Once again AEW returned to the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania just after having their Dynamite show except this time AEW was debuting a new program called Rampage, which was a one hour live broadcast rather than their two hours. Done right after WWE Smackdown, Rampage had title matches as well as Mark Henry making his debut as an analyst. So many new things going on here.
Christian Cage vs Kenny Omega
This was for the Impact World Title. They used one of Impact’s referees for this match as well. Pretty much had a big event feeling with the crowd being solidly behind Christian Cage. At the announcer’s booth, we had four announcers for this match, including Chris Jericho but no Don Callis as he was ringside the entire time for this match.
I figured that this match would be the longest one as they would want to really show case Kenny Omega while Christian would get his moment. The match itself was okay but they were building towards a hot finish. A few big falls towards the end and I think Christian looked fantastic here. End came with the Bucks making a cameo and throwing in a chair where Callis had been distracting the referee, allowing Christian to reverse a One Winged Angel so that he could plant Omega’s head on the chair with his Killswitch.
Place erupted for the three count but it was absolutely the right move. This would be Mark Henry’s only announcing for the night. Couple things about the commentary. First, Jericho is pretty obnoxious here. He talks slightly heelish but more importantly ends up being pretty overbearing in talking over everyone. Felt like Mark Henry barely was able to keep up. He kept just reacting with “Oh my god” or “my goodness” rather than talking about the story unfolding in the ring. Not sure if that was Jericho’s fault for talking too much and not giving Henry a chance or if Henry was freezing up.
Taz was the best person on commentary here. Strangely, he was the most neutral in all of this and makes me believe he shouldn’t be running Team Taz just because it feels it distracts from his commentary. But poor Mark Henry really deserved better or needs to pick up the pace a bit otherwise he’s going to be in trouble.
They had a nice post match with Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) coming down to celebrate with Christian Cage and even Scott D’Amore was there to give his approval. At this point, Mark Henry left the announcer’s booth for the remainder of the evening to work backstage and interviewed Christian Cage as he celebrated with some “bubbly”. It was a nice tribute to how wrestlers would celebrate big title wins and helped give more meaning to the Impact title.
One thing I did notice was during the backstage celebration segment, Orange Cassidy was hanging out in the corner. Not sure what his deal was but I could see him being a challenger for that title. However, I can’t see more AEW wrestlers holding the Impact title going forward and I suspect in a month or two it’ll return to Impact.
This was the right move and the more I think about it, it was the perfect move. Having Christian vs Omega first not only would act as a hook to stimulate interest for why people should be tuning in, they also possibly could be using Christian in particular to act as a curiosity factor for the WWE fans since Smackdown would be finishing up. So the casual WWE fan who might become aware of AEW Rampage in theory could tune in to see someone they’re familiar with winning the title to draw them in a bit more. Also, it gives Impact some shine by helping to feature their belt, although I did think the announcers somewhat lowered the value of the Impact title when they talked about the importance of the AEW world title in comparison. That said, I’m fine with it because in truth Impact is getting a massive boost here.
Of course, part of this win helps provide some major credibility for Christian as he goes into All In for September when he takes on Kenny for the AEW world title. This provides a lot of doubt in terms of Kenny being able to pull through. I believe today (Saturday) Kenny is facing Andrade for the AAA belt. So if Kenny loses that, then going into All Out, there will be a lot of doubt for him to retain. It really depends on next week with the rumored CM Punk debut and what his goals are within AEW. My guess is that they’ll save that Kenny vs Punk title match further down the line. But at least Christian would be able to get a major title win and Kenny won’t have to pull triple duty.
Miro vs Fuego Del Sol
For the TNT title and a contract for Fuego if he could beat Miro. This was really an odd match. I mean I get it in hindsight but I don’t really know what this will do in the grand scheme of things. Miro tried to make Fuego look good as Fuego gave him several big Tornado DDTs (three) where Miro sold the last one on the floor, almost getting a count out and thus Fuego winning. Ultimately, this was a glorified squash with Miro adding insult to injury by tearing the contract up.
Despite Fuego losing, Sammy Guevara came down with Tony Khan, in a rare TV appearance, and gave Fuego a contract. According to an interview, Tony Khan mentioned that Fuego didn’t know about it and the whole thing came as a surprise. He genuinely seemed pretty emotional and they briefly talked about Guevara’s relation as Fuego’s best friend, which is why he was the one selected to hand Fuego the contract.
I can understand AEW wanting a big moment and basically telling people “we care about our wrestlers because we listen to our fans” type of moment. But I’m not sure if Rampage was the right place to do it just because Fuego seems more like an internet meme than something the casual fan can take seriously. But they did give him the moment and it seemed important to him and the fans which at this juncture might be more important because it allows AEW to make a statement about how they view the welfare of their wrestlers as well as how fans can make a difference in their product.
Britt Baker vs Red Velvet
This would be for the women’s title. Just before Mark Henry had an interview with both women. It looks as though they wanted to try and create a new type of segment for Mark Henry here by having each wrestler in separate rooms to give their voice.
The match itself wasn’t a disaster as I had anticipated. It wasn’t special neither except for the fact that the crowd was completely in Britt Baker’s corner. I read the match being that Britt was trying to wrestle heel and Velvet was being a face. Like having the opportunity to stomp on Britt’s injured hand but stopping.
So both girls mostly focused on Britt’s injured hand. The real problem for me in this match was that neither were experienced in a situation like this. I think they planned too much backstage and locked in how the match would look. Neither know how to adjust themselves to the audience. There were moments where I think Red could have gotten over big time as a heel by playing to the crowd while Britt could have sold better in the ring. They didn’t do ridiculous spots either which should have lent to both doing more to play their roles.
The finish was more interesting on paper than in execution where Britt switched from her right hand, which was injured to her left in applying her Lockjaw finisher. But even in those moments, it seemed off. Like Britt wasn’t struggling enough and it didn’t feel she sold enough towards the end with all the work that Red was trying to do. So the finish just fell flat to me.
Now, here’s where things got really weird. Britt continued to pound on Red Velvet, leading to Kris Statlander to come out (she was at ringside and had been shown earlier). However, she came out to massive boos (no surprise there). I think Rebel got tossed out earlier for interfering, which was another bizarre move and had been acting as a cheerleader for Britt. Here though, I think they did the afterbirth since Kris is ranked #2 behind Thunder Rosa. So they’ll probably give Britt another title match by having Statlander take her on. I doubt it’ll be at All Out though just because Kris is still pretty green.
So Statlander tries to defend Red Velvet but someone runs to the ring. It’s a face we have not seen before in a very long time. Heck, I’ve never seen her and have no idea about her. A person going by Jamie Hayter who apparently teamed with Britt a while back. People were confused and initially thought she was Becky Lynch. I think if Becky showed up, the roof would’ve come unglued.
However, Jamie’s appearance was pretty lukewarm to nil just because people had long forgotten about her. The announcers referred to Britt wanting new backup so I guess this was it. My conjecture was for Ruby Riott to be the backup, but her no-compete clause still isn’t up. I suppose if it was up, this would have been the spot to debut her. Another major signing and debut here would have been the Iiconics, which could lead to some tag titles for the women’s division but I’m guessing that logistics with the lockdown in Australia is preventing that from happening on top of Visa problems.
The only other person that could have appeared to make a huge go last minute statement would have been Mickey James. I felt that whoever this Jamie Hayter was, was a mistake and a major letdown. Nothing against her personally but she doesn’t mean anything to anyone at this point.
The situation with Britt Baker and her booking made no sense. They should have known about her hometown reaction and made Velvet play more as a heel. She could have gotten a lot of heat here. And Kris Statlander was the wrong person to try and save Velvet. The whole arrangement was bad and should have been reversed. So not sure what they were looking for but this is where AEW really needs to understand roles better because they need to either turn Britt completely face or create a monster heel (not Nyla) to come after her.
Final Thoughts
Nothing really exceptional here but most of the basic booking made sense. I think the 1 hour format is more digestible than 2 hours where there’s just too much filler and wandering around. The second match felt like a waste but at least there was some pay off. The main event was okay and gave the women’s division a chance to be highlighted. And it worked in that it was Britt’s home town. I just think the after birth and how they tried portraying Red Velvet was a complete mistake.
Ratings-wise, my guess is that this show won’t do as good as they hope. I think they did what they could to advertise this show but the time slot and lack of a build for Christian vs Omega felt very short sighted. I get that Christian winning a title was necessary to hook people, but it seems like they just wanted people to stay for the rest of the show or use Christian as a hook in between Smackdown finishing up.
My prediction for the ratings is that they will be about the same number as Dynamite had done, possibly a little more given that Dynamite having that temporary Friday slot was poorly advertised and did not have the advantage of live crowds. Also, I don’t know how much AEW can take advantage of the Smackdown viewership. The previous two Dynamite shows did not seem affected and I’m not sure having advertisements on Smackdown would help convert fans over.
That said, I feel that the positive about this show is that it will generate a buzz after the fact. Meaning that people might talk about Christian Cage winning a major title and hopefully get people curious about AEW, at least to commit more of their regular Wednesday audience to Fridays, because of the statement this show is trying to make. So perhaps this show and the mega show in Chicago next week will be things that will generate enough buzz for the curious to watch.
However, I still think AEW suffers from myopia. They really are still booking too much within their realm. Like Fuego Del Sol. Maybe he can get some rub by being live against Miro but no one gave him a chance. Being a cult hero rather than someone capable of attracting the masses are two different things on a large scale. Similarly, Red Velvet getting to challenge on TV seemed like a strange choice. Unfortunately, their women’s division really has no mainstream recognizable person outside of possibly Britt Baker at this stage. It is a huge risk giving them that main event spot but I think they wanted to use Christian’s title win as momentum to highlight not just Britt but Red for the future.
The main event run in though was dumb. The fact that the crowd was hot for Britt and that the run-in fell flat showed to me how AEW still ends up booking in a vacuum. Whether or not the people internal to AEW sees something Jamie is irrelevant. You really needed an exclamation mark at the end of this show and I just shrugged.
The thing for me about AEW Rampage is that I don’t know what to expect going forward. The videos claim that this show will be settling things and having less distractions. So does this mean that we only will be seeing mega titles and big star debuts? That seems odd for a Friday show. Another group are calling this the “3rd hour” of Dynamite. Then what is Dynamite? What’s my motivation of watching one show over another? At this point, it feels very gratuitous and just broadcasting more of their talent as opposed to having a sense of identity.
I did come to find that they did more Dark tapings before the show. And there were 12 matches for that. That’s right: 12. That’s double the number of matches Dynamite has! Pretty ridiculous. So my guess is that Rampage will actually be them splitting up the tapings a bit so that Elevation can have their set in front of a crowd and Dark will have the other half. Well, in that sense, at least you’re not just paying for a 1 hour show if you attend one of these Rampage shows.
Overall, I felt for a debut show, it was a mixed bag for me. I think they need to sort out their identity, their announcers and nail their TV format down better. I wouldn’t mind if they decide to have something like one major situation plus a long match as a staple on these shows. But 3 matches feels light compared to other 1 hour wrestling shows in the past.
And for Mark Henry, I was surprised they only gave him that one match. Not sure why they didn’t stick him out longer beyond having him do the various backstage segments. But it felt clipped. Also, hopefully in the future, they cut Jericho out just because he’s very overbearing. While he was able to put everyone over and get the main points across, I think it disallowed Mark Henry his time to make a statement. So he felt pointless being out there.
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