ALL ELITE WRESTLING RAMPAGE PREVIEW 5/4: (SPOILER-FREE) Baker & Hayter vs. Storm & Soho, Takeshita vs. Lethal, Hook vs. J.D. Drake, Sakazaki vs. Riho

ALL ELITE WRESTLING RAMPAGE PREVIEW
MAY 6, 2022
BALTIMORE, MD. AT THE CHESAPEAKE EMPLOYERS INSURANCE ARENA
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

• Darby Allin defeated Swerve Strickland to qualify for the Owen Hart Cup Tournament.
• TBS Champion Jade Cargill & Kiera Hogan & Red Velvet defeated Skye Blue & Trish Adora & Willow Nightingale.
• “Limitless” Keith Lee defeated Colten Gunn.
• Hook and Danhausen had a confrontation in which Tony Nese got involved. Danhausen tried to shake Hook’s hand, but he would have none of it.
• Samoa Joe defeated Trent Beretta to retain the ROH Television Championship. After the match he brawled with Jay Lethal, who was accompanied by Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh.

This Week

Tonight’s pre-recorded episode of Rampage features four matches advertised on Dynamite

Don’t miss #AEWRampage TOMORROW at a special start time of 5:30pm ET/4:30pm CT/3:30pm MT/2:30pm PT on @tntdrama!
–#OwenHart Qualifier Match @riho_gtmv v @YukaSakazaki
–@730Hook v @RealJDDrake
-Dr @RealBrittBaker DMD/@jmehytr v @realrubysoho/#ToniStorm
–@TheLethalJay v @takesoup pic.twitter.com/BUisoB1FnC

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 5, 2022

Dr. Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter vs. Toni Storm & Ruby Soho

Dr. Britt Baker and her long-time cohort Jamie Hayter team up to take on Tony Storm and Ruby Soho. All four women have qualified for the Owen Hart Cup tournament. Hayter and Storm are expected to face each other in the quarterfinals while opponents for Baker and Ruby are TBD.

This match was set up on last week’s episode of Dynamite in a backstage segment. Tony Schiavone was set to interview Baker & Hayter with Storm on the other side. Ruby walked in and quoted Owen Hart saying, “enough is enough and it’s time for a change,” referring to Baker & Hayter getting into the face of newcomers.

Ruby debuted at the August PPV All Out as the joker in the women’s Casino Battle Royal and won to earn a championship match, which she “cashed in” at the September Grand Slam event on then-champion Baker. Storm was granted her release by WWE at the end of 2021 and debuted on the March 30 edition of Dynamite, defeating The Bunny to qualify for the Owen tournament.

THIS FRIDAY, May 6 on #AEWRampage with an Earlier Special start time of 5:30pm ET/4:30pm CT/3:30pm MT/2:30pm PT on @tntdrama, #OwenHart Foundation Tournament competitors will collide: @RealBrittBaker & @jmehytr v #ToniStorm & @realrubysoho! Tune in NOW to #AEWDynamite on TBS! pic.twitter.com/uCYL80QSNy

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 5, 2022

Frank’s Call: It’s hard to call these storyline driven matches. There’s no stakes. I’ll hazard a guess and go with Storm & Ruby. I feel like we’re headed towards issues with Baker & Hayter, which could start during this match.

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Jay Lethal

This past Wednesday on Dynamite, a clip aired of Konosuke Takeshita on Dark Elevation. He will turn 27 this month and has wrestled for DDT Pro Wrestling in Japan. He started back in 2011 and has wrestled familiar faces such as El Generico (WWE’s Sami Zayn) and NJPW’s Hiroshi Tanahashi. In addition, he has spent time in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Jay Lethal took issue with the “red carpet” treatment Takeshita was getting, thinking it should have been given to him. He challenged him to a match on Rampage. He’ll have to deal with ROH Television Champion Samoa Joe, who is coming for him after his announcement this week:

TOMORROW on #AEWRampage, an enraged @samoajoe is coming after @TheLethalJay! Tune in to watch at the Earlier Special start time of 5:30pm ET/4:30pm CT/3:30pm MT/2:30pm PT on @tntdrama! pic.twitter.com/nRr1MgfOU4

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 6, 2022

Frank’s Call: I assume they go with Lethal. I can’t see a young hot shot getting a win unless he’s getting a big push. I don’t watch DDT Wrestling, so I’m looking forward to seeing what this guy is all about.

Other Matches Announced

Hook vs. J.D. Drake. It’s Friday night, and you know what that means. It’s time to SEND HOOK! It’s becoming somewhat of a Friday night tradition, and this week will be no exception. While Rampage is where he has done most of his work, he last wrestled on Dynamite on April 20, defeating Anthony Henry. J.D. Drake has “bounced around” but in terms of AEW, he has spent most of his time on Dark and Dark Elevation. He lost to Keith Lee on Rampage on March 4.

Owen Hart Cup Tournament Qualifier; Yuka Sakazaki vs. Riho. It was recently announced that Yuka Sakazaki re-signed with AEW. She was an “original” so to speak, wrestling at the first Double or Nothing in 2019. She was on the losing end of a six-woman tag match, ironically to a team that had her opponent tonight in Riho. Riho is the inaugural AEW Women’s Champion, defeating Nyla Rose on the debut episode of Dynamite.

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