Four matches and two promos make up Friday's Fight for the Fallen edition of AEW Rampage.
In the headliner, Orange Cassidy & Best Friends will take on Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh & Sonjay Dutt. The match comes on the heels of the newly-announced AEW Trios titles.
In a grudge match, Ruby Soho will take on Anna Jay. This will be Soho's first match since being injured by the Jericho Appreciation Society and Jay's first outing since turning on Soho and re-joining Tay Conti during the Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Kingston barbed wire match.
For the second time this month, Ethan Page will take on Leon Ruffin (the former Leon Ruff in WWE NXT) in singles action. Page won their first match on Dark: Elevation.
Lee Moriarty will face Matt Sydal after Moriarty cheated to defeat Dante Martin on last week's Rampage. Sydal, who was cornering Martin, called Moriarty out for a teacher vs. student match.
New ROH Champion Claudio Castagnoli will cut his first promo since winning the title while The Acclaimed will drop a new music video directed toward the Gunn Club.
Taped in Worcester, Massachusetts. Jim Ross, Excalibur, Tony Schiavone and Chris Jericho were on commentary.
Orange Cassidy & Best Friends defeated Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh & Sonjay Dutt (7:29)
Dutt wore a suit to the ring, so I wasn’t expecting much from him in the ring. The Best Friends and Cassidy are wearing sweet tie-dyed gear. Lethal and Trent Beretta wrestled to a stalemate, and Lethal asked for Cassidy. Cassidy got the tag and asked for Singh. Lethal tagged in the suit-wearing Dutt instead. Lots of silliness with Dutt, Cassidy and referee Rick Knox ensued before Dutt tagged in Singh. Singh tossed Cassidy around and hit a running crossbody on both the Best Friends. Lethal tagged in and put the boots to Cassidy as the show went to a break.
After the break, Chuck Taylor and Beretta hit the Soul Food/Half-and-Half combination on Lethal and took out Singh with a double dropkick. They hugged, but Lethal hit them both with a Lethal Injection. Cassidy hit a tornado DDT on Lethal, but Lethal got the tag on Cassidy. Dutt tried the Cassidy high impact kicks, but Cassidy broke his pencil and hit Dutt with the Orange Punch to get the win.
After the match, Singh took out the Best Friends and Lethal laid out Cassidy with a Lethal Injection. Wardlow came out to stop the beatdown and chased the heels away. This was a fun opener.
– Recap of FTR/Briscoes from Death Before Dishonor, and it was almost painful how they went out of their way to barely show the Briscoes. You'd think FTR wrestled themselves.
Ethan Page defeated Leon Ruffin (1:31)
This is a rematch from Dark Elevation last week. So in case you think nothing important happens on the D-shows, they build up matches on the B-shows. Occasionally.
This was a total Dark show squash. Ruffin got in no offense and Page won with the Ego’s Edge crucifix powerbomb.
– Lexi Nair interviewed Cole Karter, but was interrupted by QT Marshall and the Factory. Marshall offered Karter a spot in The Factory, then made a joke about sleeping with the fishes. I guess it's funny if you watch NXT. Or maybe they're building a feud with Karter and Bobby Fish?
Lee Moriarty defeated Matt Sydal (6:57 aired)
Moriarty started off with a headbutt and a suplex on Sydal, who came back with a high knee. Sydal went for a standing moonsault, then hit a spinning kick as the show went to a break.
During the split-screen break, Moriarty had the advantage, brawling around ringside with Sydal. After the break, Moriarty got a near fall with a sunset flip. Moriarty leveled Sydal on a short-arm clothesline, but Sydal came back with kicks and the Lightning Spiral for two.
Stokely Hathaway came out to ringside to observe while Sydal climbed the ropes. Moriarty sold an injured ankle to distract the referee so Hathaway could try and interfere. Hathaway's interference lead to Moriarty knocking Sydal off the turnbuckle. Moriarty hit a DDT/flatliner for a near fall, then locked in the Border City Stretch to get the submission.
After the match, Hathaway gave Moriarty his business card, and Moriarty accepted.
– Britt Baker cut a promo about her match with ThunderStorm on Wednesday.
– Tony Schiavone interviewed new ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli. I like Ring of Honor but that world title belt doesn’t look as good as the one Bandido was running around with last year. Castagnoli thanked the fans (who chanted “You deserve it!”) and brought out ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta. Before Yuta could speak, Chris Jericho interrupted. Jericho started to rant about “sports entertainment,” and Yuta shut Jericho up. Yuta exuded confidence that he could beat Jericho, so much so that when Jericho offered him a match, Yuta turned him down. Jericho then agreed to put up his title match against Jon Moxley, and Yuta accepted. So it’s Yuta v. Jericho on Wednesday, with the winner facing Jon Moxely at Quake in the Lake for the AEW Interim World Title.
This was a long, but good, promo segment.
– The Acclaimed’s new rap video, “Trassh Day.” A recap won't do it justice, so here is a link. It's brilliant. The upshot is the Gunn Club and the Acclaimed are going to face off next Wednesday in a Dumpster Match. Oh, you didn’t know?
– Newly announced for Dynamite Wednesday: Orange Cassidy v. Jay Lethal, and Powerhouse Hobbs will be in action.
– And announced for Battle of the Belts 3 (next Saturday): ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli v. Konosuke Takeshita.
Anna Jay defeated Ruby Soho (9:48)
Jericho named Anna Jay his "Sports Entertainer of the Week" before the match got underway.
There was a pretty contrived spot where Jay set up Soho doing a handstand on the top rope, then kicked Soho's bad wrist to take control. Jay rolled through a sommersault in a kick in the corner and taunted the fans.
After the break, Jay tore the brace off of Soho's injured hand. Soho couldn't execute a suplex with her normal grip, but was able to complete the move by reversing her left grip. Soho kept selling the bad wrist and Jay continued to work over the injury.
Soho went for Destination Unknown, but Jay smoolthy countered out of the hold and into a Gory Special for a near fall. Jay went for the choke, but Soho countered with a roll up for a near fall. Soho hit the No Future for a near fall, then went for a senton, but Jay dodged it. Jay took off her wrist bands and threw them down, which distracted referee Aubrey Edwards. Jay then grabbed Soho's discarded wrist brace. Jay locked in the Queen Slayer choke with the wrist brace against Soho's throat for additional pressure. Soho's bugged-eyed look when she realized what was happening was great. Soho passed out to give Jay the victory.
Jericho applauded from the entrace way as the show closed.
Other than a couple of big matches set up for Dynamite, there wasn't much happening on this episode of Rampage. And the wrestling was okay, but there was nothing to go out of your way to see.
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