By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
AEW Rampage (Episode 4)
Chicago, Illinois at NOW Arena
Aired live September 3, 2021 on TNT
The show started off with the AEW Rampage intro theme. Excalibur, Taz, Mark Henry, and Chris Jericho were on commentary. Excalibur noted that CM Punk will join the commentary team during the main event…
1. Malakai Black vs. Lee Johnson. Black cut the ring in half on Johnson early on by pacing left and right. Black dominated the early collar and elbow. Lee used some Judo rolls to avoid Black. Johnson managed to tag Black with a back elbow. Black tripped up Johnson with a rolling sweep. Black worked on Johnson with a series of European Uppercuts followed by a running back elbow. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
After the break, Johnson managed to get his first advantage with a dropkick and suicide dive. Johnson hit Black with a Frog Splash. Both men traded suplex counters. After separation, Black hit Johnson in the chest with a Penalty Kick. Black caught Johnson with a Yakuza Kick in the corner, followed by a Muay Thai combination. Black brought a chair in the ring (Henry correctly criticized Knox for not taking the chair). Black teased hitting Johnson, but instead put it in front of the prone Johnson for Johnson to use.
Black dared Johnson to hit him with a chair. Right as Johnson was about to hit him with a chair, potentially, Black knocked out Johnson with the Black Mass for the pinfall win.
Malakai Black defeated Lee Johnson via pinfall in 9:57.
Dustin Rhodes ran out to check on Johnson after the match. Black retreated to the back while staring at Dustin from a distance…
The commentary team hyped upcoming segments on the show…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Solid showcase for Malakai. Him tearing through opponents sure beats him sitting in a dark room and asking people to “knock on my door”. This was a prolonged squash, and I think AEW should try to do more under 2 minute squash matches more often. That said this was fine usage of the prolonged squash and Black is the type of character that can utilize a longer squash to tell a story. There was a layer of “toying with food” here as well as the aspect of Black trying to “corrupt” Johnson with the chair in the ring. Good usage of match time.
A recap aired of Dustin Rhodes running out to the ring to check on Lee Johnson aired…
Mark Henry interviewed Dustin Rhodes and asked him for his thought. Rhodes noted that Black has been all about the element of surprise. Rhodes said he’s coming straight after Black and Black will see him coming on Dynamite. Rhodes said Black sees himself in darknes, but Rhodes thrives in darkness. Rhodes said that Black will step in the ring on Wednesday and find out what “The Natural” is all about…
Miro made his entrance for a promo. Miro talked about Kingston being blessed with struggle, but Kingston took the easy way out. Miro said that Kingston took a charity contract to get in AEW. Miro said he’s not into giving charity and neither is his god. Miro said Kingston has become nothing more than just a mad boy for Jon Moxley. Eddie Kingston made his entrance wearing a DMX shirt. Kingston said that “God’s favorite champion” was all bullshit. Kingston said if that god is real, then god sent Kingston here to punish Miro.
Kingston said the god was stupid. Kingston said all of his signature moves are Miro’s weaknesses. Miro said if Kingston takes another step, he’s not going to make it to All Out because he’ll get “redeemed” tonight. Kingston told Miro to “redeem these nuts”. Kingston stormed the ring and Miro ducked to ringside. Kingston chased Miro to ringside and Miro clocked Kingston with the title belt. The commentators noted that Miro was playing possum. Miro tried to suplex Kingston in the ring, but Kingston recovered and left Miro lying with a spinning backfist…
Excalibur hyped up the handicap match taking place after the break…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Simple and effective segment to put some doubt on Miro’s title defense and give Kingston some steam heading into his title defense against Miro. I’m still digging Miro’s “god’s favorite champion” thing as it’s a different take on a God Complex. I feel like this character also has a bit of room to evolve if they add Lana to the act. Kingston is solid as usual and it’s always worth it to give the man some mic time.
Entrances for the next match took place…
2. Rebel “Not Reba” and Jamie Hayter (w/Britt Baker) vs. Kris Statlander. Hayter and Statlander started the match with a collar and elbow. Both women had a stalemate. Hayter got the advantage once she dragged her to her corner. Hayter and Statlander traded quick tags to allow themselves to maintain double team attacks on Statlander. Rebel hit Statlander with a release front suplex for a two count. Rebel went for a few roundhouse kicks. Statlander recovered and hit Rebel with a power slam. Statlander suplexed Hayter on Reba.
Statlander hit both opponents with a sweep kick and running senton to get a two count on Rebel. Statlander put Revel in an Electric Chair and Hayter in a front hold, ending with a double wasteland on both opponents. Statlander rolled up Rebel for a two count. Statlander hit Rebel with a Buzzsaw Kick. Statlander then put Rebel in a Surfboard-Sharpshooter for the submission win.
Kris Statlander defeated Rebel and Jamie Hayter via submission in 4:11.
Baker teased blindsiding Statlander, but Red Velvet ran out to chase Baker away…
The commentator hyped some matches for All Out…
John’s Thoughts: Simple and predictable goal. Rebel was the liability and was expected to take the loss to protect the muscle, Hayter. Rebel has gotten better in the ring since her Impact days, but she can still be a bag of cement sometimes (as seen when Statlander tripped up on that power slam). While predictable, it’s still a step that should be taken to forward the Statlander and Baker feud.
Mark Henry interviewed Darby Allin and Daniel Garcia in a split screen interview. Team 2.0 and Sting were with their respective temmates. Garcia said he’s here to prevent the match against punk from happening because he can. Alllin said he’s not going to look past Garcia and he’s going to knock Garcia on his ass. Allin said he’s then going to look Punk in the face before All Out. Henry sent the show back to the arena…
CM Punk made his entrance. Punk did a dive into the excited crowd, who caught him and chanted his name…[c]
Darby Allin and Sting got their televised entrance. CM Punk joined the commentary table. Jericho joked about Punk not wearing his sport coat to the ring (A reference to Punk’s attire in WWE when he was a commentator there). Garcia didn’t get a televised entrance…
3. Darby Allin (w/Sting) vs. Daniel Garcia (w/Chase Parker, Matt Lee). Allin dominated early on. Allin went for a tackle at ringside, but he dodged and Allin crash and burned into the barricade at ringside. Sting tossesd around 2.0 to keep them from interfering. Allin recovered and put Garcia in a Fujiwara Armbar. Allin trapped Garcia’s arm against the steel steps and put pressure on it. Garcia put Allin in a surfboard in the ring and then fishhooked Allin. Allin escaped and went high risk, but Garcia met him up the top rope. Garcia hit Allin with a Superplex. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
Garcia worked on Allin with several sleeper holds. Allin broke the sleeper by going to the top rope and falling to the mat. Allin reversed Garcia with a Pepsi Twist lariat, which got a laugh from Taz and Punk. Allin got a backslide on Garcia for a two count. Allin hit Garcia with a Code Red for a two count. Punk joked about multiple moves being named after sodas. Allin rolled up Garcia with a toehold for the rollup win.
Darby Allin defeated Daniel Garcia via pinfall in 10:43.
2.0 double teamed Allin after the match. Punk got up from the announce table to approach 2.0. 2.0 were distracted which allowed Allin to nail Parker and Lee with a suicide dive. The heels retreated to the back. Allin and Punk had a staredown to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: Standard TV main event to warm up Allin before his showdown with Punk at All Out. Too bad this match wasn’t longer because the highlight of this match was CM Punk on commentary. Of course he had to wade through the loud Jericho and Taz, but he managed to get a good amount of commentary in there. Punk is really good at delivering technical commentary with a nice bit of comedic snark. I hope when Punk finally decides to hang the boots, that he decides to become a pro wrestling commentator because he’s immensely talented at that, as exhibited from his stretches of commentary while working with WWE.
Solid hour of Rampage. I honestly find Rampage more refreshing to watch than Dynamite most week ever since Rampage made it’s debut. Taking away CM Punk being presented on several Rampage episodes, I feel the short length of Rampage forces AEW to trim a lot of the fat that usually clutters their Dynamite shows (unnecessary run-ins, post match overbooking, longer indy-style matches, ironic jokes, etc). Hey, and another benefit of the Rampage format, is that this show is WAY easier to review than Dynamite. Yeah, that’s a me problem, but so what! I kid, I kid. I’ll be by in a bit with my member’s exclusive audio review of the show. Of course, I’m just filling in this week. Make sure to check out Colin McGuire’s written reviews every week at Dot Net as he does an amazing job covering the show in both written and audio form.
Black is freaking awesome! I don’t care about the nightmare family. Looks like Dustin’s the next victim. I hope Black plows through ’em one by one, especially the Gunn sub faction before venturing on to real opponents. I can’t wait for his future encounter with hopefully CM Punk. What a match that would be, assuming Punk hasn’t lost a step or two. Vince sure dropped the ball with these guys, he sure is a moron, he would fit perfectly with AEW referees though.
Punk sure is having a lot of fun. Glad to see his passion reignited after it was snuffed out by all that nonsense he endured.
“give Kingston some steam heading into his title defense against Eddie Kingston” now that would be a helluva match. Kingston v Kingston for strap!
You’re welcome!
But pro wrestling needs more Kingstons. Imagine that Kingston vs. Kingston promo
Eddie vs Kofi
Yeah Punk is great but the happy to be here deal gets old quick plus all the other nonsense that is in AEW is way worse than what he deal with before
But yes 1 hour is better get rid of the 4 man booth
I predict there will be a heel who soon ends the “good time” Punk has been enjoying until now. Perhaps MJF…?
Does Punk turn heel on Bryan for stealing his spotlight?
Eddie Kingston didn’t lay Miro out with a spinning back fist. It was a ddt. That was the whole point, Miro is vulnerable to the ddt.
Eddie Kingston didn’t lay Miro out with a spinning back fist. It was a ddt. That was the whole point, Miro is vulnerable to the ddt.
I enjoyed 2.0’s retro Nasty Boys style jackets