an NXT 2.0 promo in many ways. Probably too early to judge though. I encourage you to take a watch and make your own judgment.

Leyla Hirsch defeated Red Velvet: HIT

Solid action. Velvet won by distraction after Statlander snatched a weapon from Hirsch. That keeps Hirsch looking somewhat strong, but she’s now lost to both Statlander and Velvet, and she’s a lone heel feuding with two babyfaces. Something about that just doesn’t sit right.

I know the Statlander-Velvet-Hirsch feud has some roots on Dark, but in the initial months I was able to follow it fine on television. The past few weeks, however, it is getting increasingly difficult to stay invested in this feud.

Q.T. Marshall video promo on Hook: HIT

This was hilariously excellent. Marshall is great in this little feud with Hook.

House of Black defeated Fuego Del Sol and Bear Country: HIT

Good exhibition match for House of Black. I feel like their star power was slipping, so this is a good way to bring them back into relevance.

Penta Video Promo: 50-50

This was either really cool or really contrived for most people. I’m somewhere in the middle; I think Penta comes across well, but his translator is far too unbelievable in this “dark” role. I’d prefer they just give Penta some subtitles.

Main Event Promo: HIT

I liked this. Keith Lee was calm, composed, and yet still menacing. Good, badass babyface energy. The Acclaimed were fine as well.

Keith Lee defeated Max Caster of the Acclaimed: HIT

Like Lee’s match with QT last week, this wasn’t a physically spectacular match, but it didn’t need to be. The character work was entertaining enough to keep me watching. Lee is good and although Bowens is the superior worker in the Acclaimed, Caster is really able to sell well and get the crowd behind his opponents.

Hobbs and Starks attacked Lee after the match. The Acclaimed joined in and beat him down for a while before Swerve Strickland came out to make the save. The animosity between Swerve and the four heels was established in a very confusing backstage segment two nights ago on Dynamite.

Commentary: MISS

Jericho is very inconsistent on commentary, and that dragged it down for me. He was also needlessly annoying in the House of Black tag match, and not in a “I’m just a heel” kind of way.

We had some fun heelish moments where Jericho inserted his new “sports entertainment” phrase into wrestling analysis (at least if you’re an insider fan), but then he also said things like, “Texas has been great to AEW since the day we started.” When you combine this with the fact that he wants to keep his babyface-like theme song, he’s the epitome of a guy who wants to have his cake and eat it too. The man is cruising on self-indulgence, and if he wants to stay on commentary, he should find a lane and stick to it.

Overall Show: BARELY PASSABLE HIT

Another Rampage carried on the backs of the star power of Keith Lee and Darby Allin. I guess they couldn’t give everything to a show that wasn’t in its usual time slot, but it was solid enough.

Chris Jericho’s commentary brings my rating of the show down to just one decimal place above neutral.