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AEW Rampage (Debut) & The First Dance

Results & Afterthoughts

AEW Rampage, also known simply as Rampage, is a professional wrestling television program. It is produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and airs every Friday at 10pm ET on TNT in the United States. It is AEW's second weekly television show, positioned behind their flagship show, Dynamite.

Series debut here tonight (August 13, 2021). Rampage is the first weekly wrestling series to air Friday nights on a Turner channel since WCW Power Hour in 1994.

The premiere episode had the four man commentary team of Taz, Excalibur (Ugh...), Chris Jericho, and Mark Henry.

Taz and Excalibur are tolerable on Dark together as a team while Mark Henry was hired specifically for joining the commentary team for this new show. Jericho has done commentary off and on for AEW in the past, but he was regulated to shouting over everyone throughout this broadcast to an annoying degree here. I thought Henry was fine with little, thoughtful insights that he contributed to the conversation(s), but he needs more time to truly grow into the role.

Christian Cage defeated Kenny Omega (c) for the Impact World Championship

This wasn't a bad match, but at the same time, it wasn't a match that blew me away either. I'm going to guess that Christian was calling and leading this match in the ring on the fly as it didn't seem like some of the chaotic matches that Omega and the rest of the Elite tends to have on these shows. I found myself buying into the near-falls towards the end as they weren't excessive like your typical match in this company where there's a ton of near-falls and they don't mean nothing by the time the match is over. All of the near-falls here had weight to them and they were spaced out enough to add the drama and suspense to this match.

As for the finish, I wasn't opposed to this result like a lot of people. Sure, I would have been happier with Adam Page being the first one to hand Omega his first singles loss, but with him taking time off for his wife's pending delivery of their first child, giving Christian Cage a win here makes sense. According to their rankings, he's still currently undefeated, but anyone who just watches Dynamite wouldn't be aware of that fact. That being said, it makes sense to have Omega lose here to make people doubt that Omega will be able to retain at All Out. The only part I have an issue with is the fact that someone from IMPACT should have been the one who should have brought their title back home - preferrably Moose after his build/push for over a year now. Having a former NWA-TNA World Champion in Christian Cage doing the deed sweetens the blow, but I can't say that I'm thrilled about seeing him defend that title in his first defense agaisnt Brian Myers on their upcoming Emergence IMPACT Plus iPPV. To be fair, Myers has been booked as a legitimate threat (currently undefeated) since his debut in IMPACT - a polar opposite to his treatment in WWE as their resident jobber.

Miro (c) defeated Fuego Del Sol for the AEW TNT Championship

I honestly didn't give a damn about this match as I didn't think Fuego Del Sol had a snowball's chance in hell of winning here. It was even worse that the commentary team was putting his win/lose ratio out there, which was downright comical. I thought Miro gave Fuego a little too much offense here at the beginning, but it served it's purpose for the overall narrative as it didn't mean shit once Miro got his hands on the poor kid and utterly destroyed him with ease.

Tony Khan (fresh out of his cocaine-induced coma) came out and handed Sammy Guevara a clipboard, who went to the ring and presented Fuego Del Sol an AEW contract, despite losing the match with the stipulation on the line for a contract. Stipulations be damned, I guess. If this were WWE, people would have blasted that decision to hell, but the AEW apologists were quick to defend them in their booking decisions of this matter.

Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. (c) defeated Red Velvet for the AEW Women's World Championship

I can't say that I thought this match was deserving of the main event spot of this show, but it was Britt Baker's hometown and she's definitely over like Rover. A lot of this match left me cringing as I was fearing for Baker's safety as she was working with a broken wrist. Red Velvet is OKAY in the ring, but still too green and lacks the experience to work around an opponent's legitimate injury. To these ladies' credit, they actually got this match to work for the most part.

I was amused by the ending exchange that saw Red Velvet lock in The Lockjaw on Britt Baker, who in turn, reversed her own maneuver into one of her own with her good hand. The commentary team was caught off guard by this in the same manner as the onlookers in the anime, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, when the titular hero used his finishing move with the opposite hand that he usually does to perform it. Is it really that out of the ordinary for a skilled fighter to know how to perform their match-ending moves with both hands? You shouldn't be a champion if you don't have that skill in your back pocket if you ask me.

When the chick in the hoodie came into the ring and took her hat off, I was like just about everyone else on Twitter that night who thought for a SPLIT-SECOND that was Becky Lynch. To be fair though, I was clocking in at week 2 of working roughly 11+ hour shifts opening and closing at work and I was fighting sleep watching this show live. I sat up in the bed when I thought that was Becky, thinking that Vince McMahon has be on the good shit if he let her go. Then commentary said that was Jamie Hayter and I said "WHO???" louder than that dude in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film when Chris Pratt was telling everyone that he was Star-Lord. A quick Google search later and no wonder she was unrecognizable from her transformation during her time away from the ring. That chick is damn shredded since the last time we saw her in AEW when they first started.

Afterthoughts:

Honestly? I liked this one hour format more than Dynamite. It was short, sweet, and right to the point. This show didn't overstay its welcome, unlike how a lot of wrestling shows tend to be nowadays. Like I mentioned earlier, I was shocked that they had Omega not only lose on this show but he lost IMPACT's World title on a show that wasn't affiliated with their product in any shape nor form. It just comes off even odder of how this working relationship between IMPACT and AEW is going on. Sure, it made for a great moment to open this show, but I can't see any benefit of how that title change did anything for IMPACT outside of them being able to bring Christian Cage (a former two-time NWA-TNA World Champion) in for a few shows coming up.

AEW The First Dance was a professional wrestling television special episode produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was held on August 20, 2021, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, and was broadcast on TNT as a special of AEW's weekly television program, Rampage. The event was the second episode of Rampage, which premiered the previous week on August 13. Three matches were contested at the event where in the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Daniel Garcia.

The event was AEW's largest attended event since the company's inception in 2019. It marked the highly anticipated professional wrestling return of CM Punk, who had not wrestled since WWE's Royal Rumble pay-per-view in January 2014. Prior to the event, it had been heavily speculated that Punk would be debuting for AEW at The First Dance.

This show started off with the only thing worth watching on this entire show in my eyes - the debut of CM Punk. The show opens with In Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" blasting throughout the arena and this place went mental. Hell, I stood up and applauded, overjoyed that this company had the foresight and presence of mind to start off with this without beating around the bush. People have waited this long throughout all of the teases on AEW programming for the past month or two, so they might as well give these people what they wanted to see. It was like Jim Cornette said on his podcast, "If CM Punk didn't show up on this show, those fans would light the seats on fire!!"

FINALLY all of the rumors, speculation, and detective work from fans, podcasters, dirt sheets, and journalists about when and where CM Punk would make his return to professional wrestling after 7+ years can come to an end. AEW gave him over 20 minutes of this show to soak in the cheers and responses from the raging crowd in his hometown of Chicago. I'll say this much though. Punk's a better man than me to be jumping into a crowd full of unmasked people during a pandemic - vaccinated or not. That was a really stupid move in my eyes when he has his debut match in two more weeks.

Do yourselves a favor and go out of your way to watch this segment in its entirety. I have linked both official AEW video uploads below. It's easily going to be the best moment in wrestling in a VERY long time. Let's not fool ourselves here. It's probably going to be last moment of this magnitude in a long time. CM Punk has been gone for over seven years now - who else in wrestling has been gone that long away from the sport? It's like the old saying goes, "How can we miss you if you never go away?"

(Laughs) You wanna know what the best part of this promo was? The fact that they got Excalibur and all of the other commentators except Jim Ross to call it to shut the hell up. This allowed everyone watching this live at home to soak in the moment and enjoy the massive reaction and welcoming from Punk's hometown.

Tag Team Match

AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament Semifinal

Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt) defeated Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) (with Matt Hardy)

In the tweets above, Jim Cornette's podcasting co-host and collaborator, Brian Last, hit the nail on the head on how I felt with this match following that momentous segment with CM Punk. They follow that legendary moment in this company's history by going right back to the status quo with their usual bullshit, knowing full well that they would probably have more eyes on this product tonight than any other point in their history up to tonight. I saw people raving about this match on social media and I found myself shaking my head and going, "Are you people fucking blind?"

Private Party are still as (read: NEON) green as they have ever been and Jesus fucking Christ at how many sloppy moves from all the parties involved here. The amount of time that it took for them to setup that Avalanche Canadian Destroyer from off the shoulders of Luchasaurus in the corner was comically bad from how much repositioning they had to do. And even then, it still looked like they were slipping up and losing their footing. That landing on that move for Jungle Boy didn't look good at all either, so was it even worth the effort?

The thing I really don't get is that Matt Hardy took all of these guys under his wing in the Hardy Family Office faction, where you would think that he would be passing on his veteran knowledge to a lot of these younger guys in the business, but it's painfully clear that he's not. All of these people are being lumped up into his faction for merely association to Hardy's name value, without any coherent rhyme or reasoning behind why all of these unaffiliated people would work with or for Hardy in the first goddamn place. The only good thing to come out of this match was that Jurassic Express went over here. I have a feeling that they will be the ones who will face the Young Bucks for the titles in the finals of this Eliminator Tournament in that steel cage match, but I hope it doesn't end in another loss for Jurassic Express. They aren't my top choice to take those tag titles off of the Bucks, but at this point, I will take whatever I can get. I'm so sick and tired of them and the Good Bros. acting like goofs on television from week to week, over on both AEW and on IMPACT. Both of those tag teams have go-away heat with me.

I'm still wondering why FTR never got their rematch to the titles either. I know that one of them is injured currently but still, we went for months without seeing them have a match on television after they lost the titles to the Bucks last year until they showed up as part of the Pinnacle after aligning themselves with MJF and feuding with the Inner Circle.

While we're on the subject of The Elite, I wanted to quickly mention the VERY brief promo from Kenny Omega and Don Callis backstage. Omega was looking sharp for once in a full suit instead of like he just rolled out of bed, surrounded by the rest of the goofs in The Elite. For the first time throughout his entire run as AEW World Champion thus far, I totally bought into him as a heel champion here instead of the notion that he's PRETENDING to be a heel champion like he usually does with the rest of The Elite, who seem to get their rocks off the idea of mocking the idea of being a legitimate heel instead of "pretending" to be one. I'm begging to see more of THIS Kenny Omega instead of the one who has been content with being a traveling goof with the rest of The Elite.

Singles Match

Jade Cargill (with Mark Sterling) defeated Kiera Hogan

This was a two-move match - and that's all what it really needed to be. It needs to be said that Jade really goes all in on the promotion and hype for her matches on social media. Much like the back and forths between her and Dani Jordan, she had a similar vibe going on back and forth with Keira Hogan on Twitter as well. It made for the squash that was this match all the more entertaining. Keira Hogan's heel persona was known in IMPACT Wrestling for having a big mouth that her bootilicious ass couldn't cash, but it was entertaining nonetheless. She left that company on their last set of TV tapings, so I'm guessing we're going to see her wind up here in AEW on a regular basis. I think it would be safe to assume that would be a safe landing zone for her to be with her real life girlfriend, Diamonte, who is already signed to AEW's Women's Division. Besides, with Diamonte's former partner, Ivelisse, who she won that Women's Tag Team Tournament with last year out of the company, it would be a natural fit for Diamonte to bring their tag team from WOW: Women of Wrestling to this promotion.

Singles Match

Jon Moxley (with Eddie Kingston) defeated Daniel Garcia (with 2.0 (Jeff Parker and Matt Lee)) by submission

Clearly, AEW sees a big future in Daniel Garcia, given the fact that he has had not one but multiple high profile matches against some big names in this company on both Dynamite and Rampage over the past few weeks. I'm honestly not seeing it myself, but it's going to take time for me to warm up to this guy - if ever from how they have been shoving him down our throats with all of these matches, seemingly out of nowhere as of late.

I was glad that this match didn't run long as you guys know how I feel about Moxley's matches. Fortunately, this match only left this show with roughly seven minutes since Rampage has a strict hard cutoff time at 11PM EST, so we don't have to worry about a run-off.

Afterthoughts:

As expected, The First Dance lived up to HIGH expectations of the debut of CM Punk in his hometown of Chicago.

As of this posting (8/24/21), the rating has come out and Rampage got over a million views for this show, but that rating a nosedive after that opening segment. Regardless, they should be patting themselves on the back for a job well done. CM Punk's return/debut went off without a hitch and it's the biggest moment in this company's history. I see this move being the same as Kurt Angle's arrival in TNA back in 2006. It was the right move of the right person from the other team to show up in that company to really get a lot more eyeballs on their product. Only time will tell if CM Punk's arrival in AEW will be the driving force that will elevate AEW into the stratosphere. As it stands currently though, AEW is riding a LOT of momentum with not only this newest acquisition with plenty more "surprises" on the way.

For as happy I was to see CM Punk's debut play out firsthand, I was left underwhelmed by the rest of this show. People kept saying that this was the best show that AEW has ever done from top to bottom. Those people are goddamn delusional. You could have turned off this show after Punk's promo and haven't missed a goddamn thing of value. The rest of this show was a mere afterthought following that segment.

That being said, I'm anxious to see where AEW goes next with all of these high profile signings of free agents floating around. All that I ask is one thing from Tony Khan: "DON'T FUCK THIS UP."

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