AEW Rampage Power Rankings: Hair Club For Jack Evans

or the first time in the last 3 weeks I wasn’t in the building for the Rampage tapings but this week’s was one of the best in Rampage’s short history so let’s get right into it with this week’s Power Rankings! 

Honorable Mention: Chuck Taylor, Wheeler Yuta, Kris Statlander, The Dark Order and -1: The troops ensured the main event stayed fair after Hardy tried to call in the HFO and they ended the show with a big Best Friends style group hug to -1 in his Dad’s hometown in a tremendous feel good moment. 

5: C.M. Punk: He wasn’t in action but he did what Punk does best this week, kill it on the mic. Punk put over Hobbs saying he was only able to beat him because Punk has more experience and Hobbs got caught being distracted by Hook. Punk said he knows there’s a target on his back but he’d rather “Choke on greatness than starve on mediocrity” 

4: Jungle Boy: He didn’t have a match but following Danielson v. Nick Jackson there was a brawl that ended in Danielson locking Omega in the LeBell Lock and Jungle Boys locking Cole in the snare trap as both men tapped out. The image of Jungle Boy on par with Danielson, Cole and Omega is something that can’t be understated. MJF mentioned the “4 pillars” of A.E.W. and this just reinforced Jungle Boy as one of them. 

3: Jade Cargill: In a triple threat with Nyla Rose and Thunder Rosa Cargill showed Mark Sterling wasn’t the only smart one at ringside as she capitalized on Thunder Rosa powerbombing Nyla off the top rope through a table on the floor. While Thunder tried to pull Nyla in the ring Jade grabbed a chair and went to down on Rosa allowing her to score the win and keep her record unblemished in the process. 

2: Orange Cassidy: Despite not knowing the stipulation until the pre-match interview with Mark Henry Orange Cassidy got the win in our main event to send the Rochester crowd home happy and Jack Evans home hairless. This started like a lot of Cassidy matches but he turned up the intensity as it went on. Evans held his own here too at various points hitting a 450 off the apron onto the floor, hitting a sky twister press and a Michinoku Driver. During the match Cassidy hit dives to the outside on both Evans and Matt Hardy, avoided both a regular and top rope sky twister attempt and landed a diving DDT before eventually winning with the Orange punch. 

1: Bryan Danielson: May 10, 2008 was the first ever Ring of Honor show I attended live. Yet it wasn’t until four years later with the Team Hell No segments that I could say Bryan became one of my favorite wrestlers. The personality and comedic chops he showed really won me over. Thus far he’s been much more of the R.O.H. “American Dragon” in A.E.W. but it’s working for me now. Coming off a match of the year candidate with Omega last  week Bryan put on another barn burner this week with Nick Jackson being The Elite member led to the slaughter this time. This match was as heavy on kicks as you’d expect a meeting between these 2 to be. At one point Bryan just kneeled there eating kick after kick from Jackson before spitting in Nick’s face and returning the favor with alternating kicks to the chest and back. The kicks, flips and shenanigans escalated from there when Bryan and Nick exchanged on the apron only for Nick to duck a kick and Bryan to smash his leg into the post. Bryan ate a German on the apron and Nick nailed an escalara to the outside before locking Bryan in a sharpshooter inside the ring that Bryan escaped via rope break. Nick went to hit a running kick to Bryan on the floor off the apron but Bryan ducked and poor Brandon Cutler got the brunt of the attack instead. Bryan entered the ring but Nick nearly took advantage of a Matt Jackson ref distraction scoring a roll-up for a 2 count. The end finally came when Bryan landed a Tiger Suplex followed by the Cattle Mutilation for the tapout. Even at 40 years old and returning from a medically forced retirement Bryan shows no signs of slowing down. This was probably the second best singles match in Rampage’s short history only to Pac v. Andrade.