When I began writing these rankings a little less than a year ago I made a promise to myself and an unspoken promise to you that I would write until the wheels fell off. Well, I hate to do this to you but the wheels…have never been in better shape! I GOT A LOT LEFT IN THE TANK! So with that said let’s get to ranking Rampage live from Ontario, California in a night filled with wins for the Cali kids.
Honorable Mention: The House of Black. They had a short segment where they explained that everything was a careful plan and Julia Hart said they should celebrate. This wasn’t anything special but was there and I wanted something for this spot so that’s it honestly.
5. Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. They came out and crushed 2 jobbers in less time than it took for their picture-in-picture promo to finish. In the box earlier today they said they were undefeated for 544 days but this isn’t the end of the road for Team Taz. They opened up the book of Hobbs, went to Chapter 13 and it said when you go against Team Taz you end up just another victim. Then using the Taz saying and number was a neat touch, especially because they’ve felt less tied to Taz recently. In the ring Hobbs planted one of their opponents with a big spine buster for 3 as Starks took out the other one with a spear.
4. Scorpio Sky. Sky and Dante Martin had a relatively short match in the main event for the TNT Title and I was disappointed they didn’t get more time to make this the instant classic (not Christian Cage) it could have been. But Martin got to cut a promo in the traditional pre-match Mark Henry segment and while he didn’t say much, Sydal did most of the talking, the little Martin said gave me hope that he can be solid on the mic to go with his already years beyond his age in-ring talent. This started slow but kicked in when Dante hit a leaping no hands jump to the top rope and then crashed on to Sky on the floor. He sent Sky in and leaped from the floor to the bottom turnbuckle which he then climed and launched off of, nearly out of screen to hit a shotgun dropkick for 2. Dante hit a TKO of his own for just 2 and a crossbody off the ropes but Sky rolled through and got a 2 count out of it. Martin then hit a leaping double stomp for just 2 again. But Sky recovered and hit a TKO followed by a slow cover for 3. I wish he’d have covered him faster but I’m not sure if Sky is actually hurt or was just selling. If it’s the former I can’t fault him. Still a solid match despite getting less than 10 minutes.
3. Athena. In her in-ring debut for AEW “The Fallen Goddess” took on Baddy member Kiera Hogan. Athena entered with a jacket that could rival Effy’s pink spiked one or Jericho’s light-up jacket as it had big wings that folded in and just looked cool. The former Ember Moon hit an early crossbody off the 2nd rope. Red Velvet got involved and swept Athena’s legs out on the apron which Hogan followed up with inside with a leaping leg drop off Athena. “The Fallen Goddess” then nailed a front handspring elbow in the corner. Velvet distracted her again on the top rope and as Athena kicked her off Hogan pulled her off the corner and landed a hurricanrana. The finish came when Athena knocked Hogan off the corner and hit the former Eclipse which Exclaibur gave a new name to but even with captions on couldn’t be made out. This was a fun debut for Athena and in the upper half of women’s matches for AEW. I don’t think Athena should dethrone Jade for the TBS Championship but I like the idea of her beating Hogan and likely Velvet before she pushes Jade to her limits. It should elevate both her and Cargill.
2. CM Punk. Punk’s reign as AEW World Champion was in real danger of lasting just a shade longer than one of his UFC fights as he revealed to the crowd that he was injured and needs surgery. He said he told Tony he would vacate the title but Tony has faith in him and we were told later on they’d instead be crowning an interim champion via a somewhat convoluted announcement of a battle royal on Dynamite this week, where the winner will face Moxley in the main event and then the winner of that will have a shot at the interim title at Forbidden Door. There was no explanation of who that person would face at Forbidden Door. If it’s still Tanahashi that seems odd and like it telegraphs a win for the AEW guy. But if it’s another AEW guy that faces them that kind of kills the concept of the PPV. I’m not sure. But back to Punk; he said he promised to go until the wheels fall off and that hasn’t happened yet, he just needs to get one of the wheels fixed. The comeback is going to be bigger than the setback and he’s going to come back bigger, faster and better than ever to prove why he’s the Best In The World. Selfishly I’m hoping for Bryan v. Mox 2 Wednesday and Bryan v. Okada for the title. Even though that flies in the face of what I said about the predictable result amd switching Tanahashi for Okada makes no logical sense I want that match and want it to close Forbidden Door so just let me dream people!
1. The Young Bucks. If you’ve read any of my past rankings you’d know I take unnecessarily detailed notes on these shows. So when I heard Bucks v. Lucha Bros. announced for this show I immediately turned into the gif of Robert Hays sweating in Airplane. This was the ninth meeting between these two teams with the Lucha Bros. leading the series 5-3 and in all 8 previous match-ups they shoved more moves into their matches than I stuff words into these rankings. So just enjoy the attached picture because I’m not re-typing all the insanity they pulled out in only a shade over 14 minutes. Just know they got a “This is awesome!” chant less than 7 minutes in and they deserved it. The end came when Matt ripped off Penta’s mask during a “Cero Miedo” taunt and they hit a stereo superkick on Penta followed by a BTE trigger to Fenix for the 3. Matt celebrated by wearing Penta’s mask. With the series now 5-4 in favor of the masked men I say we give the Bucks one more win then do a tie-breaking last ever meeting in a 2 hour Iron Man Match that is it’s own episode of Dynamite!
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