AEW Rampage Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from March 17
Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of AEW Rampage on March 17.
The annual St. Patrick's Day Slam is upon us, and with it came the in-ring debut of the recently-signed Taya Valkyrie.
We also saw The Bollywood Boyz make a rare AEW appearance to take on Matt Menard and Angelo Parker of The Jericho Appreciation Society.
Daniel Garcia of the JAS was also in action against House of Black's Brody King, and Powerhouse Hobbs put the TNT Championship on the line against Rey Fenix.
Let's take a look at what happened on Friday's show.
Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Rey Fenix (TNT Championship)
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After being delayed more than two hours because of NCAA March Madness airing on TNT, the show finally got underway with Hobbs defending his TNT Championships against Fenix in the opening bout.
They skipped the entrances and got right to the action, which was welcome after the long wait. Hobbs stepped right to the middle of the ring and dared Fenix to step up. The high-flyer got right in his face and got knocked down for his troubles.
QT Marshall and his QTV crew were at ringside to watch the match and support Hobbs, but their presence did little to keep Fenix from doing the kind of stuff that has made him famous.
While Fenix had some nice spots, this match was mostly Hobbs dominating him with his immense power. There were times when he was like a cat stalking his prey as he kept the pace slow and inflicted as much damage as possible.
This might not have been the most exciting match we have ever seen, but it wasn't designed to be like that. This was booked the way it was to make Hobbs look like an absolute beast against a veteran performer, and it accomplished that goal while still managing to be a lot of fun.
After Fenix almost scored the win with a late-match comeback, Hobbs retained his title. Surprisingly, he did not get much help from the QTV crew. This was a relatively clean match, which was nice to see.
Winner: Powerhouse Hobbs
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Penta and Fenix are obviously great as a tag team, but they could both have great singles runs in AEW. It would be fun to see one hold the TNT title while the other holds the International Championship. The Hardy Boyz did it with the European and Light-Heavyweight Championships in WWE back in the day.
- Hobbs just knocking Fenix out of the air with his shoulder like it was nothing was hilarious.
- It was kind of weird hearing Paul Wight on commentary for Rampage, even though he does it for AEW's YouTube shows.
- Fenix has superhuman precision with certain moves. Just doing a springboard is hard enough, but hitting a variety of moves perfectly almost every time after doing a springboard is truly impressive.
- Fenix hitting a German suplex on Hobbs was an impressive display of strength.
Taya Valkyrie vs. Eva Lawless
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After showing up on Dynamite for the first time, Taya Valkyrie made her in-ring debut on this week's Rampage in a quick match against Eva Lawless.
Valkyrie immediately asserted her dominance and took Lawless to school with several high-impact moves. The crowd popped when she hit a spear before she hit her finisher, which is identical to Jade Cargill's finisher.
Cargill, Leila Grey and Mark Sterling were all watching from the stage as the winner celebrated her victory. Regular readers of these recaps know we can be harsh about squash matches, but this made perfect sense as a way to introduce Valkyrie to the AEW audience.
The match may have been short, but it made her look like a dominant competitor and allowed her to continue her feud with Cargill at the same time.
Winner: Taya Valkyrie
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- It has to be hard for some of these wrestlers to travel with such huge ring jackets to put in their luggage. AEW and WWE might transport some of that stuff for them, but you know a lot of these people have to travel with their own gear everywhere.
- The video package with Stokely Hathaway after this match was hilarious.
The Bollywood Boyz vs. Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ange
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The Bollywood Boyz have had several matches on AEW Dark and Elevation, but they got a chance to work Rampage this week in a tag team match against Matt Menard and Angelo Parker.
Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ange took control early, but Harv and Gurv were able to turn things around for a bit. It took some shenanigans from Parker and Menard to turn the tide back in their favor.
The bout lasted through a commercial break, so both teams had a few chances to work their magic. However, The Bollywood Boyz came up short in their quest to get their first AEW win when Parker and Menard hit an elevated double DDT.
This was a decent match to give this team a win, which is something we don't see enough on AEW TV.
Winners: Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ange
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- It was interesting to note that nobody else from JAS was at ringside to lend support. That has been a fixture of JAS matches.
- The pants the JAS has been wearing lately do not look comfortable at all.
- Watching any match through picture-in-picture is funny because you can be watching a guy slam another dude's head into a guardrail on one side of the screen while hearing the audio from a diaper commercial playing on the other side of the screen.
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Daniel Garcia vs. Brody King
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One member of the trios champions was in action in this week's main event when King took on one of the men who challenged the HOB for the belts on Wednesday, Garcia.
Chris Jericho was by Garcia's side instead of his usual companion, Sammy Guevara. Meanwhile, King had Julia Hart in his corner.
Garcia played some mind games by rolling out of the ring to delay the start of the action, but he got a little distracted by Hart and paid for it when King caught up to him and began beating him around the ringside area.
The majority of this match was King decimating Garcia and the young JAS member occasionally finding a way to avoid his offense for a brief moment.
But in the end, a shot from Jericho's baseball bat is what allowed his protege to score the upset victory. This was a pretty solid match from both guys. Giving Garcia the win was an interesting direction to take this. It looks like JAS will continue to pursue the trios titles.
Winner: Daniel Garcia
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- Having Daddy Magic's voiceover before each member of the JAS has their own unique entrance music is a nice touch.
- AEW should have someone host a web series that looks at wrestlers' tattoos. King has some of the coolest tats in AEW.
- Hart has really worked hard to develop a good scowl.
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