12/10/21 AEW Rampage Recap
This week’s edition of AEW Rampage kicks off with the signature cold open video intro. We then shoot inside the UBS Arena in Belmont Park in the Long Island area of New York, as Excalibur and the rest of the commentary team welcome us to the show.
AEW World Tag-Team Championships
The Lucha Bros (C) vs. FTR
On that note, we head right down to the ringside area, as it’s time for our first match of the evening — and it’s a big one — as the AEW World Tag-Team Championships will be on-the-line.
With that said, we see both teams in the ring, as the challengers — Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, as well as the champions — Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix — are introduced. The belts are held high by the referee and we’re going right into this world tag-team championship match-up as our opener.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with this one, which features a hot crowd in Long Island still making a ton of noise, as well as Excalibur with a partially missing voice. Fenix and Harwood kick things off for their respective teams. Harwood has a nice headlock takeover early on, but Fenix escapes and when they reengage, Fenix isolates the arm of the FTR member and takes him down to the mat.
They work their way back up to their feet and again they trade hammerlock takedowns. Fenix looks for the tag but Harwood yanks him away from his corner and makes the tag himself. Wheeler enters the ring, however he and Harwood end up falling victim to Fenix hitting one-on-two high spots by himself. He takes both down and out and then tags in Penta.
Penta and Fenix both hit some cool double team moves, including a lift-up splash for a near fall. Harwood and Wheeler end up sliding out to the floor and trying to call time out. They talk brieflly with Tully Blanchard as they try to regroup early on due to things not working so well for them thus far. Wheeler comes in as the legal man upon returning to the ring.
We see Penta do the glove routine, which leads to a good catch by Wheeler but a super strong kick from Penta that Wheeler didn’t see coming. Even Taz gave Penta props on that one on commentary. Harwood ends up helping Wheeler take over after Fenix tags back in on the other side. They get in some cheap shots along with Tully at ringside while the ref is distracted on the other end of the ring.
FTR makes the tag again for a double-team assisted leg drop on Fenix for a near fall. The two begin utilizing quick and frequent tags to keep a fresh man on the softened up Fenix at all times. They cut off the ring as well, keeping him away from Penta so that he can not tag in a fresh man himself. The Lucha Bros end up taking over on offense a few moments later and hitting a pair of high spots. Afterwards, Excalibur talks us into a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see that FTR has regained the offensive advantage. Immediately after returning, however, we see Fenix trying to make the tag but once again getting cut off. Seconds later he does finally get the tag, and Penta takes the hot tag, enters the ring and goes on an offensive spree. Wheeler slows him down with a roll-up pin attempt, holding the tights for good measure but only getting two. Penta reverses a powerslam into a near fall of his own. He gets a made in Japan pump-handle suplex for another close near fall.
After that, we see Tully try and get involved, however Fenix ends up decking him and returning focus to the ring where he hits a pair of crazy high spots onto Harwood and Wheeler in opposing corners of the ring. Harwood ends up hitting a slingshot Liger bomb for a close near fall. Harwood and Fenix each go for a suplex but both counter the other mans attempt. Fenix goes for a unique roll-up attempt but Harwood kicks out.
Wheeler tries getting the title belt involved for an illegal shot, however Harwood ends up taking the shot and Fenix shrugs it off and dances. He then climbs to the top and walks the length of the top-rope super fast before kicking Wheeler off the apron and flowing right into a frogsplash on Harwood for a near fall. Craziness. The fans react with a loud “This is awesome!” chant.
Fenix dives into the Big Rigg from FTR on accident but is saved when Penta dives into Wheeler to break things up before the pin fall can occur. The ref starts counting as all four guys are down and out in the middle of the ring. Fenix recovers and drags Penta over to their corner so he can make the legal tag. He does and then re-enters the ring looking to finish things off. All four are up now and staggering around, but exchanging shots back-and-forth in the middle of the ring while the crowd reacts.
Fenix dives into a rolling cutter onto Harwood. He goes for the same on Wheeler, but Wheeler counters with a Gory Bomb. Wheeler heads over to Penta, but walks into a back-body drop. Penta looks for Fear Factor after that, but Wheeler avoids it. Penta and Fenix hit a double foot stomp off the top into a big finish spot for the pin fall victory. With the win, they retain the AEW World Tag-Team Championships in an epic opening contest here on this week’s Rampage. After the match ends, Excalibur plugs the six-woman tag-team match coming up and then talks us into another commercial break.
Winners and STILL AEW World Tag-Team Champions: The Lucha Bros
Ruby Soho, Anna Jay & Tay Conti vs. Penelope Ford, The Bunny & Nyla Rose
As soon as we return from the break, we immediately hear the familiar sounds of Ruby Soho’s theme song. Out comes Soho accompanied by her two tag-team partners for tonight’s six-woman tag-team match — Tay Conti and Anna Jay.
Already in the ring are their three opponents for this match — Penelope Ford, The Bunny and Nyla Rose, with Vickie Guerrero on the floor at ringside. Conti and Rose kick things off for their respective teams. Rose gets in some offense and then tags in The Bunny.
Conti and The Bunny go at it briefly but Conti ends up catching her with a big shot. She whips her into the corner and follows her in with a running knee to the gut. She then tags in Anna Jay. Anna Jay hits a running shot into the corner as well. She tags in Soho, who does the same. Soho then tags Conti back in and Conti picks up where she left off earlier, taking it to The Bunny in the middle of the ring.
The Bunny starts to shift the momentum in her favor. She cracks her with a right hand and then Ford sneaks in a big boot on the ring apron. Ford tags in and now she and Ford hit some double-team spots before Ford settles in to the ring and takes it to Conti. Conti walks into a pump kick from Ford for a near fall. Shortly after that, we head to a mid-match commercial break as the action continues.
When we return from the break, we see the action in full swing, just as the babyface trio is in the midst of making their fired up comebacks. Unfortunately for them, the heel trio ends up shifting the momentum back in their favor after Ford hits a pair of big punches that leads to Rose connecting with a Nyla Bomb for the pin fall victory.
Winners: Penelope Ford, The Bunny & Nyla Rose
FTR, Tully Blanchard Attack Darby Allin & Sting
We shoot backstage where Tony Schiavone is standing by with “The Icon” Sting and his friend, Darby Allin. Before the two can say much of anything, in comes FTR and Tully Blanchard.
The trio ambush Sting and Allin, beating them down and throwing them into the steel garage door before slamming them on concrete and hitting low-blows. They hit a bunch of additional cheap shots and then leave them laying as we head to another commercial break.
Hook vs. Fuego Del Sol
Now we settle back in from the break and we hear an Action Bronson rap song as the son of Taz, fellow Team Taz member Hook, makes his way down to the ring to make his AEW Rampage in-ring debut.
The crowd is super into his entrance, and on commentary, you can hear Taz beeming ear-to-ear with pride. He confirms to his broadcast partner that this is Action Bronson rapping in Hook’s theme song and notes that Bronson is a good friend of Hook and Taz’s.
We hear the bell sound and this one is now off-and-running. We immediately hear loud “Hook! Hook!” chants from the crowd. He stands with his back to Fuego as he is introduced, in a sign of confidence and bad-ass’ness. He backs up the latter upon the ringing of the bell, as he hits a number of power-display moves, including a wide-variety of suplexes.
In Long Island, the fans are super, super strong behind Hook. They chant his name throughout his entire offensive run. Fuego ends up getting in a couple of shots and tries making a comeback, but Hook ends up holding him up in the air with pure power before suplexing him down and then turning him inside-out with a lariat. He struts around and looks confident as the fans chant his name again.
He hits a high-collar over-the-top suplex and Taz on commentary talks about this being the beginning of the end. Hook starts crossfacing Fuego and blasting him with forearms. He then takes him down and grapevines the legs before slapping in the rear naked choke for the submission victory. Just about a perfect debut for Hook tonight, folks. Great stuff.
Winner: Hook
Mark Henry’s Pre-Main Event Split-Screen Interview
After Hook-Del Sol wraps up, we head backstage to Mark Henry, as it’s time for our split-screen pre-main event interview hosted by “The World’s Strongest Man.”
With that said, Henry introduces The Best Friends on one side and The Super Elite on the other. We hear both sides bicker and argue.
Adam Cole and his pals talk about this being about them, while The Best Friends argue it should be about them because Trent just returned. Wheeler Yuta vs. Adam Cole in our main event is up next. On that note, we head back to another commercial break.
Adam Cole vs. Wheeler Yuta
We settle back in from the break and we get down to the ringside area, as it’s main event time here on the final Rampage before next week’s highly-anticipated Winter Is Coming special event.
On that note, we hear the familiar sounds of Adam Cole’s theme music. He makes his way out accompanied by Bobby Fish, The Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler. He makes his way down to the ring as they follow behind and the fans do his “BOOM! Adam Cole … BAY-BAY!” entrance gimmick with him.
After he does the big one on the ring apron and in the ring, we hear his popular theme fade down. Then the familiar sounds of the entrance tune of The Best Friends plays and out comes the fully reunited squad led by the man who will be competing in tonight’s main event — Wheeler Yuta.
The fans give The Best Friends a big pop coming out. Yuta heads down to the ring with some of The Best Friends following him down to remain in his corner at ringside. It’s just about time to get our main event rolling here on Rampage.
From there, we hear the bell sound and these two lock up as referee Aubrey Edwards immediately calls for a clean break after Cole pushes Yuta into the corner of the ring. Cole backs up and then drills Yuta with a big punch. He rapid-fire punches away at him and then takes him down to the mat. He goes to pick Yuta up, but Yuta was ready for him and backs out and to his feet.
Yuta lands some kicks and then connects with a beautiful dropkick that decks Cole. Cole pops up and backs into a corner as Yuta charges in his direction. Unfortunately for Yuta, however, he ran right into a super kick from the prepared Cole. Cole whips Yuta into the opposing corner so hard he bounces off the turnbuckles and crashes on the mat. Cole flashes the double biceps in an arrogant post-move pose to the Long Island crowd.
We see Cole charge at Yuta in the corner, but he flips over his head and behind him. Cole turns to him and snatches him up in a side head lock. He then executes a nice snap-suplex that brings Yuta down to the mat with emphasis. Cole hits a snapmare takeover and then mocks Orange Cassidy, who is at ringside, with his wimpy kicks to the back and sides as the crowd “OOOHS!” and “AHHS!” like he’s beating him with a hammer. The camera shows Cassidy reacting — kind of — to this.
Cole continues to work over Yuta, landing some big blows to his spine before pushing his elbow into his favor. Excalibur points out on commentary that Cole is softening up the neck to get him ready for the Panama Sunrise finisher. Cole hits a nice neck-breaker after that and dusts his hands off, thinking he’s got this one wrapped up. He picks him up and blatantly throws him out to the floor, right in front of Cassidy. Cassidy takes the sunglasses off as Cole crouches down and glares at Cassidy.
Cassidy looks fired up, for him, anyways. The commentators talk about Cassidy being a dangerous man, whether he looks it or not. Cole with a big shot to the knee of Yuta. He goes for the Panama Sunrise but Yuta avoids it. Yuta comes off the ropes with a cross body splash on Cole. He is unable to capitalize with a pin attempt, but does hit a big drop kick. He then kicks him and connects with a running elbow strike in the corner. He comes off the ropes with a diving elbow strike into a pin attempt, however Cole kicks out at two.
Excalibur talks about the undefeated streak of Cole nearly coming to an end right there. Meanwhile, Yuta is coming close to finishing Cole off a few more times, including a nice German suplex into a bridge pin attempt. Cole cuts Yuta off on the top-rope and climbs up after him. Yuta with a nice capture slam after both guys end up off the ropes. Yuta climbs back up and goes for a big splash but Cole gets the knees up and Yuta lands on them. Cole then pops up and blasts Yuta with a super kick. He picks Yuta up and pulls his own knee pad down.
He looks over at Cassidy and smirks before lowering the boom for the big finish. He then picks up the pin fall victory and goes right back to glaring in Cassidy’s direction, taunting him.
Winner: Adam Cole
After The Match: The Super Elite & The Best Friends Brawl
Once the match ends, we see The Best Friends and The Super Elite in a big brawl. Bobby Fish blasts Trent with a big shot. They then end up in a big brawl with everyone going at it. They set up Cassidy for the Panama Sunrise but he lets him go. They end up focusing on Trent and hitting a triple BTE trigger and they leave him laying. Cole taunts Cassidy some more and his theme hits again. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us!
source: Rajah.com