This week's Black Friday edition of AEW Rampage was actually taped right after Dynamite on the night before Thanksgiving. The show featured three solid matches, including the current AEW Women's Champion Britt Baker taking on the first-ever AEW Women's Champion, Riho in a non-title match that did not go the DMD's way.
Winners: Adam Cole & Bobby Fish
Two-quarters of Undisputed Era (Adam Cole & Bobby Fsh) joined forces for the second time in AEW and walked away with a very important win under their belts when they defeated The Best Friends (Orange Cassidy & Wheeler Yuta) in the opening match of this Black Friday edition of AEW Rampage.
The crowd was obviously pretty tired as they had already sat through Dynamite by the time Rampage started taping, so they weren't as animated for this match as they maybe could have been. It was a pretty solid match with the correct outcome. Fish & Cole lost to Jurrasic Express last week, and in order for them to be taken seriously as a formidable team, it was important that they picked up a victory as soon as possible.
Cole and Fish are a very entertaining tag team. Cole is obviously a huge singles star, but with AEW's upper-card as stacked as it is, the tag division is probably the best place for him ... for now.
Loser: Dr. Britt Baker DMD Loses
In the second match of the show, AEW Women's Champion Britt Baker went one-on-one with Riho in a Black Friday Deal match that Riho had to win in order to earn a shot at Baker's title. The match was fine, but the outcome was somewhat surprising. Riho pulled off an upset when she countered Baker's fisherman's neck breaker into a package pin that rattled Baker just enough to prevent her from kicking out until 4. Baker and her cronies Jamie Hayter and Rebel were in shock as the adorably delighted Riho made her way back up the ramp.
It's not the end of the world, but something about the champ losing in this way on a pre-taped episode of the promotion's B-show doesn't feel right. Of course, Baker needs challengers, but there are better ways to make a challenger look like a legit threat than by having them beat the champ in a non-title match before the title match -- literally, nobody believes that Baker is going to lose two matches in a row.
Riho has been racking up singles wins lately, but all of them came on AEW Dark, and as everyone knows, victories on Dark don't count (well, they do. But they shouldn't). That being said, Riho was the first-ever AEW Women's Champion, and for that reason alone she's entitled to a title shot every now and then.
Winner: Eddie Kingston
"You're too light in the ass to mess with me," said Eddie Kingston to Daniel Garcia during the customary pre-Rampage main event split-screen interview moderated by Mark Henry ... and he was right.
Before tonight, Garcia had won six out of his last eight AEW matches. He's one of the most highly-rated rising stars in the business and there's a lot of well-earned buzz around him. But he got his clocked cleaned by the beast that is Eddie Kingston.
The great thing about Eddie Kingston is that his character is "pro-wrestler who thinks pro-wrestling is real" and it makes him one of the most entertaining guys in the business. His performance on this week's Ramage was no exception. He seems legitimately mad that 2Point0 threw coffee on him on this week's Dynamite.
Full Results and Noteworthy Moments
- Adam Cole & Bobby Fish def. Orange Cassidy & Wheeler Yuta (w/Chuck Taylor & Kris Statlander) via pinfall when Fish hit Yuta with an Avalanche Falcom Arrow
- In a backstage interview with Tony Schiavone, Tony Nese said he was unimpressed with Sammy Guevara. Guevara arrived on the scene and Nes challenged him to a match for the TNT title. Guevara accepted Nese's challenge and was then blindsided when Nese attacked him. As Nese was walking away, he said that the only reason Guevara is TNT champ is that guys like Nese weren't available when he won it
- In a pretaped prom package, FTR challenged The Lucha Bros to a 2/3 falls match
- Riho def. Dr. Britt Baker DMD (w/Jamie Hayter & Rebel) via pinfall with a package pin after countering a fisherman's neckbreaker
- Eddie Kingston def. Daniel Garcia (w/Jeff Parker & Matt Lee) via pinfall with a spinning back fist
- 2point0 attacked Kingston after the bell, but Chris Jericho stood up from the commentary desk and made the save. Jericho cleared house and stood tall with Kingston as the show went off the air.