3 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Rampage (Mar 11)

by Jamie Kennedy

1. Swerve’s In-Ring Debut

Shane Strickland Tony Nese
AEW

It was a smart decision to stick Tony Nese in there with Shane Strickland for Swerve's in-ring debut. Both guys gelled well, and Nese was always going to wrestle Strickland's kind of match. Sure, Tony does feel lost in the shuffle, but the real focus was on Shane's debut anyway.

10/10 for that.

Strickland became a stand out on NXT before getting his big move to SmackDown alongside the rest of Hit Row. That was a miserable failure, so he's keen to make his mark on AEW and show Vince McMahon what he's missing. Great matches like this won't hit Vince's radar, but they should land on yours.

Swerve's debut was as good as everyone hoped it would be. He was slick when transitioning from sequence to sequence, and he refused to gobble Nese alive just for the sake of it. Nah, Strickland loves a right good back and forth effort. Check it out.

What did you think of this week's AEW Rampage? For more like this, check out 10 Things We Learned From Vince McMahon On Pat McAfee’s Podcast and 10 Wrestlers Whose Stock Has Risen The Most Since WWE WrestleMania 37!

Advertisement
In this post: 
AEW Rampage
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.