After months of me conplaining about this show being inconsequential and less than a week after WWE brought us Night of Champions AEW presented a loaded Championship Friday edition of Rampage with 4 championships at stake. Granted, none of the 4 had even the slightest bit of build on AEW TV but I’ll overlook that because none of the 4 are technically AEW Championships. And because they gave me two of my favorite wrestlers today; Vikingo and Willow Nightingale. But still, we got 4 belts from 3 promotions at stake in my favorite Rampage episode in a long, long time! So let’s get to ranking!
Honorable Mention: Quality control! We only had 1 post match appearance/moment on the whole show and that was a beautiful thing!
5. Aubrey Edwards. Lexy Nair interviewed Jeff Jarrett and his posse about the events at Double or Nothing where Karen hit Aubrey Edwards with a guitar. Lexy said there were rumors of a suspension looming for them. Dutt and Lethal brushed it off and they claimed Aubrey should be the one punished. Jarrett started talking about who the heat should be on before Mark Briscoe cut him off and said there will be no suspensions because if he’s suspended “we” can’t give them the ass whoopin’ they deserve. Karen asked who “we” is and Aubrey appeared, still in her ref shirt and she and Karen started choking each other before they were pulled apart by the guys. This is incredibly dumb but I love it because it makes me nostalgic for similarly nonsensical stories during the Attitude Era.
4. Katsuyori Shibata. The triple box was again ditched for a video package highlighting Shibata and his challenger for the ROH Pure Championship Lee Moriarty. Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels and BJ Whitmer were on the stage at the judges’ table because unlike the NJPW TV title this isn’t determined by a coin flip in the event of a draw but by the judges. Excalibur reminded us that Shibata had to undergo brain surgery after his injury and is lucky to still be wrestling. He also explained away Big Bill not following Moriarty to ringside by saying that any wrestler who interferes in a Pure title match has their contract terminated. Shibata showed his experience in this setting by forcing Moriarty to use one of his 3 rope breaks less than 2 minutes in. Right around 6 minutes in Moriarty had to use his second rope break. Shibata crushed Lee with a corner dropkick and got him in a choke to force him to use his last rope break. Moriarty came back and locked in a Border City Stretch but Shibata was able to break it by trying a pin without using a rope break. He followed up with a sleeper hold and a penalty kick to retain the ROH Pure Championship. After the match the former ROH Pure Champ Daniel Garcia came down and stared down Shibata as he raised his belt high. I’m not sure if this will be a TV match or Forbidden Door but I’m hoping it’s TV.
3. Zack Sabre Jr. The New Japan Pro Wrestling Television Championship was at stake in our second match of the night as Action Andretti challenged the champion Zack Sabre Jr. Excalibur told us the rules of the title are a 15 minute time limit and if there’s a draw the champ will be determined by a coin flip and I found that a really interesting element. Sabre kept things slow and grapple based early on doing what he does best but Andretti was able to pick up the pace and hit his springboard corkscrew splash for 2. Andretti sent him to the floor with a diving durricanrana and then hit a tope but when he sent Zach back in ZSJ got the upperhand by catching Andretti in a body scissor in the ropes and wrenching at his arm. After some more back and forth Andretti tried to attack a mounted Sabre in the corner but Sabre worked over the arm again to send him crashing to the canvas. But Andretti got up and hit a leaping hurricanrana off the top for another close 2 count. Action lifted ZSJ up into a burning hammer type hold but Sabre was able to choke him while on his shoulders to escape. Sabre kicked at the arm but Andretti hit a poisonrana and a John Woo dropkick to the corner as the crowd again started a “This is awesome!” chant. A split legged moonsault still only drew a 2 but as Action followed up with a springboard Sabre caught the arm and after getting his leg over Andretti’s arm to really wrench it Sabre got his third straight defense in a Tony Khan owned promotion (we were shown highlights of his last 2 defenses on ROH TV) by submission.
2. Willow Nightingale. Emi Sakura tried to take Willow Nightingale’s New Japan Strong Women’s World Championship less than a month after Willow won the inaugural crown. After exchanging chops inside Sakura sent Willow into the barricade outside and crasher into her with a crossbody against the rail. After more chops in the ring Willow flattened Emi with a shotgun dropkick off the second rope. Sakura broke the count by raking the eyes and hit a cross rhodes variation that sent Willow to the corner allowing Sakura to hit a crossbody in the corner and twisting Vader Bomb for 2. Willow hit a low crossbody of her own for 2, Emi tried to cradle her for 2 and then they both sent each other to the mat as Willow’s boot caught Sakura as she hit Willow with a lariat. Sakura hit a double underhook sit-out facebuster for another near fall. Willow awkwardly pounced Sakura into the corner (she seemed like she may have been too close to the corner when she hit it) and hit a cannonball for 2. Nightingale dropped the straps on her singlet and after initially fighting out Willow caught Emi with a lariat and Doctor Bomb for the first successful defense not just of her reign but the title’s existence. I knew I was a big Willow fan coming in but whenever I see Sakura I remember that she’s better than I realize and should also be used more.
1. El Hijo del Vikingo. Our night opened with a triple threat for the AAA Mega Championship as Vikingo defended against Komander and Dralistico. This was wild so I’ll try to recap as many of the big moves as I can. Dralistico hit a big stomp off the top to the apron with Komander held hetween the middle and top ropes and Vikingo immediately followed up with a backwards leap to the top rope and moonsault to Dralistico on the floor. Vikingo then nailed an implosion hurricanran followed by a middle rope Phoenix splash both on Dralistico but Komander broke up the pin. Komander hit a double jump corkscrew hurricanrana to Dralistico before evading an attack from the charging Vikingo and hitting a series of arm drags that sent him to the floor. Komander followed it up by walking all the way across the top rope from the far corner and hitting both of his opponents with a twisting plancha on the floor near the ramp. After rolling Dralistico in the ring he walked half-way across the top rope and landed a 450 but Vikingo came off tje top with a double stomp to break it up. It wouldn’t be a lucha match without at least one botch from the participants being overly ambitious and that came when Vikingo jumped from one middle rope to the perpendicular middle rope and twirled backwards into a corkscrew reverse hurricanrana. Though after rewatching it it wasn’t blown as bad as I initially thought. That sent Komander outside on to a table and I’m not sure when that even got set-up but it presented Vikingo with the chance to do his terrifying 630 senton though Komander and the table. The crowd finally started a “This is awesome!” chant as Dralistico tried to capitalize by rolling Vikingo in but when he tried for a powerbomb Vikingo reversed it with a hurricanrana and pin to retain the AAA Mega Championship. To just watch a match without any story going in there’s nothing I like more than high flying lucha action and this gave me just that!
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