On Wednesday night's edition of Dynamite, CM Punk and Dax Harwood engaged in a must-see clash while FTR also dealt with some disrespectful AssBoys at ringside. TNT Champion Scorpio Sky, Ethan Page, and Dan Lambert exchanged words with Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti, as The Blackpool Combat Club offered out anyone up for the fight! Nyla Rose assaulted the new AEW Women's World Champion, Jeff Hardy flew, MJF exercised his contractual power over Wardlow, and The Jericho Appreciation Society proved victorious in their first outing!
This Friday night Rampage is back in its home time slot at 10:00pm EST/9:00pm CST and at AEWPlus.com for our international audience! The FTW Title is up for grabs between “Absolute” and “Swerve”, Archer and Rhodes are prepared to go to war, reDRagon and The Dark Order collide, and more is coming your way on TNT!
And before Friday night, be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel for Dynamite highlights, as well as the latest episodes of Dark: Elevation, AEW Dark, Road To, and the latest Control Center with Tony Schiavone!
GRUDGE MATCH...
“The Natural” Dustin Rhodes vs. “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer
Dan Lambert and Lance Archer have become allies over the last several months, a relationship quite evident when “The Murderhawk Monster” took on Hangman Page for the AEW World Title in that violent Texas Death Match. One of the things Lambert has rallied against for a large portion of his time in AEW has been the Rhodes Family, and now his verbal diarrhea is being spewed towards Dustin Rhodes. With that in mind, Archer now has “The Natural” in his sights for this Friday night on Rampage!
This isn't their first collision in All Elite Wrestling, that took place back on April 29, 2020 during the Semi-Finals of the TNT Title Tournament, where Dustin Rhodes was blooded and battered by Lance Archer en route to “The Murderhawk Monster” advancing. Archer would ultimately make it to the finals at Double Or Nothing 2019 where he fell to Cody Rhodes with Mike Tyson looking on from ringside.
Both men have gone their disparate ways since that bloody battle in Norcross, but there is a collision coming once again Friday night on TNT! The furious anger Dustin Rhodes showed in the above embedded video should make Lance Archer concerned for what he's got coming his way inside the HEB Center. “The Natural” hasn't forgotten that TNT Title Tournament, nor have the words Dan Lambert spoke about the Rhodes family fallen from memory; Dustin is coming into this one with vengeance on his mind!
TAG TEAM MATCH...
The Dark Order (Alan “5” Angels & 10) vs. reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly)
The Dark Order has frequently found themselves at cross-purposes with members of The Elite over the years, and especially as it pertains to situations around “Hangman” Adam Page. In recent weeks, leading up to the World Title fight between Adam Cole and Adam Page, that friendship was seeming strained, but it felt like Hangman and The D.O. got back on the same page during a recent BTE episode.
That being said, Alan “5” Angels and Ten have their own reasons for wanting a fight with reDRagon this Friday night on Rampage. This Dark Order pair are 2-0 thus far in 2022, and want nothing more than to work their way into that top spot in the tag team rankings that their Dark Order fellows John Silver and Alex Reynolds recently earned themselves.
reDRagon, who recently challenged for the World Tag Team Titles by virtue of winning that Battle Royale, also desire to earn their way up into a challenger spot. That Revolution 2022 match was their first as a tag team in AEW, and although it was a title shot, it was in a three way situation. Fish and O'Reilly want that traditional tag team fight, firmly believing they'd be champions if that had been the case in Orlando, and to get there, they need to work up the ladder like everyone else.
Will it be The Dark Order duo who rise up the ranks? Or will it be the highly-decorated reDRagon team that takes home the “W” on Friday night?
FTW TITLE MATCH...
“Absolute” Ricky Starks(c) vs. Swerve Strickland
Swerve Strickland burst onto the AEW stage at Revolution 2022 and the fans rapidly declared that this was Swerve's House. Strickland would make his in-ring debut at Rampage a few days later in a victory over Tony Nese, and it looks like the FTW Champion has taken umbrage with the arrival of another new face in the locker room. After gassing up The Acclaimed before Max Caster's fight with Keith Lee, Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs decided to get themselves involved after the match as well. Thankfully for Lee, Swerve was on the spot with a chair in hand to even the odds.
Now this Friday night, on the show that Starks declares to be his house, “Absolute” and Swerve will go one-on-one with the FTW Title on the line! Ricky has been rolling with that title for 250+ days since beating Brian Cage for it, coincidentally enough, inside the HEB Center last July during the first night of Fyter Fest 2021. Since then, Starks has topped Cage in a Philly Street Fight rematch, bested Jay Lethal and Matt Sydal, and even took the belt onto the Jericho Cruise for successful defenses against Sonny Kiss and Chuck Taylor. Ricky Starks has been a strong representative for Team Taz with that championship, but will that come to an end on Friday night?
Now it should be noted that, in their one previous meeting four years ago, Starks was the man who came out victorious. But that was 200 miles down the road in Austin, as well as 42 months and countless matches ago, both men have grown greatly as competitors since, and are better than they have ever been!
Will Team Taz see their property became another trophy on the wall in Swerve's House? Or will it be Ricky Stark's who continues to represent FTW for his team? Tune into Rampage this Friday night for what will surely be a show-stealing contest!
“THE NATIVE BEAST” IN ACTION!
With five straight wins under her belt, the former AEW Women's World Champion wants back into the title picture now that Thunder Rosa has claimed the crown, and she made her intentions felt on Dynamite. What was intended to be a moment of celebration for “La Mera Mera” was interrupted by Vickie Guerrero before the Women's World Champion could get a word out, and turned into an assault by “The Native Beast”. The message was clear, but just in case people weren't paying attention, Nyla also had this to say:
So much like Ricky Starks, Nyla Rose returns to the location of her championship triumph on Friday night to send another message to Thunder Rosa, but this time it will be through the suffering of another individual. Rose aims to do to whomever is put across the ring from her the same as what she intends to do to Rosa if and when they are standing across the ring in a title fight. Thunder will absolutely have her eyes on this one after Wednesday night's assault, but as Nyla said, that was absolutely the point...
HOOK'S CERTIFICATE...
At Revolution 2022: Buy-In, QT Marshall got smashed by the undefeated “Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil” HOOK. It was the culmination of weeks of The Factory's head throwing bodies, and insults, at the rookie sensation, all the while getting dropped on his head in return by HOOK.
So now it seems, after dismissing HOOK as the worst, most disrespectful student he ever had, Marshall wants to celebrate the young man's successes and present him with a Certificate of Achievement this Friday night on Rampage. QT taking credit for the success of another individual is not a surprising thing here, but the fact that he wants to give HOOK something to commemorate it reeks of shady dealings.
Is this merely a ploy for Marshall to unleash Hell on the Handsome Devil, or does the trainer side of QT Marshall's personality actually want to praise HOOK for what he's accomplished?
Friday night on Rampage the action is back at 10:00pm EST/9:00pm CST on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for international audiences! This stacked edition of AEW's Friday night offering features an FTW Title fight, a Murderhawk and a Natural doing battle, “The Native Beast” on a title hunt, and HOOK! Do not miss out on the absolute best professional wrestling going down on Friday night!