Andrade vs Pac
Since coming to AEW, Andrade hasn’t set the world on fire. He had a decent match with Matt Sydal and the feud between him and Pac hasn’t been anything great. Their match that was supposed to happen at All Out was a match I was very much looking forward to it as it was a chance to see Andrade perform at his best and get the attention back on him.
We got that in the opener for this week’s Rampage. For all intent and purpose, this was the main event of the night and I thought it stole the show. Andrade and Pac wrestled a match that could’ve easily been on All Out, but in some ways, it might’ve worked out better at Rampage as they got the focus put on them.
Andrade would get the win after his assistant distracted the referee allowing Chavo to sneak in the ring and hit Pac over the head with an iPad. Post-match, Andrade would turn on Chavo and it appears that they’re no longer going to be aligned going forward which brings up a possibility of Ric Flair eventually coming in and managing his son in law.
A Generic Piece of…
Sting and Darby came out to respond to Tully Blanchard’s words from Dynamite. Allin calls Shawn Spears ‘a generic piece of sh**. Sting talks about how Tully rode the coattails of his fellow stablemates in The Four Horsemen.
Tully comes out to respond to Sting and Darby but it’s a distraction for Shawn Spears to hit the ring from behind and take out Darby with a C4 on the floor. It will be Darby against Spears at the next edition of Dynamite, although it feels like they’re setting up for something bigger down the line involving Sting and Darby against The Pinnacle with perhaps a Horsemen reunion.
Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson
We got two back-to-back countdown style segments involving Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. Cole speaks about how The Elite are the best in the business and mentions that people like Christian and Danielson have great bodies of work, yet he isn’t even in his prime and he would mop the floor with both men.
Danielson says that The Elite are insecure and says that his target is Kenny Omega. He puts out the challenge that he would love for his match to be against Omega, but also acknowledges that if Kenny doesn’t step up, someone else will as AEW has a hungry roster.
They were short and sweet, further the story and got across the motivations of why both men have come to AEW. I’m sure we will see the extender version of these interviews soon.
Six Women Tag
Ruby Soho by Rancid might be one of the catchiest themes ever used in wrestling and has been stuck in my head since Ruby arrived at All Out.
Ruby, Riho and Kris Statlander defeated Britt Baker, Rebel and Jamie Hayter in a quick but fun match. It was mostly designed for Ruby to get another win and look strong heading into the eventual title match against Baker.
It was also good seeing Riho back in the ring and I thought that she was the standout in the match.
Cincinnati’s Own
The main event was between Brian Pillman Jr and Max Caster. They had a pre match interview to hype up the main event. Caster came out and ran down Cincinnati with one of his raps, and for the second time this week, Skyline Chili got trashed.
The match was all about Brian Pillman Jr returning home and feeling like a star in his hometown. It was also a good win for him as he moves closer to his match against MJF. The match itself was decent and it gave a spot for Pillman and Caster to show their skill, but also with the intent of sending the crowd home happy.
Pillman picked up the win but after the bell, Bowens and Caster would double team Brian. Jon Moxley would run down and make the save and he and Pillman would send The Acclaimed to the back. Mox and Pillman celebrated in front of their fans as Rampage went off the air.
Overall Thoughts: Pac and Andrade stole the show, and it was the performance that Andrade needed since arriving in AEW. The rest of the show was and advanced a story or built to a future match. AEW continues to a great job when it comes to their wrestlers competing in their hometowns and in the case of Brian Pillman, it made him feel big as he picked up a strong win tonight and got some promo time earlier in the week on Dynamite.