AEW Rampage Notes: Soho & Nightingale win Street Fight, Darby Allin retains, Paul Walter Hauser hit with guitar

January 14, 2023 John Kleinchester NEWS, Show Reports
Photo Courtesy: AEW

January 13, 2023

Kia Forum – Los Angeles, CA

By: John Kleinchester

Rampage began with the TNT Championship match between champion Darby Allin and challenger Juice Robinson. During the match, the announce team twice referenced Darby teaming with Sting and The Great Muta in Muta’s “Final Bye-Bye” match in Japan’s NOAH promotion on January 22nd. The finish saw Allin reverse a superplex attempt into an avalanche Scorpion Death Drop followed by a Coffin Drop to retain the TNT Championship. After the match, Sting came down to the ring to celebrate the win with Darby.

Next, we cut to a short Book of Hobbs promo: 

After the break, Renee Paquette invited The Acclaimed to the stage to “cement” their star for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Max Caster’s rap featured lines like “survived more scandals than Gavin Newsome”, “they used to hide us like Joe Biden hides documents” and “we never had to sell out for blood money”. Before they could commit their scissors to concrete, The Gunns interrupted by saying that the only reason The Acclaimed is popular is because they stole their dad away from them. Billy Gunn feigned understanding and allowed The Gunns to place their hands in the cement; only to have The Acclaimed pants them both from behind and push them both butt-first into the cement. The Gunns ran off in embarrassment. 

Backstage, Renee Paquette was with Swerve and The Mogul Affiliates who had Quincy and King Combs with them. Swerve said that they were going to be the most violent and gruesome group in AEW in 2023.

Kings of the Black Throne (Malakai Black and Brody King) were out next to face Eddie Kingston and Ortiz. Kingston continued to show open signs of distrust for Ortiz before the match began. The two continued to not be on the same page during the match with Ortiz begging for tags and Eddie largely ignoring him with the crowd chanting “tag your partner”. The finish came when Buddy Matthews and Julia Hart ran down with a chair which Kingston stopped. The scene led to Ortiz mistakenly thinking that Eddie was going to hit Julia with the chair. This confusion allowed Malakai to hit the spinning heel kick for the pin. After the match, Black told Ortiz “you did good” but Ortiz was trying to fight him off. 

Jade Cargill was interviewed by Lexy Nair. Cargill said that Red Velvet was out, Leila Gray was in and they should focus on her upcoming 50th win instead.

2023 Golden Globe Winner Paul Walter Hauser from the show Blackbird was in the ring with Renee Paquette. Hauser said if given the opportunity, he would always bypass Connecticut and head straight to Jacksonville “because in AEW you never know what’s going to happen.” This led to Danhausen coming out asking Hauser for his Golden Globe. Then, Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal and crew interrupted. Before Jarrett could say anything, Hauser told him, “you look like a woman who owns a Crunch Fitness”, “you never even play that guitar that you bring literally everywhere” and “your guys here look like they’re dressed for a high school prom”. This led to Hauser decking Sonjay Dutt and Jeff Jarrett hitting Paul Walter Hauser with the guitar while Satnam Singh held Danhausen back in the corner. Jay Lethal was about to hit Danhausen with Hauser’s Golden Globe trophy when Best Friends and Orange Cassidy ran down to make the save. Lethal and company ran off with the Golden Globe.

Mark Henry appeared but did not interview either team prior to the main event saying “it looks like these women are about to get violent”. Anna Jay A.S. and Tay Melo were making their entrance when Willow Nightingale and Ruby Soho jumped them from behind. Soho and Nightingale were wearing Dudleyz-inspired camo pants and white tank tops. Soho was busted open and bleeding buckets early from a garbage can-covered diving stomp from Tay Melo.

Willow Nightingale attempted to put Anna Jay through a table off of the stage but Jay completely missed the table and took the full force of the floor. Immediately after, Tay Melo executed a Gotch-style piledriver on Soho from the apron through a table.

Ruby Soho then hit the Destination Unknown on Tay Melo onto a bunch of thumbtacks for the win.

Announced for Dynamite Next Week in Fresno, CA:

  • Young Bucks vs. Top Flight
  • All-Atlantic Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. Jay Lethal
  • TNT Championship: Darby Allin vs. Kushida
  • Willow Nightingale vs. Toni Storm

Announced for Rampage Next Friday:

  • Daniel Garcia vs. Action Andretti

AEW Rampage Results:

  • TNT Championship: Darby Allin over Juice Robinson in 10:49
  • Kings of the Black Throne over Eddie Kingston & Ortiz in 9:46
  • Street Fight: Willow Nightingale & Ruby Soho over Anna Jay A.S. & Tay Melo in 12:33
About John Kleinchester 155 Articles
New Jersey born and raised. Wrestling fan since Lex slammed Yokozuna on the deck of the USS Intrepid. Favorite Wrestler of all time is Owen "The Rocket" Hart.
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