AEW Rampage: The Elite Dominate The Best Friends

Tonight’s AEW Rampage comes to us from the UBS Arena on Long Island, NY. Tonight’s show is headlined by an AEW Tag Team Championship match, where the Lucha Brothers defend their championships against FTR.

Also on tonight’s show is Hooks debut match, a trios women’s division match, and Adam Cole taking on Wheeler Yuta. Tonight’s opening match, to much of everyone’s surprise, will be the AEW Tag Team Championship match.

AEW Tag Team Championship: Lucha Bros. (c) vs FTR

As soon as the show started, both teams were already in the ring. It was kind of odd that neither of them got entrances. Harwood and Fenix kick it off for their respective teams. There was a bit of mat wrestling to start the match, followed by some high-flying moves by Fenix to take out both members of FTR.

Penta tagged in and went for the early pinfall, which caused FTR to regroup on the outside of the ring. Early offense from the champions was cut short when Harwood slammed Fenix onto the apron. From this moment on, it was all FTR for the majority of the match.

Towards the end of the match, Tully Blanchard got involved, which lead to Fenix landing a right hand and hitting him in the face. Dax Harwood accidentally got hit in the head with one of the AAA Championship belts while Fenix and Wheeler were fighting over it.

FTR hit the Big Rig on Fenix and looked like they were about to win the match. However, Penta made the save at two and a half. The four men had a standoff in the ring and started throwing punches at each other. The match ended when Fenix and Penta hit the assisted Fear Factor on Wheeler, followed by a Penta pin.

Winner, AND STILL AEW Tag Team Champions: Lucha Bros

After the match, we get a commercial break. When we return, we see Ruby Soho, Tay Conti and Anna Jay make their entrance while Nyla, Penelope Ford, and The Bunny are already in the ring.

Ruby Soho, Tay Conti, and Anna Jay vs Nyla Rose, Penelope Ford, and The Bunny

The match kicks off with Tay Conti and Nyla Rose in the ring. Rose quickly tags in Penelope Ford and we see some great offense being shown by Conti. Due to outside interference, the heels get the better of Conti. They beat up on Conti for most of the match until the hot tag.

Conti gets the better of The Bunny and is able to make the hot tag to Ruby Soho. The Bunny tags in Ford and Ruby Soho is taking the fight to her. Ford makes the tag to Rose, who then exhibits a lot of offense onto Ruby.

The heels then overpower Soho, similar to what they did to Tay Conti. Soho is able to escape Rose and make the tag to Anna Jay. Jay comes off the hot tag and takes the fight to Nyla Rose. All the women then hit their finishing moves on each other which culminates with The Bunny hitting Anna Jay with brass knuckles. This causes Nyla to hit the Beast Bomb to win the match.

Winners: Nyla Rose, Penelope Ford, and The Bunny

After the match, the women have a staredown with each other as the heels retreat up the ramp. We cut to Tony Schiavone interviewing Darby Allin and Sting. FTR ambushes them before they are able to speak. FTR throws Allin into the wall and holds Sting up for Blanchard to low blow him. Blanchard then says “one more time Sting,” as we cut to commercial break.

Hook vs Fuego Del Sol

Hook makes his debut tonight in his home state of New York. Hook comes out in a boxer attire with his wrist taped. The fans love Hook, so this was a very anticipated debut in AEW. To kick off the match, Hook uses a lot of his amateur wrestling moves.

Hook shows great offense this match. A perfect mix between mat wrestling and ground and pound. Fuego counters Hook to get some offense in, but Hook hits him with a lariat that turns him inside out. Hook makes Fuego tap to win the match. A very impressive showing by Hook in his debut match.

Winner: Hook

After the match, AEW promotes this coming Wednesday’s Winter Is Coming show. We also see Mark Henry interview Adam Cole and Wheeler Yuta. Adam Cole says that the Best Friends will never be on the Elites level. Trent shows some annoyance towards his team over the spotlight being on Wheeler Yuta.

Adam Cole vs Wheeler Yuta

The match kicks off with Cole and Yuta in a collar elbow tie-up. Cole then lands strikes on Yuta and quickly takes control. The match is primarily in Cole’s favor for almost the whole match. Cole also spends a lot of time doing what he does best: taunting his opponents.

Cole hits Orange Cassidy’s famous kicks onto Yuta during the match as well. He then throws Yuta out of the ring to The Best Friends and has a staredown with Cassidy. Yuta comes back into the ring and lands some offense on Cole.

Yuta reverses Cole’s Panama Sunrise and gets back into this match. Yuta hits some high-flying moves to ground Cole. Yuta gets a close near-fall over Cole, which shocked everyone. Cole then reverses Yuta’s splash off the top rope and finishes Yuta off with the Boom.

Winner: Adam Cole

After the match, The Best Friends come into the ring to help Yuta. Bobby Fish took out Trent from behind and The Elite take out The Best Friends. The Elite holds up Cassidy while Cole pretends to go for a Panama Sunrise, but Cole just jumps down and low-blows him. The Elite hit the BTE Trigger on Trent, who had just returned from neck and spinal surgery.