Written by Mike Mueller
SAMMY GUEVARA VS. TONY NESE
When WWE made their fourth round of cuts (out of seven so far…) on June 25th, not many people were surprised to see Tony Nese on that list. Not because he isn’t a very talented wrestler, he certainly is, but because WWE hasn’t been doing much with Nese or anybody in the dissipating cruiserweight division. Fortunately for us, Nese has found his way to AEW and he took on Sammy Guevara for the TNT championship.
Any smart wrestling fan would tell you Sammy had no chance of losing this match, and while it never seemed like he was in real danger of losing, this match perfectly showed off how valuable of an asset he is. Both of these guys are silky smooth and delivered a wonderfully entertaining spot fest that AEW has become known for. The match was exciting and allowed Tony to shine on AEW’s flagship show. It proved that, while the roster is still growing at an incredible pace, if you got the goods, AEW will find a way to showcase you properly.
In the end, Sammy retained his TNT championship and is perhaps the best white meat babyface in the company today.
CHRISTIAN VOWS TO LEAD JURASSIC EXPRESS TO GOLD
Christian seems to be moving toward more of a managerial role in AEW. In a backstage segment, he talked up the #1 contenders to the tag team titles, Jurassic Express. With his knowledge and tag team expertise, he knows these guys will rise to the top.
This was a straightforward segment…almost a little TOO straightforward. This seems like a setup for Christian to turn on Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus and cost them their title opportunity. It could be reading too much into the little things, but his attitude was beyond confident, it was straight-up arrogant, and arrogance is not a babyface trait. Plus, do we really think Christian is the type of character who is going to be cool taking a backseat and having others take the spotlight? To quote Shawn Michaels in 1992 “I don’t think so!”
JADE CARGILL VS. JANAI KAI
This match was technically 32 seconds long, but somehow it felt even shorter. This wasn’t a squash, it was an obliteration. Of course, the purpose of this match was to make Jade look like a beast, and to add fuel to her upcoming fire of a match against Thunder Rosa. Janai is a bit of a protege of Thunder, so of course when Jade continued to beat down Janai after the match, Thunder had to come down and save the match. Logic tells us that it will be Jade vs. Ruby Soho in the finals for the TBS tournament, but a little bit of doubt was cast during Jade and Thunder’s post match skirmish.
Typically, if a promotion wants to give fans false hope of their hero winning, the hero would get the better of the villain in this instance. That’s not what happened here. Thunder stormed the ring, the two went at it, and they seemed to be…equals. Neither woman got the better of the other and that may have been the best way to play it. When this tournament was first announced, my pick was Thunder Rosa so here’s hoping AEW is preparing us for a swerve and Thunder finds a way to hand Jade Cargill her first loss in AEW.
SUPERKLIQ PROMO
The Superkliq (Young Bucks & Adam Cole) give another promo talking about the Best Friends. It’s similar to every other promo they’ve done. That’s not what matters here. What mattered in this segment is two-fold.
1) The continued berating of Brandon Cutler, hilarious as it is, is eventually going to become too much.
And
2) During their promo, Don Callis walked across the screen, talking on the phone (presumably to Kenny?) and more or less ignored the Superkliq. This was a subtle but very telling moment in the evolution of The Elite. Callis should be putting all of his effort into the remaining members of The Elite, not ignoring them to focus on an injured Kenny Omega. The fact that he is more occupied with Kenny than the people right in front of him tells us when Omega returns, Callis’ loyalties and priorities will not involve The Young Bucks or Adam Cole.
EDDIE HATES EVERYBODY
Eddie Kingston cuts a quick promo on a staircase, because that’s where cool guys hang out, on stoops and staircases. He says that he doesn’t care about Jericho’s help, nor does he want it, and his attention is on getting revenge on 2.0. Eddie’s angle with 2.0 will be short lived and Eddie will come out on top, and of course this will eventually lead to a feud with Jericho.
It is nice to see this development for Eddie, as he was starting to turn into “really good fighter who still loses all the time” guy, and nobody wants to see Eddie become that guy. He will dominate 2.0 and likely get over in his feud with Jericho, regaining that respectability factor, and possibly even going on to compete with Sammy Guevara for the TNT championship down the line, assuming Sammy keeps the belt for that long.
FTR vs. PAC & PENTA EL ZERO M
Before the match starts, we of course get the standard Mark Henry pre-match interview. The campiness of these segments have grown on me, and the humor that FTR brings to this segment in particular makes it very fun. Mark wants to know how Pac is going to be able to fight with one eye. Apparently he’s never seen the fine work of Jean-Pierre Lafitte. The segment turns into the typical shouting match that it usually does, and now everybody is fired up for the main event.
What a main event it was! This was an absolute wrestling clinic, which is what you would expect from these four. FTR’s ability to work so well with luchadores does not get enough credit. Plus, their ability to work in all the little details and moments in their matches really make them a tag team like no other. There was a nice tribute to Demolition with the back breaker/elbow drop combination. The match comes to a surprising conclusion as Malakai Black makes an appearance and spits more of that black mist into Pac’s good eye, effectively leaving him “blinded” for the foreseeable future. To add more insult to injury, FTR takes off Penta’s “mask” (more of a head covering, really) as a trophy and stands victorious over our fallen heroes.
As a fan of early 90’s wrestling, I really hope this is leading to a blindfold match, although I’d be very surprised if that’s the direction they actually take. Either way, the House of Black vs. Death Triangle feud continues to gain momentum as another amazing episode of Rampage comes to a conclusion.
OVERALL THOUGHTS ON AEW RAMPAGE 12/3:
This episode was filled with great wrestling matches AND great storytelling. Every segment was focused and had a purpose. And while AEW Rampage is sticking to the three match format, the show as a whole is continuing to evolve into something truly special. Since its inception, the goal of Rampage has been to showcase some of AEW’s breadth of talent that aren’t getting matches on Dynamite, while also using segments to push the importance of next week’s Dynamite. While that certainly is still the case, the storytelling is going much deeper than it has in the past, and we as the audience are the beneficiaries.
