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    Credit: All Elite Wrestling

    Welcome to Bleacher Report’s coverage and recap of AEW Rampage on May 13.

    For the second week in a row, All Elite Wrestling had to shift time slots from its usual 10 p.m. EST start to 5:30 p.m. EST due to the NBA playoffs airing on TNT, so a lot of fans will probably have to catch up with this episode on their DVR.

    The Owen Hart Foundation Tournament is in full swing, as AEW has started airing matches from the first round. This week, Ruby Soho and Riho fought for a spot in the semifinals.

    Scorpio Sky defended the TNT Championship against former SCU teammate Frankie Kazarian in the only title match of the night. We also saw Shawn Spears take on Bear Boulder, and Death Triangle battled The Butcher, The Blade and Marq Quen in a trios bout. 

    Let’s look at everything that went down on this week’s episode of Rampage. 

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    Credit: All Elite Wrestling

    As usual, Rampage started with the competitors from the first match in the ring and ready to go as soon as the show started. 

    Four of the men in this match are known for their high-flying ability, so this bout had a lot of quick moves that got the crowd on its feet. The exchange between Quen and Rey Fenix was especially fast-paced. 

    The Bunny did her usual routine of trying to distract the babyfaces so her heels could cheat, but that was kept to a minimum. She mostly just walked around and yelled at people. 

    As fun as this match was, it felt too much like a series of quick spots and sequences that were planned out in advance. That is one of the problems with six-man tag matches. It’s hard to get everybody time in the ring without sacrificing a bit of logic. 

    That being said, the crowd was definitely into this one and it’s easy to understand why. Pac scored the win for his team with his Black Arrow finisher. The lights went out after the match and when they came back on, House of Black was on the apron. They quickly disappeared without engaging in a fight. 

    Grade: B-

    Notable Moments and Observations

  • The Butcher has worked hard to get himself into better shape over the past year. He looks better than ever. 
  • Fenix does things nobody else has ever thought of before. It’s incredible how easily he can make something really complicated look. 
  • The Blade looks a lot less intimidating without his beard. 
  • Quen’s 450 splash looked awesome, but his dive from the top turnbuckle to the floor was his biggest highlight of the match. 
  • Pac’s Black Arrow always looks perfect. 

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    Credit: All Elite Wrestling

    Boulder picked Spears up in a gorilla press right away to shut Spears up after he talked a little trash, but The Chairman avoided him in the corner and started beating on him with hard left hands. 

    Spears showed off some power by picking Boulder up on his shoulders and hitting his finisher for the win. This was a short match, but it was effective for what it was. It just wasn’t much. 

    Spears continued to attack his opponent with a chair after the match had ended. He addressed Wardlow through the camera and told him he was coming for him. 

    Grade: C-

    Notable Moments and Observations

  • Spears has a cool entrance. It’s too bad we don’t get to see him do it on TV very often. 
  • Spears getting Boulder up for his finisher was genuinely impressive because he walked around with him and held him for a few seconds before slamming him. 

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    Credit: All Elite Wrestling

    We got a quarterfinal match in the women’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament this week when Soho battled Riho in the third match of the night. 

    It’s not often that Soho has a few pounds on her opponent, so she made sure to use that advantage to control the pace and keep Riho off balance. 

    The former AEW women’s champion had control throughout most of the break, but The Runaway was able to grab her in a submission to ground her for a bit. 

    You could tell these two had not worked together much before this, but they still did a good job making this feel like a competitive fight, especially after the commercial break. After a series of close calls, Soho scored the win to advance to the semifinals. 

    They also announced that Hikaru Shida would be unable to compete in her upcoming tournament match due to an injury, so she will be replaced by Kris Statlander. 

    Grade: B

    Notable Moments and Observations

  • Riho sticking her fingers in her ears to avoid hearing Soho’s music was kind of funny. 
  • There was one awkward moment when Soho was running at Riho and then stopped in her tracks to Riho could do a move. It was barely noticeable because it was so quick, but once you see it, it’s hard not to notice it. 
  • The modified half-crab submission Riho used was really cool. It looked like it would cause genuine pain to whoever was on the receiving end of it. 
  • Riho’s northern lights suplex looked great. 

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    Credit: All Elite Wrestling

    During the pre-match interviews, it was clear Sky was trying to do things in an honorable way while Ethan Page and Dan Lambert wanted to take the low road, so the champ told them to take the night off.

    The first AEW tag team champions competing over a singles title felt like a big deal, and the crowd gave them both warm welcomes during their entrances. 

    As expected, this was a great display of professional wrestling ability from two veterans who have traveled the world honing their craft. When you put two people of a certain skill level in the ring together, you are almost always going to get a good performance out of them. 

    This was the most evenly matches contest of the night. There was never more than a minute when one man was in control before the other found a way to counter him. 

    It was really nice to see Kazarian get some TV Time. It feels like he has been booked inconsistently since SCU broke up, which is a shame because he is a fantastic wrestler who could really help the younger members of the roster in a lot of ways. 

    Lambert ran down to the ring to provide a distraction so Page could break up a submission to save Sky. This allowed Sky to recover and win the match with a TKO to retain his title. Sky did not seem to know what happened, so when he tried to shake Kaz’s hand, Kaz told him they cheated. 

    Sky got in Page’s face and it looked like they might fight, but then he turned around and hit Kaz with the TNT title. 

    Grade: A-

    Notable Moments and Observations

  • The crowd was behind both guys from the moment this match started. Everybody would have been fine with either guy winning in the end because they were just happy to see this match. 
  • Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti were shown in the crowd with their AAA mixed tag titles, so it’s clear he still wants the TNT title. 
  • Lambert just had to get in an insult at Conti’s expense, didn’t he?
  • Well, so much for Sky’s face turn. 

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