The Hardys officially join forces with Sting after AEW books a rare finish

On a typical episode of AEW Rampage, three of the four scheduled matches have an obvious winner. That was the case when Darby Allin was advertised to take on The Butcher. Darby was definitely going over, of course. It’s how he got there that was a bit unexpected.

First, here’s your obligatory ‘Darby Allin is insane’ dive that occurred very early in the match:

Butcher dominated Darby for most of the match after that point. He was extra motivated and looking for payback after Darby put him on the shelf for five months with an injury last year. Butcher’s sadism on this night included swinging Darby around the ring by his neck, brutally ramming Allin into the guardrail and the steel steps outside the ring, and turning his own Texas Cloverleaf into a powerbomb:

Darby was desperate late in the fight, and he finally managed to land his most effective maneuver - the Coffin Drop - all the way to the outside floor:

The Butcher couldn’t make it back into the ring on time, and Darby won by count out. Count outs and disqualifications are a very rare thing in AEW, and I definitely wasn’t expecting to get one in this match.

It didn’t take long before Andrade, Private Party, Butcher, and The Blade stormed the ring. Sting tried to fend them off, but the lopsided numbers were too much for Sting and Darby to handle.

That’s when The Hardy Boyz Brothers showed up for the save:

Matt challenged the heels to an 8 man tornado tag match on Dynamite next week. Tony Khan later made it official. It will be The Hardys, Sting, and Darby Allin vs. The Blade, The Butcher, and Private Party.

Are you hyped to see The Blade single-handedly destroy The Hardys, Sting, and Darby next week on Dynamite? Let us know in the comments below, Cagesiders.

Catch up on the late night Rampage results here.