Rampage was a hoot again this week and I had a tough time pairing down the rankings despite just the typical 3 matches so let’s not even waste time. Here’s this week’s rankings.
Honorable Mention: John Silver and Adam Cole: Had it not been for me wanting to include the diatribe about watching Bowens in person Cole would be on this list. He overcame a con-chair-to on Wednesday to pick up yet another win and show he won’t BUDGE for anyone. Silver held his own here too.Â
5: Anthony Bowens: In October of 2019 I saw Bowens wrestle 4 matches in 2 nights to win the Wrestle Pro Dream 16. The second night there was maybe 50 people in the crowd. So to see him just 2 years later getting to face a guy who main evented WrestleMania THIS YEAR is just wild to me. Bowens’ highlights were catching Bryan’s apron kick into an electric chair drop on to the apron and debuting a new spinning, Sister Abigail-esque DDT off the ropes called “The Arrival” that looked really cool. He may have taken the loss but he got to look like every bit of the star I thought he could be when I saw him in St. Pat’s school gym. Max Caster also had a great line before the match about them “ending careers quicker than (Bryan’s) father-in-law.”
4: Red Velvet: Justin Roberts intros have become a fun running gag. First there was his “Crawkling to the ring” comment with Abadon kast week now “Running to the ring” for Red Velvet as she stormed down to take the fight to The Bunny and get her revenge. Despite getting stomped into the stairs outside and eating a death valley driver Red Velvet was able to get the win with The Final Slice and advance to face Jade Cargill again but this time in the TBS Tournament. She exchanged words with Cargill (who was front row with “Smart” Mark Sterling) after the contest.Â
3: C.M. Punk: He and Kingston are two of the top four mic guys in AEW and really all of wrestling and they both brought it tonight. Punk had great digs tonight. He said the indy guys talked about Kingston because they held him to a higher standard then he held himself to and that he fell short of it. He called him a bum and said Dark or Elevation might be more Eddie’s place for a match than Full Gear. He then headbutted Eddie after Kingston through a dig about quitting. But the highlight for me was Punk’s eyes at the end of the pull apart. Punk looked like a man ready to kill. I can’t recall the last time I’d seen Punk with that level of intensity abd anger on his face. Lord knows he never showed it in the octagon.Â
2: Eddie Kingston: C.M. Punk’s main appeal is his mic work. While plenty of MMA fighters can go toe to toe with Punk in the cage very few people on this planet can go toe to toe with him on the mic and Kingston showed he’s one of those guys. The segment wasn’t the smoothest but because it’s Kingston is worked. Kingston just comes across so much more genuine than most other guys in the business. He started saying he wasn’t there Wednesday because he thought he had COVID and had to test negative twice to protect everyone else. He apoligized to the fans for costing them Punk v. Cassidy but played the world’s smallest violin for Punk. He then talked about Punk and the other indy guys he looked up to talking down to him because he was fat and didn’t play politics it felt real. We know Eddie has had issues with his weight and build. He told Punk nobody in this locker room I didn’t entirely believe it but knowing Kingston’s history in Chikara and it being a shared room with Colt for years I could believe there’s a section of guys who resent him despite being aware of the business benefit. When he threw the jab at Punk about caring less about winning and more about beating him up and making him quit again for 7 years that felt like a punch Eddie would throw. Nothing should be off limits with Kingston. Then to top it all off Kingston did the most Eddie Kingston thing in the world when he tried to bite Punk during their pull apart brawl.Â
1: Bryan Danielson: This guy! He’s one of the 5 most well known people in all of pro wrestling today. He could have easily showed up in AEW and coasted on his reputation or only had matches on PPVs but no, Danielson loves this. Danielson does this! And he did it one more time having a really fun match with Bowens. Commentary sold the idea that Bowens being bigger and stronger was good preparation for the Full Gear match with Miro. Bryan fires up better than anyone in wrestling! He ducked a clothesline, dropkicked Caster between the ropes on the outside, sent Bowens over the top, nailed a top rope splash to both on the outside, came in with a missile dropkick and finally ended Bowens with headstomps and a LeBell lock. If I’m not mistaken this is the first match Bryan has ended with a move he’s ended another match with and I don’t love it but it probably is for the best that we start to establish a couple of finishers for him. This was a blast though.
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