By Allan “AWESOME” Proskin
It’s Friday night and you know what that means!
Excalibur, Taz, ABSOLUTE Ricky Starks and Le Champion Chris Jericho welcome us to another edition of Rampage!
Adam Cole & Bobby Fish def. Orange Cassidy & Wheeler Yuta
It’s the battle of the catchy themes! I actually thoroughly enjoyed this match! I’m a big fan of 3 out of the 4 men in this match, although Wheeler is growing on me. This was a pretty entertaining match! Cassidy can actually move pretty well in the ring. There was a funny spot where Cole was sitting in the ring and Orange goes for a Headlock but instead looks into the camera, breaking the fourth wall and giving a thumbs up. I laughed out loud.
The match ends when Fish delivers a massive Avalanche Falcon Arrow, which Wheeler sold perfectly! Very entertaining match!
Next, we’re backstage with Tony Schiavone who is with Tony Nese. Nese says he’s been watching, scouting the competition, and talks about the open challenge for the TNT Championship. He says that if Ethan Page, Bobby Fish or Jay Lethal did their homework, either one of them would be champion, and that he’s unimpressed with Guevara. And right on time here comes Sammy! Tony Nese then officially challenges Sammy Guevara for the TNT championship. They shake hands – but before Nese leaves, he sucker punches Sammy and even kneels on Sammy’s bad ribs.
We then get a video package of FTR talking about the Lucha Bros and how the Bros have beaten them twice now. They bring up their match at Full Gear when they pinned the illegal man, and are hyping up a 2 out of 3 falls match.
Black Friday Deal Match. Riho def. Britt Baker(D!M!D!)
The story behind this match is, apparently during the Casino Battle Royal at All Out this past September, Riho rolled under the ropes and was not officially eliminated, thus the ever-so-fair Tony Khan announced this match. If Riho wins, she gets a future title match for the AEW Women’s Championship. This match was pretty good – they really are building this little feud up. There was a spot in the match where Riho jumps from the top rope onto Britt and Rebel, who are on the outside. The finish in my opinion looked a little sloppy, like maybe it wasn’t supposed to go down like it did – but they said F-IT and rolled with it. Either way, Riho defeats the Doctor by a roll-up pin. Britt is NOT happy!
Next up, we get a hype video for next week’s Rampage. Only two matches slated for the night: Tony Nese vs. Sammy Guevara for the TNT Championship, and a 2 out of 3 falls match for the AEW Tag Team Championships – FTR vs. Lucha Bros.
We then see a video of what happened when Dynamite ended this past Wednesday. Andrade DDT’d Cody Rhodes onto the concrete outside of the ring, thus setting up a match for Dynamite: Andrade El Idolo vs. Cody Rhodes in an Atlanta Street Fight! Also, Kris Statlander vs. Ruby Soho in the final match of the Quarter Finals for the TBS Championship, and Bryan Danielson vs. Dark Order member Alan “5” Angels. We also get a battle of the two undefeated teams, as the Gunn Club takes on Sting and Darby Allin. All that and more on this upcoming Wednesday edition of Dynamite!
It’s almost main event time so it’s time for the backstage interview Mark Henry does with the participants each week. We see another heated exchange. Eddie is just frothing out the mouth to get this match going.
Eddie Kingston def. Daniel Garcia w/ 2 point 0
This was a hard hitting match! Those two were beating the hell out of each other! Kingston started the match in control but Garcia, out of nowhere, flipped the script. Kingston really knows how to sell his injuries! I for a second thought he might have legitimately hurt his leg but he’s just that good. Kingston goes for his spinning back fist finisher, misses once and connects with another, ending this Brawl of a match. 2 point 0 obviously bum-rush the ring like a Black Friday shopper looking for a TV. Jericho was on commentary and comes to the aid of Kingston as the show comes to a close.
I think it was a pretty solid Rampage. I would give it a grade of B+.
I was really impressed with Wheeler this week. I know they were making him out to be a joke/jobber – but he showed me potential. I want a singles match between Orange Cassidy and Adam Cole immediately! I’m sure this rivalry with Daniel Garcia & 2 point 0 and Eddie Kingston is far from over, especially with Jericho in the mix now.
And with that I’ll bid you farewell and see you for Dynamite!
Author: Allan “AWESOME” Proskin Follow Allan on Twitter