AEW Rampage Results (12/3) – This week’s show kicks off with the usual “This is Rampage, baby!” theme and signature intro package. We then shoot inside the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia where Excalibur and the rest of the gang on commentary run down what’s in store for tonight as the camera pans the venue.
TNT Championship
Tony Nese vs. Sammy Guevara (C)
From there, we head down to the ring for our first of three advertised matches for tonight’s show. The TNT Championship showdown between “The Spanish God” and “The Premier Athlete” will be starting things off inside the squared circle on this week’s program.
With that said, we hear the entrance music of the challenger, as Tony Nese makes his way out for his debut bout on Rampage. He settles in the ring and his theme dies down as he awaits the ring walk of his opponent, the reigning and defending TNT champ.
On that note, the theme for the Inner Circle member hits and the big-time fan-favorite emerges from the entrance tunnel looking ready to take care of business in his latest TNT Championship open challenge title defense, which is how this match ended up being booked for tonight.
The bell sounds and we’re off-and-running with this one. The commentary trio of Excalibur, Taz and Ricky Starks talk about Chris Jericho not being at the commentary desk with them this week due to the backstage attack he suffered at the hands of Daniel Garcia and Team 2point0 on Dynamite this past Wednesday night.
As they wrap up their banter on that topic, we see Guevara jumping off to an early offensive lead on Nese. He gets the crowd on their feet as he takes it to Nese straight out of the gate. Nese tries fighting back, landing a couple of strikes of his own before “The Spanish God” cuts his comeback attempt short and picks up where he left off, delivering punishment to the challenger.
Guevara ends up sending Nese out of the ring and out to the floor at ringside. He builds up a head of steam and launches himself over the ropes, splashing onto Nese on the floor as the fans explode with a big pop. After the landing, Guevara sells his injured ribs, which are taped up for this match tonight.
The commentators talk about Guevara’s ribs being injured by former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos and how things were only made worse for him after the sneak attack from Nese during the backstage segment between these two that set up this championship contest here this evening.
Nese does a good job of finally getting some offensive momentum on his side, as he targets the hurt ribs of Guevara and begins to go to work on him with punishing offense that is all focused on the mid-section and ribs of the champ. Nese hits a big springboard splash off the ropes onto Guevara and then drops a big knee directly onto his injured ribs.
From there, we see “The Premier Athlete” stop and do a single biceps pose on one knee as the fans boo his blatant display of arrogance. Nese then picks up Guevara and whips him into the turnbuckles in the corner of the ring — hard. This doesn’t do Guevara’s ribs any favors, much like all of the offense Nese has delivered throughout this match. Nese whips him into the opposite corner of the ring and then we head to a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break.
As we settle back in from the break, we see that Nese is still controlling the action, however Guevara is literally beginning to finally fight back, landing some shots for the first time since the first few minutes of this Rampage opener. Nese cuts Guevara’s momentum off before it really gets going, and he gets right back to work on him. This doesn’t last long, however, as Guevara ends up finally firing up for his big offensive comeback.
The fans start to come to life inside the Gas South Arena in Duluth, GA. as “The Spanish God” finally begins stringing together more than the occasional shot here and there. He hits a big spot and starts to look confident for the first time since the beginning of the match. Nese tries taking back over, but Guevara cuts his attempt short and connects with a big Spanish Fly for a close near fall.
Once he gets back up, Guevara blasts Nese with another big shot before sending him out to the floor with authority. He waits for Nese to get back to his feet and then leaps and springboards off the top-rope and connects with a picture-perfect moonsault onto Nese on the floor. He sends Nese back in the ring, however Nese catches him with a big shot as he tried rolling back into the ring to follow-up with more offense.
This allows Nese to gain the offensive upper-hand once again as he hits a big high spot of his own. He then lays Guevara out and heads to the top-rope where he connects with a big 450-splash for a super close near fall of his own. The fans react with a thunderous “This is awesome!” chant. Nese gets a bit too cocky for his own good after the near-finish moments ago, as he starts arrogantly kicking and pushing Guevara around as he is laid out on the mat.
Nese ends up coming to life out of nowhere and firing up for another comeback. Nese ends up hitting a big shot that slows him down, and then begins looking for his Running Nese finisher, however Guevara sees it coming and counters. He then connects with a big running knee of his own that lays out Nese. He covers him and scores the pin fall victory to retain his TNT Championship in an excellent opener to set the tone for the show this evening.
Winner and STILL TNT Champion: Sammy Guevara
Christian Cage Vows To See To It That Jurassic Express Captures Tag Titles
We shoot backstage after the opener wraps up, and we see the trio of Christian Cage and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) standing by for an interview segment.
“Captain Charisma” puts over his pals in Jurassic Express and talks about how they came in at the number one contender spot in the latest official AEW rankings that were released ahead of tonight’s Rampage.
With that said, he talks about how they are going to be watching the main event between AAA Tag-Team Champions FTR and the duo of PAC and one-half of the AEW Tag-Team Champions of The Lucha Bros — Penta El Zero Miedo — with vested interest.
From there, he reiterates the same point he made in another recent backstage interview segment on AEW programming — which is that even if it is the last thing he does as an active wrestler in the business before finally retiring for good, he is going to see to it that Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus end up capturing the world tag-team titles.
Once the backstage interview segment wraps up, we head to another commercial break after the commentators quickly remind us that Jade Cargill will be in action in a women’s singles match when we return.
Jade Cargill vs. Janai Kai
We return from the break and we see “Smart” Mark Sterling emerging through the entrance tunnel as he walks his main client, Jade Cargill, down to the ring for her advertised showdown against Thunder Rosa-trained prospect — Janai Kai.
Cargill settles into the squared circle and her music dies down. Already in the ring is her opponent, Janai Kai, and as scheduled, Cargill’s opponent in the TBS Women’s Championship Tournament Semifinals — Thunder Rosa — makes her way out for special guest commentary.
Rosa takes her spot at the commentary desk and begins putting over her friend and student, Kai, as the bell sounds to officially get this one-on-one women’s match off-and-running.
This one doesn’t last long — at all. Cargill literally hits a couple of moves and then connects on Kai with her finisher before picking up the very quick squash / showcase match victory.
Winner: Jade Cargill
After The Match: Jade Cargill Continues To Attack, Thunder Rosa Makes Save
Once the match wraps up, we see Cargill looking incredibly pleased with herself as she celebrates in arrogant fashion before flashing a quick taunting stare at Rosa over at the commentary desk.
With that said, Cargill proceeds to unnecessarily add more insult to injury, as she beats down Kai some more after already winning the match. This goes on long enough that Thunder Rosa has seen enough.
Rosa throws her headset down and runs down to the ring to make the save for her friend and deliver a message to her upcoming opponent in the semiifinals of the TBS Women’s Championship Tournament.
We see Rosa and Cargill brawl like two crazy people as a ton of officials and security members arrive onto the scene in an attempt to break these two up.
Rosa ends up breaking free from being held back and engages with Cargill some more, as the brawl gets going once again. Finally they are broken up again and this time that ends the post-match scene.
Adam Cole & The Young Bucks Extend A Challenge To The Best Friends
We shoot backstage where we see the trio of The Super Kliq / The Super Elite — Adam Cole and The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) standing by as their crony from The Elite holds the camera for the segment.
The trio go on to talk about how they beat down Orange Cassidy and some of his pals from The Best Friends on Dynamite this past Wednesday night. They then go on to talk about how they are real-life “tough guys” as we see Don Callis walk past them and nod while they keep talking.
Eventually, The Young Bucks go on to extend a formal challenge to “The Freshly Squeezed” one himself. They tell him and The Best Friends to put forward their two best members for a tag-team match on next week’s edition of Dynamite.
The Super Kliq tells their crony from The Elite to hit the red button on the camera to stop recording as they are done speaking their piece.
Eddie Kingston Tells Team 2point0 They Have To Answer For Their Recent Actions
Now we shoot to a different part of the backstage area inside the Gas South Arena in Duluth, GA. where we see Eddie Kingston seated in a staircase somewhere behind-the-scenes at the Atlanta-based venue.
“The Mad King” doesn’t look happy this evening, as he talks while seated on the stairs about how he wasn’t overly bothered with the fact that Daniel Garcia and Team 2point0 attacked and injured Chris Jericho on this past Wednesday night’s edition of Dynamite.
What is still bothering him, however, is the fact that the Team 2point0 duo of Jeff Parker and Matt Lee attacked him after his match on last week’s Rampage main event against Garcia. He makes it clear that Team 2point0 will “have to answer for the attack.”
Special Look At Daniel Bryan’s Ongoing Rivalry With The Dark Order
Once the Kingston backstage segment wraps up, we shoot to an elaborate video package that gives fans a special look at Bryan Danielson’s ongoing rivalry with the members of The Dark Order.
Danielson is shown talking directly into the camera in what appears to be a segment planned for the next “AEW Road To Long Island” countdown special for next week’s Dynamite, where he is scheduled to square off against John Silver in his hometown.
“The American Dragon” goes on to talk about how it felt good to beat up and hurt Colt Cabana in his own hometown of Chicago, just like it felt great to hurt Alan Angels in front of his hometown fans near Atlanta. He says he expects to feel the same when he beats and injures Silver in front of his fans in the Long Island area on next Wednesday night’s Dynamite show.
Mark Henry’s Pre-Main Event Split-Screen Interview With FTR, PAC & Penta El Zero Miedo
From there, we shoot to our regular pre-main event feature on Rampage, as Mark Henry is standing by for his pre-match split-screen interview segment with the competitors involved in the headline bout of the evening on this week’s show.
We see the team of FTR — Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler — on one side of the screen with their AAA Tag-Team Championships in-hand. They talk about beating up and hurting Rey Fenix, but then complain about him being so fragile is what caused them to lose the opportunity they were looking forward to on tonight’s show.
They reveal that it was the chance to mark another notch in the history books by beating The Lucha Bros to recapture the AEW Tag-Team Championships so that they can be double-tag-team champions with two sets of belts simaltaneously.
This leads to the two teams arguing and refusing to stop talking over each other at the same time. Finally, “The World’s Strongest Man” has heard enough from these four. He shuts down the pre-match interview and gets the viewing audience at home and inside the Gas South Arena in Duluth, GA. ready for our main event of the evening — which starts now.
FTR vs. Penta El Zero Miedo & PAC
Penta El Zero Miedo and Cash Wheeler kick things off. Wheeler stalls for a few minutes before applying a side headlock turned wristlock on the tag champ. Penta spins out of the lock and drops Wheeler with a toehold. Wheeler backs up into a neutral corner to break out of the hold. Wheeler leapfrogs and falls towards the receiving end of a gut kick. Penta tags PAC in.
Dax Harwood comes in and falls victim to some chain wrestling and body slam from PAC. Harwood gets hit again with another back body drop. Penta steps in with high-flying offense that lands him a two-count on Harwood.FTR makes rapid-fire tags between each other. Wheeler gains an assist from Harwood as he connects a leg drop for two. PAC tags himself in. He loses his balance coming back into the ring from the apron. FTR takes advantage of his misstep just as we head to picture-in-picture.
PAC recovers quickly to rollup up Dax Harwood. Harwood refuses to lay down and die as he pops out by the two count. Harwood has PAC in the abdomen stretch position. Harwood turns the stretch into a powerslam before tagging Cash Wheeler back in. Wheeler has PAC in a cobra clutch which gets broken up immediately.
As we head back to full screen, PAC slaps an enziguri on Harwood to make a desperate tag to Penta. Wheeler takes Penta off the apron before PAC can make the tag. PAC tosses Harwood off the ropes and comes soaring off with a spot-on missile dropkick. PAC flings Wheeler out of the way with a backdrop to finally tag in Penta. Penta knocks Harwood out cold with a DDT. Penta lands a big crossbody on Wheeler for just a two count! Penta looks for a lungblower for the same results. Wheeler evades Penta’s Fear Factor and turns it into a powerslam, followed by a leg drop from off the top rope.
Penta hits a Mexican Destroyer on Harwood for a 2.9 count! PAC tags himself in and jumps off the top only to be rolled up for a cradle pin. PAC leaps out at two and again after taking a tiger driver from Harwood. PAC sends FTR out of the ring and takes them both out with a moonsault. PAC drags Harwood back into the ring. Near the ropes, PAC turns around and gets sprayed in his good eye by Malakai Black’s mist. Harwood stacks PAC up and earns the pinfall victory.
Winners: FTR
Post-Match: FTR unmasks Penta while Malakai Black gouges PAC’s good eye out and cuts him open in the process. As the show comes to an end, Black raises a blood-soaked hand commemorating his mugging toward PAC.
That concludes this week’s episode of AEW Rampage.
