All Elite Wrestling kicked off its Friday Night programming Rampage Aug. 13 and made sure it was worth the wait. Below is my short review:
Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage for the Impact World Title
Winner: Christian Cage
Review: In what was a pleasant surprise, Christian Cage recaptured the Impact World Title, a championship he hasn't held in more than a decade. What I liked about this match was the pacing by both men. They didn't look winded and they no one lost any ground on the match. Cage won, but it was one of those not clean, but doesn't bury the star moments. This leaves Omega with more than enough material to work with for All Out, and Cage gets a good match and victory. The crowd popped hard when he won too. Haven't seen those types of pops in a few years.
Miro vs. Fuego Del Sol—AEW TNT Championship
Winner: Miro
Review: It was obvious Miro wasn't going to be beaten by Del Sol, but they presented a match that had you thinking it could possibly happen, which kept everyone on their edge of their seats the entire match. What I liked about this match was Miro gave Del Sol a lot and sold every Texas Tornado DDT, which is cool. But if you watch Sammy Guevara's vlog you know this high-flying Lucha has been around for a while. In all reality, this wasn't about winning the title, but getting the contract, and AEW stacked the deck well. When he lost people were like, "Aw man, he loses again". Here's a guy that got over with fans for just getting out there and making it happen with Ls every week! And then when he comes out for Rampage he gets major pops. AEW proved that you don't have to win to get over, and for that Del Sol deserved that contract, one he did get from Sammy after the match via Tony Khan's orders.
Britt Baker vs. Red Velvet—AEW Women’s World Championship
**Winner: Britt Baker
**
Review: Britt Baker deserved all the hype and the flair for this main event and her hometown of Pittsburgh gave it all to her. This was a complicated match, considering she's been heeling kinda hard the past couple of months but was flipped Babyface for this match. Red Velvet had a good argument for the title shot, coming in at 15-2 but still No.4 in the Women's Division. This was a well-balanced match, with no one taking more than needed to pull off a good main event. The twist came at the end when Baker worked over Velvet...as the Babyface in the match! I laughed because everyone went from cheering like crazy to "What is she doing???" you could tell that they forgot that Heels are gonna heel.
Overall, for three matches this was A+ They pulled out everything they could to set the pace right and succeeded. No complaints here.