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I am thrilled to be filling in for Cory Strode, who does an excellent job every week and will return next Friday.
AEW Rampage opened with Jim Ross welcoming everyone. Mike Tyson joined the announcers.
AEW All-Atlantic Champion Orange Cassidy defeated NJPW's Katsuyori Shibata in about 12 minutes with the second ORANGE PUNCH of the match. They smartly aired a video package on Shibata so we'd have a clue who he was if we weren't big New Japan fans. Shibata had to win the hearts of anyone who watched this. At one point, he was taunting Cassidy with OC style soft kicks to the face and pissing Cassidy off with a taste of his own medicine. At another point, they sat on the ring mat challenging the other and they did the light taps but Shibata then SLAPPED HIM INTO 2025. That was great! They battled around the ring and at one point, Shibata used an Octopus submission as well. Good opening match. They shook hands after and Shibara wore the OC sunglasses. Was a new tag team just born?
Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli are tired of Chris Jericho attacking ROH personalities. They each, as former ROH Champions, want a title shot.
Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker defeated Madison Rayne and Skye Blue in another ten minutes. This was OK. Rayne started out with Jamie. Skye tagged in and worked on the arm. Hayter missed a charge in the corner and was hit with a bodypress. Hayter turned the momentum and beat down young Skye for a long time. My computer keeps trying to spellcheck Skye into Skype. Go figure. After a commercial, Skye made a comeback and tagged Madison, Rayne hit some moves before all four began fighting. Hayter nailed a big lariat to pin Madison.
Baker promised Jamie would win the Interim title at Full Gear. Toni Storm took issue and ran out, demolishing Rebel with ONE PUNCH on the floor. Hayter and Storm started throwing down and this was FUN. Storm put her in a submission, in a FIGHT? This allowed Britt to smash her from behind with the title belt. Toni was left for dead as the villains stood over her as apparently Skye and Madison were nowhere to be found?
They recapped all the attention Chris Jericho got for knocking Lamar Jackson. Jericho cut a promo and said he'd fight both Claudio and Danielson at once, then said he'd add Sammy Guevara, his little friend, to the match. Guevara seemed like he was confused about this.
Ricky Starks did a live promo inside the ring. He announced he's going to enter the Full Gear tournament and walk out the top contender. Promo was OK but Atlantic City seemed like they were asleep. Starks is a lot of fun.
Sammy Guevara challenged Bryan Danielson to a best of three falls match. Well, he's not going to challenge Andrade to that!
Samoa Joe and Wardlow defeated The Embassy with Prince Nana in about 10 minutes. They were playing up that Wardlow, being a no nonsense, pissy fighter, was disrespecting Joe. I hope this isn't setting up a match for next week because that's way too quick, but if they are planting seeds for 2023, that's cool they are thinking so far ahead. Kaun is really damn scary in the rin g. He and Wardlow started. There was so snug action and they did a Mike Tyson reference with Toa biting on Samoa Joe's ear. Joe was worked over but Wardlow got the tag and began whipping out German suplexes. Joe choked out Loa on the floor. Wardlow clocked Nana off the ring apron but Kaun rolled him up. Wardlow had enough and began the powerbomb symphony. THE END.
Will Hobbs came out. He's a scary man. Wardlow shoved past Joe and you could tell Joe wasn't having it. Wardlow and Hobbs began arguing towards each other as Hobbs made it clear that like El Gigante, he wants the belt!
The show peaked with the Orange Cassidy match, which honestly was the true main event. Everything else was just OK and setting up for the future. Wardlow is a grumpy man now!
Cory will be back next week. Thanks for reading!
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