4 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Rampage (Mar 18)

2. Butcher’s Best

This might be the best The Butcher has ever looked since joining the AEW mix. Darby Allin bumped around for him like a trooper, and that made the big man look like a real threat. As mentioned during the intro, Darby is so damn good at fighting from underneath, and this was yet more proof of that.

On comms, Excalibur did a sterling job of referencing the fact that Butcher had left the ring with damaged tendons in his hand after a match with Allin previously. That, along with Jericho's point about how Butch couldn't play guitar for five months and thus lost money out of his pocket, added some context to the match.

Can't complain about that.

Simple story beats like this rock, and they're definitely something AEW does well. Few matches happen without some sort of explanation as to why. The count out finish is something some will bitch about, but it sold the injured hand deal from before nicely.