AEW Rampage Power Rankings: Mr. Ass Still Got Dat Class

This week’s Rampage saw career best matches from one person who’s been in the business for a year and another who’s been in it for 32. Plus an entertaining tag match. So let’s get right to this week’s rankings! 

Honorable mention: C.M. Punk: He accepted a challenge for next week’s Dynamite from QT Marshall earlier in the evening and had a funny line about bringing Comoroto, Solow and Ogogo with him. I somehow never realized The Factory was brought to us by the “Oh” sound. Plus Punk got a Thanksgiving reference in there saying Marshall bit off more than he can chew and “We’ll see who the Turkey is!” 

5: Dan Lambert: Sky and Page had a pre-recorded segment asking if the Inner Circle was proud that they beat a man who didn’t even want to be in the match? They promised they hadn’t seen the last of American Top Team! I’m not sure what more they can do with this but the mere thought that Dan Lambert could be cutting more promos ranting about internet dwelling nerds like myself makes me so, so happy. And Sky and Page are so much better than they’ve gotten to show recently. 

4: Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus: This match was fun and solid. But for as fun as the pairing is it does feel like AEW might be running Jungle Boy and Cole into the ground just a bit. Jungle Boy got the win when The Young Bucks came out only for them and Cole to be ran off by Christian with a steel chair. This left Bobby Fish alone to tap to the snare trap. Again, this was fun, they had great reversal spots, hot tags and Jungle Boy launching off Luchasaurus but this wasn’t as fresh as it could have been. Commentary also reminded us of Omega dismissing Cole and asking the Bucks to get The Elite’s house in order. For all we know it could be a year away but whenever the seemingly inevitable Bucks and Omega v. (F.K.A.) Undisputed Era happens you can take all my money! 

3: Billy Gunn: This man is 58 years old but had the best singles match I can recall ever seeing from him tonight. All legends should sign up for whatever he’s on because the man looks in the best shape of his career. Let’s just hope it’s as good for him in the long run as it is in this moment. The most shocking thing of this whole match was seeing that Gunn has now had 50 matches in AEW! Yes most of those are tags on Dark but MY GOD! DID I MENTION HE’S FIFTY-EIGHT! Sure, Darby did all the flying around and bumping to help Billy look as good as he did but Gunn played his part to a T just throwing Allin around like a sack of potatoes with moves like a huge back body drop, throwing him down the ramp outside and spinning Darby around in the air by his pants and tossing him into the corner. While he came out with another loss on his record Gunn was elevated tonight with his kick-out before 1 from Darby’s first attempted finishing sequence and his kick-out at 3 as Darby pinned him. Gunn & sons also stood tall to end their night after a post-match beatdown to Sting and Darby that saw Billy clip Sting’s knee out from under him. When Sting and Gunn meet they will combine to be 120 years old but I CANNOT WAIT! 

2: Darby Allin: I should not care about a Billy Gunn singles match in 2021 yet these guys pulled me in. The story if this match was simple with Billy Gunn, whose size has only really sunk in being in AEW with a physically smaller roster, playing the big power house (no offense to Hobbs) just tossing Darby from pillar to literal post. Allin was able to withstand the beating and nail a Coffin Drop to Billy’s boys outside followed by his flipping stunner, a Code Red, and a Coffin Drop to Gunn inside that Billy immediately kicked out of. One more Coffin Drop for good measure got Darby the 3 but Gunn kicked out right after the 3. My only issue was that Gunn probably looked too strong by kicking out of the first sequence before even a 1 and then the second Coffin Drop right after the pin but they seemed to be hinting at Billy Gunn v. Sting in the very near future so I get wanting to maintain some of Billy’s credibility so that feels bigger. 

1: Jade Cargill: Red Velvet really should be put back in to cook longer before she’s on TV again. She shows a lot of potential with the moves she tries but so much of what she does looks slow and clunky. It’s like she’s counting every step as she goes and it shows. This was especially noticeable when Velvet tried a hurricanrana that was blocked by Gargill followed by a roll through attempt from Velvet that was blocked. It looked like you could see her in her head going “Okay step 1. Step 2. Step 3.” There was nothing smooth about it. Later there was an awkwardly timed spot where Velvet tried to dive through the ropes but got caught with a shot from Jade but it looked like Velvet stopped before the shot so I’m not sure who mossed the timing there. Despite how negative I sound towards Velvet I will credit her for trying; the match was actually fun despite the missteps. Cargill hit a really nice looking pumphandle flipping slam on Velvet that I’d like to see as a secondary finisher for her. She caught Velvet going for a crossbody and landed a fallaway slam that commentary mentioned she didn’t even “fall away” for, instead just dropping to her knees for a second showing her raw power. Velvet got hammered with an uranage on the apron but still managed to try a spear that Cargill leapfrogged over. Cargill nearly got caught when Velvet kicked off the ropes while set-up for Jaded and rolled backwards into a pin but she kicked out and dodged a Final Slice before connecting with Jaded on the second attempt and advancing to the semi-finals of the TBA Championship tournament to face the winner of Jamie Hayter v. Thunder Rosa. Criticism of Red Velvet withstanding this was by far the best showing I’ve seen from Cargill. She came across like the star they want her to be and I’d like to see her against Ruby Soho for the TBS Championship.