AEW Rampage - Episode #01
Live From: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Tonight's Card

Impact Heavyweight Championship
Kenny Omega(c) (w/ Don Callis) vs. Christian Cage

Single Match
Miro vs. Fuego del Sol

AEW Women's Championship
Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D.(c) vs. Red Velvet

Tonight is the night we've been waiting for, tonight is the night All Elite Wrestling makes history with their debut episode of Rampage. Tonight's history making show will see two title matches taking place.

In the opening match, "The Best Bout Machine" Kenny Omega (w/ Don Callis) will defend his Impact heavyweight title, against an Impact Wrestling legend, "The Instant Classic" Christian Cage. The other will take place in the main-event, as Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. puts her AEW women's championship on the line, against Red Velvet.

Also Miro will be in a match with Fuego del Sol, although that'll be more of a massacre than anything else.

Anyways, anyone watching tonight? Not sure if this deserves a separate thread, since it's a Friday night and an hour long show, but eh we'll see how things go.

I'll be watching tomorrow at some point or much later depending on when it's available online on TSN.

I hope this show gets whatever numbers they're looking for to consider it a success.

Very intrigued by the Omega/Cage match, it makes me doubt they will face each other at All Out

What's the deal with this Rampage show? Is it just another weekly TV show like Dynamite?

Hour long Friday show. Rumor is they want to do this show as pretty much straight wrestling with a showcase on the women.

Aug 13, 2021 18:44:58 GMT Emperor said:

What's the deal with this Rampage show? Is it just another weekly TV show like Dynamite?

Pretty much, a second weekly TV show

Aug 13, 2021 18:39:59 GMT nazzer said:

I'll be watching tomorrow at some point or much later depending on when it's available online on TSN.

I hope this show gets whatever numbers they're looking for to consider it a success.

Very intrigued by the Omega/Cage match, it makes me doubt they will face each other at All Out

Likely Omega gets a DQ with someone from the Elite helping, leading to them being banned from ring side at All Out.  Classic booking that works for Kenny.

-Elite and Jurassic Express both get tossed from ringside
-shenanigans, Kenny gets himself DQ'd
-match at All Out becomes No DQ with everyone banned from ringside
-Kenny retains anyway, is challenged by either Bryan Danielson or CM Punk for the New York show

EDIT: also possible that either Jay White or Hiroshi Tanahashi show up since they're in the US right now. White is more likely since he doesn't seem to have any plans to return to Japan after Resurgence. Tanahashi needs to go home for the G1.

DB is going for Kenny I bet.  Facing Omega is pretty much why he signed.  Everything else is just a fun bonus.


Punker is likely coming for Darby. Darby needs a really good feud to elevate him and Punk is perfect for it. Also this is something I could see Punk coming back for, putting over someone who is basically a young Punk. I get Punk has that wrestling itch after working Heelz, but AEW cannot give him the cash he wanted, so they had to hook him with something else.


As this draws near, really curious what numbers Punk can bring in.  AEW is catching up to Raw in the 18-49 demo at ~0.45 compared to RAW's ~.50.  Although it appears last week for the key demo, AEW did beat Raw as AEW was a high vs a RAW low.  But Punk could really bring in viewers, and make it a lot more competitive.  Right now AEW draws about a million, RAW 1.8 million.  Will not take a lot to close those numbers since Raw is dropping viewers as a whole and AEW is debuting major after major talent.


And while not psyched for his debut as others are, I cannot wait until Punk does the talk show circuit.  Also do really wish they did keep this a secret and have the music hit on a PPV out of nowhere.  

Dynamite hasn’t beaten Raw in 18-49 at all, unless I’m reading it wrong. It is close, and it will happen, but not yet.

Ah was close but .46 compared to .49 last week.  That is way closer than it should be.

Straight wrestling? So this is the show Cornette will like since no comedy bullshit? DED SRS RING WORK. And not to give the GD&D credit but they're almost bringing me back in. I'm almost free of wrestling and now DB coming for Kenny after he saw his stuff with Okada and he's like mmmm I gotta get me some of that.

You guys fanfic ing a DQ in the Cage/Omega do realise we've only seen two DQ's in AEW history right? One was in the Pac\Omega iron match which was strategically taken by PAC, and the other was in the PAC/Cassidy number one contenders match and was only done as an audible due to Orange Cassidy's in ring injury.

And you think this Impact title match gets the third DQ in AEW's history? AEW is clean finishes

My money is on the Elite Hunter costing Omega the title, as it gets the belt on Christian, while at the same time keeping Omega strong.

Well here we go. Lets see what they can do tonight.

Looks like I'm gonna have to sit this one out. My connection is too choppy to catch it live.

Weird even getting 10 minutes of wrestling without a commercial these days.

HOLY SHIT!!!

Did NOT see that coming.

Christian with the Unprettier on a chair to become your new Impact World Champion!!!

Great match to get this show going - gave them 20 minutes.

YAY CHRISTIAN

Boo Mark Henry. That interview was awful. Like really really bad.

curious if this is a sign Omega drops the AAA title tomorrow at Triplemania

Fuego Del Sol is All Elite.

So psyched to see 2.0 get to wrestle with freaking Sting!!!  Sting is gonna murder Matthews and it will be glorious.  

My thoughts are the 4 man commentator booth is already too much. Henry seems like a bystander, I am cool with him doing interview gigs on this show and at best let Taz, Jericho and Excalibur do the calling.

Dasha(Is that her?) is fantastic as the ring announcer, much better than Justin "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEGAHHHHHHHHHHH" Roberts. More Dasha on TV.

Christian is pretty good outside of his punches which aren't really that good if at all all things considered. What works for Christian always even when I loved watching his WWECW title reign is he doesn't rely on flips & feats which is why he and someone like Dustin Rhodes age like fine wine in the ring. I knew he'd win it the minute it was opening the show and Scott D'Amore was mentioned of even giving this match the blessing. I will say the ref once again looked absolutely idiotic not even once turning back to look at all of the distractions that went on in the ring. Calis should not have dominated his attention, his job is to watch the match while maintaining order. Was that Brian Hebner? He looked awful at the end.

Seemed silly to have Fuego Del Sol who lost in like 4 minutes get his contract renewed so soon, defeated the purpose of the contract stipulation to have him back with the company within minutes. The fanbase will cheer for a pile of dung if it's polished up enough, if the wins and losses have any merit in this company, which AEW preaches to the choir, how can you even reason that Del Sol deserves a roster spot?

I think you will see more and more this show being like Thunder or Velocity and primarily meant to hype up Dynamite with vignettes and consistent reminders of the matches that will happen. Not that this is a bad thing.

Jamie Hayter is back! Good for her, she didn't deserve to lose her job with AEW. Guess it was a visa issue with her and Priestley/Davenport? I knew Red Velvet would be booed in Pittsburgh and would tap out, predictable but the correct move. Think Hayter's re-debut got a bit rushed there and think that should have been done on Dynamite more than anything but I guess it's also good for her given this will have the most eyeballs Rampage will ever have as a show.

Not bad altogether, gotta see where they go from here.

Pretty disappointing show.

Cage vs Omega was blah aside from the "shock" finish. Even then, it somehow didn't feel all that significant.

Miro vs Fuego Del Sol was actually the most entertaining match of the show, but it still felt completely meaningless. As Blindy said, why have a contract stipulation if you're going to give the guy a contract anyway even after he gets squashed?

Baker vs Velvet was shit. Baker is really disappointing as the champion so far, which is a shame. She was a lot better when she was chasing. I guess Jamie Hayter's return was supposed to be a big deal but it wasn't because everyone's forgotten about her, or didn't know who she was in the first place. Also according to the announcers she changed her look a lot, so a lot of the audience didn't know what was going on.

Aside from the poor matches, the announcing team was far too crowded. Jericho has always been shit on announcing with his shrill shrieking. Henry is not very eloquent and stumbles over his own words too much. Why not just Excalibur and Taz?

Three man announce teams can be annoying, this four man team was hellacious AF.

I liked Kenny Omega/Christian Cage for what it was, not surprising in the least bit that Christian won the Impact heavyweight championship. Admittedly, I was expecting more fuckery leading up to the finish, still though I'm looking forward to Omega/Cage II at All Out.

So Miro vs. Fuego Del Sol was a thing I guess, though considering how it ended, that was some bullshit. Honestly, if Del Sol took Miro to the limit and the match ended a draw, yeah offering the contract would make sense even in defeat, but that didn't happen.

Pittsburgh loves their hometown girl, while it's not surprising, I'm happy Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. retained her title. I dug the post match stuff as well, love the viciousness of of the women's champion.

I wonder what the story is behind the four man commentary booth? It seemed like the idea would have been to pair Excalibur with Mark Henry since that's what they did with Schiavone and White. My best guess is that they felt like Taz deserved an expanded role in the company since his Dark commentary was well received. On top of that, I'd imagine Jericho suggested himself for the role and so they went with the four man booth to get a feel. It was rough around the edges but I'm aware you have to give these things time.

Christian Cage vs. Kenny Omega for the Undisputed Impact Championship title. First of all, what a vote in confidence from Impact Wrestling that they not only allowed Kenny to run through their roster but then they allowed the championship swap to happen on the B-show. Granted, it was the premier episode but still it's the same show that featured Fuego Del Sol. I thought they had a solid match, a couple of nice details and they didn't go overboard but the ending felt a little contrived. Kenny low-blows Christian behind the referee's back, they do a prolonged referee distraction while the Bucks shuffle to ring-side, slide in a chair only for Christian to reverse the One-Winged Angel into a Killswitch.

The decision seemed to be motivated about giving Christian some credibility heading into All Out while also kicking Rampage off strong. It is risky in the sense that Kenny hadn't lost a singles match in nearly two years and it could weaken the story if he loses to somebody like Christian who wasn't really over with the crowd. AEW have booked him OK, I'm not sure about the decision to have him lose on his first PPV appearance was right in hindsight, but they're going to have to come up with a way to capitilise on this.

Conversly, I wonder if this is a way to send Christian Cage to Impact after the Omega feud and have one less star to worry about? On the bright side, a Christian Cage vs. Josh Alexander match sounds like a good piece of business.

Miro vs. Fuego Del Sol had Miro going over but the story was Fuego finally signing the contract with AEW in a feel good moment. Fuego is somebody the crowd has really come to love thanks in large part to Sammy's Vlogs and he's one of those underdog characters that appeal to the fans. I did find it a little out of place that it followed one of the biggest matches of the year and Fuego is just an enhacement talent, but I don't think AEW sees it that way. I think AEW has this everyone is equal type of view. Also it's smart of TK as a PR move to have him give Fuego a job after all those releases in the WWE. Once again it sends the message that AEW is a caring company and will look beyond stipulations to 'do the right thing'.

Dr. Britt Baker got one of the biggest receptions of the year in her match with Red Velvet. It was absolutely the right decision to main event and as good as Britt was, Red Velvet really was a trooper here playing the heel. Velvet does two things really well which are absolutely vital in this industry. She moves well and she emotes which gets you invested in the story. I thought they worked a solid enough match, lots of attention to Britt's broken wrist to illicit sympathy and Velvet pays the price for attempting a Lockjaw by taking one of her own. Certainly not one of the best women's matches of the year but a solid piece of business.

Then to end the show we got a run-in from Kris Statlander who appears to be Britt's next opponent. Britt was saved by the returning Jamie Hayter who previously worked a couple of Dynamite matches back in October/November 2019. I don't think you were supposed to recognise her right away so no qualms there but it left the show with some intrigue. Is Hayter there to form a stable with Britt? Or does she just want a shot at her?

All in all a solid episode with a big premiere match. I don't think it will go down in history as one of the greatest episodes of wrestling television and something you have to drop to see. However it wasn't a throw-away either and if they can continue it should be a place to give their ever expanding roster more exposure.

Like I said in the other thread, a hot crowd can make a world of difference. Last night's show was pretty messy, but the crowd sold it and made it feel more entertaining than it really was.

The 4 man booth isn't sticking. I think they shoved Jericho in there to get another big name on the first show, and Mark Henry is going to be the backstage/interview guy.

I've been watching AEW since the beginning and I had no idea who Jamie Hayter was or why I was supposed to care. That was a super underwhelming moment.

A lot of people online thought it was Becky Lynch at first. I can kinda see the resemblance.

Aug 13, 2021 21:40:15 GMT c said:

As this draws near, really curious what numbers Punk can bring in.  AEW is catching up to Raw in the 18-49 demo at ~0.45 compared to RAW's ~.50.  Although it appears last week for the key demo, AEW did beat Raw as AEW was a high vs a RAW low.  But Punk could really bring in viewers, and make it a lot more competitive.  Right now AEW draws about a million, RAW 1.8 million.  Will not take a lot to close those numbers since Raw is dropping viewers as a whole

Prior to the 4 weeks pulling 1 Million viewers, AEW Dynamite had 3 weeks of under 885,000.

RAW was actually trending up each week for the previous 4 weeks prior to this week. From 1.4 to 1.8 over that period.

(Fun Fact : AEW's highest rating came on July 21 of 1.14m, that same week RAW scored 1.92m)

When you're only playing with decimal places, it looks real easy. Like real easy, like the sky is falling for WWE easy.

Last week, RAW did an additional 811,000 more viewers than AEW Dynamite.

So, AEW have just got to nearly double their ratings. Or on the 10 week average pick up 700,000+ viewers a week to match RAW. Easy stuff.

(Fun Fact : Last night's SmackDown drew 2.499m viewers, which is the show's biggest viewership for 2021.

And has consistently sat around the +2m mark for the last 5 weeks.)

When Mark Henry speaks it sounds like Boomhower from King of the Hill. I'm sure he wants to do commentary, but the speaking pace required doesn't seem to match his speaking style

I dug the entire show. A solid start to Rampage. The crowd was on fire!