While Cocaine Bear was by far the most fun Rampage I saw this week, the one AEW put on wasn’t bad either. And you can’t even imagine how tempted I was to go with a different Cocaine Bear joke in relation to AEW. So while I bite my tongue check out this week’s rankings!
Honorary Mention: Jade Cargill, Dustin Rhodes and The Firm. Jade Cargill says your favorites should be begging her for a match so she welcomes all competition because this is “That bitch’ show” Dustin Rhodes asked Keith Lee is he was up for challenging Swerve and Parker Boudreaux next week and Lee said he was game. Dustin said Swerve is going to hell but this time, for good. Stokely Hathaway hyped up Hook’s opponent next week alluding to Ethan Page before Page said it was Matt Hardy. Matt looked confused and Page reminded him that when he says jump, Matt says “How high?” Matt said he was so confident he can beat Hook that if he doesn’t Hook can have a match with Stokely. Isiah Kassidy said added they could be banned from ringside!
5. WCW Backstage Assault. Best Friends were interviewed backstage about the Casino Tag Team Battle Royal but were attacked by Big Bill, Lee Moriarty and the Gunns. After the commercial Orange Cassidy and Danhausen showed up, Danhausen bet Jarrett Lethal did it. Bryce Remsburg told Cassidy who it actually was and he checked on the Best Friends. We later found out it’d be Big Bill v. Orange Cassidy for the All-Atlantic Championship on Dynamite. Billy Gunn and The Acclaimed were interviewed in the back when…wait for it…they were attacked. This time it actually was Jarrett Lethal and their crew. With two big backstage assaults, it felt fitting that my favorite universally panned wrestling game gets a mention.
4. Lance Archer. The Muderhawk Monster came out with Jake Roberts and immediately backdropped his opponent Bryce Saturn on the floor. Archer leveled Saturn with a lariat and kneeled on his chest for the win. I’m not really sure where Archer goes from here but I do think he’s one of AEW’s most underappreciated talents along with Miro (Remember that guy?!) and Jake being back on screen is always a welcome sight.
3. Toni Storm. In our second contest of the evening, Storm took on Willow Nightingale. I wish Willow had more time but she did get some offense. Willow flattened Toni with a cannonball in the corner and a Death Valley Driver for 2. Saraya got on the apron to distract Willow and when Willow pulled her in the ring Saraya clipped her legs out and hit a Storm Zero for the win. Saraya brought the spray paint cans in the ring but Soho came out and Jamie Hayter ran Storm off as Soho picked up Nightingale.
2. The Young Bucks. Two-thirds of the AEW Trios Champions opened Rampage against Aussie Open. This had all the usual stuff you’d expect from a Bucks match. Early on Aussie Open caught the Bucks leaping from the ring and smashed them into each other on the floor before delivering stereo backdrops on the apron. Later in the match, the lights went out and when they came back on Kyle Fletcher hit Matt with a jumping tombstone and Aussie Open followed with a Coriolis and a near fall I bit on that Nick broke up. The Bucks put Fletcher on Davis shoulders and then kicked out Davis’ legs forcing him to tombstone his partner before delivering a BTE Trigger to Fletcher for the win. After the match the lights went off and came back on to reveal House of Black surrounding Omega and The Bucks in the ring. They climbed to the apron and lights went out again but when they came back on The House of Black were gone. I love the Bucks but I was a little surprised Aussie Open lost. I thought House of Black costing them the match would make sense, especially if The Elite retain the Trios Championshio at Revolution. Still, this was a solid opener that did its job and got the crowd pumped up.
1. Sammy Guevara. The split-screen promos were back for the second week in a row with Sammy Guevara and Action Andretti squaring off in our main event. Daniel Garcia hyped up Sammy for being a 3 time TNT Champion. Andretti said he’s going to show he’s not a fluke and tonight it’s all action, no words. Sammy tossed Andretti over the barricade but Andretti springboarded off of it and came back at Sammy with a lariat. Commentary mentioned that Andretti didn’t even get into wrestling until a month after AEW started airing which is a wild thought. During the picture-in-picture, Andretti hit a seated springboard moonsault to the floor and tried for a split-legged moonsault in the ring but Sammy got his knees up and spiked him with a creative flipping DDT slam type move. Sammy missed a Shooting Star Press and Andretti springboarded off the ropes with a kick for 2. Andretti tried to use Sammy’s GTH against him but Sammy held on and we got a yay/boo strike exchange. Sammy tried a running crossbody but Andretti floated over for the 2. Andretti avoided Garcia on the apron and hit a springboard senton for 2. He hit what Excalibur called a “John Woo Dropkick” to the corner but as he tried to climb the ropes Garcia knocked him off and Sammy hit a GTH for the win. The show ended with Jericho leaving commentary to celebrate with Sammy and Garcia. This was a lot of fun and a good preview for the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match that we’ll be getting on this week’s Dynamite as opposed to Revolution itself. I’d much rather we get the ladder match on the PPV and Starks/Jericho or the tag title 4 way on TV but ladder matches are my favorite gimmick matches so I’ll take them however they come. With a field of Andretti, Guevara, Eddie Kingston, AR Fox, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ortiz, Konosuke Takeshita and the debuting Komander all vying for a TNT Championship match my money is on Hobbs but I think a few of these guys have a chance.
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