This week’s AEW Rampage was broadcast on December 17, 2021. It was taped on December 15, 2021 at The Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. The announced card featured an 8-man tag between The Young Bucks, Bobby Fish & Adam Cole v. Orange Cassidy, Best Friends & Rocky Romero, a 10-man tag with Lucha Brothers, Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz v. Daniel Garcia, 2point0 & The Acclaimed, a submission match in the women’s division that had Tay Conti facing Penelope Ford, and a segment in which we heard from Dan Lambert of American Top Team.
Results
8-man tag team match: Young Bucks, Bobby Fish & Adam Cole v. Best Friends, Rocky Romero & Orange Cassidy – Best Friends, Rocky Romero & Orange Cassidy win (Trent pins Bobby Fish)
This was a great way to start the show and exactly the reason why Rampage feels like such a fast 60 minutes. The teams traded tags early and often until Orange Cassidy was isolated from his team. He eventually tagged in a returning Trent, who ran through the Bucks, Cole and Fish. Trent was pushed from the top rope and the Superkliq began a series of multi-man moves against him. The tag team shenanigans took off from there with Rocky Romero coming to Trent’s aid. The old Rippongi Vice teammates hit some double team offense before Trent hit Bobby Fish with the Crunchy (a cradle back-to-belly piledriver). It was great to see Trent back in the ring. He looked as though he hasn’t missed a step despite a lengthy time off for surgery.
Segment: Dan Lambert returns
Dan Lambert returned tonight, much to the dismay of the fans in attendance. He complained about backstage politics and Men of the Year being overlooked before being interrupted by Cody Rhodes. Cody and Lambert engaged in a game of swiping the mic from each other until Cody charged at Ethan Page. His offense didn’t last long as Sky and Page had the numbers, but he was rescued by his brother Dustin, as well as Sammy Guevara.
In a later segment it was announced that Cody and Sammy will meet for the TNT Title on a special Christmas Day edition of Rampage.
Segment: Video package promoting Nyla Rose v. Ruby Soho in the TBS Title Tournament on Dynamite 12/22/21.
Submission Match: Tay Conti (w/ Anna Jay) v. Penelope Ford (w/ The Bunny) – Tay Conti wins by submission
Tay Conti charged the ring and took the fight to Ford immediately. They exchanged holds before Tay attempted a top rope stunner that Ford countered into a rear naked choke. Penelope took control, and utilized her flexibility to perform a series of modified submissions. She was eventually caught from behind by Conti, who submitted her with a modified rear naked choke in which she locked her leg behind Ford’s neck. The athleticism and flexibility of these two allowed for some interesting variations of standard submissions and was an overall entertaining match.
More info about The Owen Hart Cup was announced. The tournament finals will take place at Double or Nothing 2022.
A segment aired previewing the 12/22 Dynamite and 12/25 Rampage cards, including the return of Hook on a special Christmas Day edition of Rampage at 9pm.
10-man tag team match: Eddie Kingston, Lucha Brothers, Santana & Ortiz v. Daniel Garcia, 2point0 and The Acclaimed – Garcia, 2point0 & The Acclaimed win by pinfall (Garcia rolls up Kingston)
Garcia and 2point0 joined The Acclaimed for their entrance, and after one bar of Max Castor’s rap they were cut off by Kingston and his teammates charging the ramp to greet them. Ortiz had Anthony Bowens cut off from his team early until Garcia, Castor, and 2point0 stormed the ring to knock Ortiz’s teammates off the apron. Ortiz eventually managed to tag in Santana before the match broke down into a melee outside. After a series of dives to the outside and chained offense back and forth in the ring we ended up with Garcia and Kingston as the legal men. Garcia rolled Eddie up for a surprising pinfall and was joined by his teammates to beat up on Kingston after the bell. This was interrupted by the sounds of Tarzan Boy, and Jurassic Express made their way to the ring with Christian for the save. After clearing the ring, Jungle Boy picked up the Lucha Brothers’ AEW tag title belts and admired them, handing them over to the champions slowly. This looks to be the where the lead up will begin for Jurassic Express v. Lucha Bros. for the AEW Tag Team Championship, as Christian has mentioned in several segments recently that he will make sure Jurassic Express becomes champions.
This was a great edition of Rampage following such an intense card on Wednesday. The action was fast-paced and they really packed it in for the majority of the show. It was already easy to be excited about the next few weeks of Dynamite and Rampage after several teases were made on Wednesday’s Dynamite and in recent interviews by AEW’s president, Tony Khan, but with several matches for next week now announced the excitement is palpable.
The next AEW Dynamite is live from Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday, December 22 at 8pm.
