It’s Friday, and you know what that means …
All Elite Wrestling is back with the latest installment of AEW Rampage on TNT at 10/9c.
On tap for tonight’s show is Sammy Guevara vs. Konosuke Takeshita, The Best Friends vs. Kings of the Black Throne, Taya Valkyrie vs. Marina Shafir, as well as Juice Robinson vs. Action Andretti.
Featured below are complete AEW Rampage results from Saturday, March 31, 2023. The following report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live from 10-11pm EST. on TNT.
AEW RAMPAGE RESULTS (3/31/2023)
The usual “This is Rampage, baby!” theme plays as the regular cold open video intro plays. After that wraps up, we shoot inside the arena in St. Louis where Jim Ross-and-company welcome us to this week’s show.
Sammy Guevara vs. Konosuke Takeshita
Already in the ring are the competitors for our opening match of the evening — Sammy Guevara and Konosuke Takeshita. Joining J.R. on commentary for the call this evening is Excalibur, Tony Schiavone and Chris Jericho.
The guys banter back-and-forth as the bell sounds to get our opening contest off-and-running. We see Takeshita holding up well early on but then a picture-perfect dropkick from Guevara, followed by some break-dancing, sees the J.A.S. member jump into the early offensive lead.
Takeshita fights back as we see Jungle Boy watching on backstage. Konosuke beats down Guevara and mocks him with the same pose he did moments earlier. Now we see Darby Allin watching on backstage as Takeshita continues dominating the action in the ring.
We see Takeshita go for a splash off the top but Guevara moves. Takeshita rolls to the floor to re-group. He rolls back in and knocks Guevara out to the floor. He hits the ropes and flies over them, flipping in mid-air and splashing on “The Spanish God” on his way down.
As they roll back in the ring, we hear the commentators talk about Guevara landing awkwardly on his knee moments ago. We see some replays to support this. Back in the ring, Takeshita takes Guevara to the top-rope and looks for a German super-plex, but Guevara avoids it.
Guevara knocks Takeshita into the tree of woe and he runs and leaps, landing with a stomp to the face of the Japanese legend. As he stands up to taunt the crowd, we head to a mid-match commercial break as the action continues.
When we return from the break, we see some more back-and-forth action with Takeshita faring well and nearly finishing this one off. Instead, Tay Melo gets involved at ringside and due to the distraction, Guevara steals the win.
Winner: Sammy Guevara
QTV
After the match wraps up, we shoot to the latest QTV segment. The TMZ celebrity-gossip television show-styled segment this week features QT Marshall hyping up Powerhouse Hobbs, promoting his successful defense of the TNT Championship. After this goofiness wraps up, we head to another commercial break.
Backstage With Matt Hardy & “All Ego” Ethan Page
When we settle in from the break, we see Matt Hardy and Ethan Page backstage. The two talk about “All Ego” taking on HOOK next week. Page asks Hardy if he got the paper work done. Hardy says he did.
Page thanks him for taking care of things while Stokely Hathaway is on the shelf. They tell each other they got their backs and then Page signs the contract on Hardy’s back as Hardy makes a very telling face into the camera. After its’ signed, they tell HOOK they’re coming for him.
Kings Of The Black Throne vs. Best Friends
We settle back inside the arena and the lights go out. When they come back on, Kings of the Black Throne duo Malakai Black and Brody King, creepy masks and all, make their way out accompanied by Julia Hart.
The two of the three AEW Trios Champions make their way to the ring and settle inside, where they take their entrance masks off and wait in the ring for the arrival of their opponents for this scheduled tag-team contest.
Now the theme for their opponents hits and out comes Best Friends duo Trent Barretta and Chuck Taylor. The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with this one. Trent and Malakai kick things off for their respective teams.
Black takes Trent down to the mat and works him over. The two work their way back to their feet and Malakai blasts him with a spinning back kick. Trent ends up splashing onto Malakai but then stands up into another wicked kick from one of the three Trios Champions of AEW.
In the corner of the Best Friends duo, Chuck tags in. He starts trading shots with Malakai, which the commentators point out isn’t a wise decision. This proves to be the case as Malakai beats down Chuck and stomps on his grill.
Brody King tags in and picks up where Malakai left off, taking it to the Best Friends member. The action spills out to the floor where King rams Trent into the steel barricade. Afterwards, we head to a mid-match commercial break as the action continues.
When we return from the break we see some more back-and-forth action until finally Best Friends finish this one off for the pin fall victory. After the match, Kings of the Black Throne brutalize Best Friends, putting them through tables outside of the ring.
Winners: Best Friends
Taya Valkyrie vs. Marina Shafir
We see a video package showing that the rivalry between Swerve and the Mogul Affiliates and Keith Lee is not over. After that, Marina Shafir is shown getting ready. We head to a break.
When we return, Shafir is in the ring and then the theme for Taya Valkyrie hits and out she comes for this one. The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with this scheduled women’s singles showdown.
Straight out of the gate we see Shafir faring better than any other opponent Valkyrie has had since joining the ranks in All Elite Wrestling. She gets Valkyrie down on the mat and locks her in an all-limbs-included submission.
From there, we see Valkyrie fight back and she ends up pulling off the win with her finisher, which she was threatened not to use. After the match, “Smart” Mark Sterling announces that he and TBS Women’s Champion Jade Cargill are suing Valkyrie.
He sent a woman to the ring with lawsuit papers but Taya hit her with Road to Valhalla finisher, further ignoring their legal threats and continuing to use the move that Cargill calls her “Jaded” finisher.. Cargill went for the ring but Sterling and Leila Grey held her back.
Winner: Taya Valkyrie
Action Andretti vs. Juice Robinson
We head to another commercial break after a backstage promo from Anna Jay calling out Julia Hart. When we return, we see Mark Henry introducing the pre-main event video package, which features comments from the two competitors — Juice Robinson and Action Andretti.
Juice Robinson tells Action Andretti that every shot he hits him with tonight will be to send a message to Ricky Starks. Excalibur runs down the lineup for next Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite and then we head back inside the arena for our final match of the evening.
From there, we hear “The Dapper Yapper” Justin Roberts handle the formal ring introductions for our main event. Coming to the ring first is the man who scored the shocking upset over Chris Jericho in his TV debut, Action Andretti.
He settles in the ring and his theme music dies down. Now the theme for his opponent, Juice Robinson, plays. He makes his way down to the ring as the commentators hype the Robinson-Ricky Starks bout set for next week in Long Island.
Both men are in the ring and it’s time to get our headline bout of this week’s AEW Rampage off-and-running. The bell sounds and this match is now officially underway. Immediately Andretti tries rolling Juice up for the pin, but he kicks out.
Robinson starts to take over and after shifting the offensive momentum in his favor, we hear him yell out, “How’s that feel Ricky Starks?! You’re Ricky Starks tonight!” He continues to take it to Juice.
Andretti finds some wiggle room and shifts things back in his favor just as we settle into a mid-match commercial break. When we return from the break, we see Juice still in control of the offense. This doesn’t last for long, though.
We see Andretti start to fire up on offense and he gets the crowd going wild as he hits high spot after high spot, including a big dive to the floor on Juice and a springboard moonsault. Back in the ring, Action covers a huge amount of distance springboard’ing into the ring and hitting him with a lariat.
Juice Robinson kicks out of a pin attempt follow-up. He gets up and as Action charges at him, Juice nearly takes his head off with a lariat. He follows that up with his Juice is Loose finisher for the pin fall victory.
Once the match wraps up, we see Juice Robinson look to deliver more punishment to Andretti to further send a message to his opponent next week, Ricky Starks. This does get Starks’ attention, however not the way Juice wanted.
“Absolute” Ricky runs out and makes the save. Robinson runs away and Starks chases him to the back as this week’s show goes off the air on that note. Thanks for joining us!
Winner: Juice Robinson
Don't miss Friday Night #AEWRampage TONIGHT at 10pm ET/9pm CT on @tntdrama ? pic.twitter.com/sfCRdZwRvm
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 31, 2023
