ALL ELITE WRESTLING RAMPAGE PREVIEW 4/29: (SPOILER-FREE) Swerve vs. Darby in an Owen Qualifier, Baddies vs. Willow & Trish & Skye, Colten vs. Lee, Joe vs. Beretta for ROH Television Championship, Hook and Danhausen Face-to-Face

BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

AEW Rampage hits and misses
Darby Allin (photo credit Joel Dehnel © PWTorch)

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

ALL ELITE WRESTLING RAMPAGE PREVIEW
APRIL 29, 2022
PHILADELPHIA, PA. AT THE LIACOURAS CENTER
AIRS ON TNT NETWORK, 10:00 p.m. EDT, 9:00 p.m. CDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Taz, Ricky Starks (various combinations)

Last Week

  • Adam Cole defeated Tomohiro Ishii of New Japan Pro Wrestling due to outside interference to qualify for the Owen Hart Cup tournament.
  • Lance Archer defeated Serpentico.
  • Eddie Kingston defeated Daniel Garcia with everyone’s associates banned from ringside.
  • Jade Cargill defeated Marina Shafir to retain the TBS Championship.

This Week

Tonight’s pre-recorded episode of Rampage features four matches that were announced on Dynamite including one for the Owen Hart Cup tournament and for the ROH Television Championship.

Owen Hart Cup Qualifying Match: Swerve Strickland vs. Darby Allin

Swerve Strickland goes one-on-one with Darby Allin in an Owen Hart Cup tournament qualifying match. After the match was announced on Dynamite both men were interviewed by Tony Schiavone, who called them friends. Swerve corrected him and called them rivals and both men briefly discussed their history.

Swerve has mostly been involved pairing with Keith Lee in a feud with the members of Team Taz. Darby and Sting have been feuding with the AFO with the Hardy Brothers mixed in. Pertaining to Swerve and Darby’s history, here’s a clip from a match during their time at DEFY wrestling (h/t Torch columnist Sean Radican):

Frank’s Call: I feel like they’re really pushing Swerve and Darby is (kinda) bulletproof, so I’ll go with Swerve. I hope AEW gets it right with him. I don’t have experience watching him pre-NXT, but I see why people like him.

TBS Champion Jade Cargill & Red Velvet & Kiera Hogan vs. Willow Nightingale & Trish Adora & Skye Blue

TBS Champion Jade Cargill will team with recently added “Baddies” Red Velvet, Kiera Hogan, and Red Velvet to take on Willow Nightingale, Trish Adora, and Skye Blue. Cargill is coming off another successful title defense and her 30th win in AEW, defeating Marina Shafir on last week’s episode of Rampage.

Nightingale lost to Velvet three weeks ago on Rampage. Skye Blue was the victim to Shafir’s Dynamite debut on April 13. This will be Adora’s AEW debut. She has spent most of her time recently in Progress Wrestling, GCW, and Ring of Honor which is now owned by Tony Khan.

Frank’s Call: Cargill, Velvet, and Hogan are an easy call here.

Colten Gunn vs. “Limitless” Keith Lee

Colten Gunn of the Gunn Club goes one-on-one with “Limitless” Keith Lee in another match that was announced on Dynamite.

Gunn and his brother Austin and their father Billy recently lost their first match as a Trio to the Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Wheeler Yuta). Prior to that they unsuccessfully challenged Jurassic Express for the AEW Tag Team Championship. They also got involved with FTR on a recent episode of Dynamite.

Frank’s Call: Keith Lee in another easy call.

ROH Television Championship: Samoa Joe (champ) vs. Trent Beretta

Trent Beretta challenges Samoa Joe for the ROH Television Championship. Right after the match was announced on Dynamite, both men spoke in what appeared to be pre-taped interviews. Beretta talked about being in ROH but never winning a championship.

Joe defeated Minoru Suzuki for the title on the April 13 edition of Dynamte but was attacked by AEW newcomer Satnam Singh. He had two stints in Ring of Honor. This is his first reign as television champion. Beretta spent four years in Ring of Honor and did team with Chuck Taylor as the Best Friends, as they do in AEW.

Frank’s Call: Samoa Joe is the easy call here. The easy calls seem to be the theme of the show, except for Swerve vs. Darby.

Hook and Danhausen Face-to-Face

Hook and Danhausen will go face-to-face this week. This “feud” has been going on for a while with the latest chapter taking place last week. Lexy Nair attempted to interview Hook when Danhausen interrupted. Hook pushed him against the wall and spoke. He said, “you wanted my attention, you’ve got it now.”

Danhausen has been trying to put a curse on Hook in numerous settings both backstage and in the ring, but Hook has blown him off every time. Hook has appeared mostly on Rampage but won his first Dynamite match last week.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply