A shot at the TNT title will be on the line in the second-ever Royal Rampage match as part of tonight’s AEW Rampage from Boston, Massachussetts.
20 men will compete in a Royal Rumble-style match over two rings with the winner earning a TNT title shot at September’s All Out. Four men start the match.
Participants include Nick Wayne, Darby Allin, Swerve Strickland, Butcher & The Blade, Gates of Agony, Big Bill, Matt Hardy, Brian Cage, Jeff Jarrett, Komander, Jay Lethal, Ethan Page, Brother Zay, Jake Hager, Matt Sydal, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, and a surprise entrant.
TBS Champion Kris Statlander will defend her title against Marina Shafir in search of her defense. This is Shafir’s third opportunity at the championship.
Ahead of their challenge of AEW Trios Champions The House of Black on Saturday’s AEW Collision, The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn will face QTV’s QT Marshall, Johnny TV & Aaron Solo.
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Taped in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tony Schiavone, Excalibur and Chris Jericho were on commentary.
Darby Allin won the 20 Man Royal Rampage to earn a shot at the TNT Championship at All Out (29:33 aired)
Ten men will enter each ring at what are probably supposed to be one-minute intervals but wildly fluctuated based on entrances and commercial breaks. The winner gets a shot at the TNT Title match at All Out.
Darby Allin was the last man eliminated in last year’s Royal Rampage match and started out in the red ring with Jay Lethal. Swerve Strickland and Nick Wayne started out in the Blue Ring. Minoru Suzuki was #3 for the red ring and the crowd popped huge for his music. When Suzuki finally got to the ring, he partnered up with Lethal to beat on Darby Allin. Brian Cage was #3 for the blue ring, and he took it to Nick Wayne while Strickland caught a breather. The Suzuki/Lethal partnership started to fall apart and Ethan Page entered the red ring at #4. Page went after Jay Lethal like he promised he would last week. Suzuki and Page started exchanging forearms while Komander entered the blue ring at #4. He bounced off the top rope, onto Cage’s shoulders, and off of Cage’s shoulders into a DDT on Strickland.
The Butcher was #5 in the red ring and charged Page with a clothesline. Big Bill came into the blue ring at #5, having recovered from the Saskatoon Slam. Bill hit Komander with a black hole slam. In the red ring, Page tossed Lethal off of a Lethal Injection attempt. Lethal then pulled at Page from outside the ring elimated him with Suzuki’s help from inside the ring. Suzuki then got into it with The Butcher. He went for the Gotch-style piledriver, but Butcher backdropped Suzuki to eliminate him. The Blade came in at #6 in the Red Ring, and he and The Butcher combined to beat up Allin around the ringside area.
During the split screen break, Brother Zay came in at #6 in the blue ring, where there had been no eliminations. Toa Liona entered the red ring at #7. The three heels worked over Darby Allin in the red ring. Matt Sydal entered the blue ring at #7. Sydal and Brother Zay hit the gin and juice double-team on Swerve Strickland. Bishop Kaun came in at #8 in the red ring. The Gates of Agony squared off with the Butcher and the Blade while Allin sold in the corner. Brother Zay was eliminated in the blue ring. The Gates of Agony tossed the Butcher and the Blade. Matt Hardy entered the blue ring at #8, and he went right after Strickland, then hit a hangman’s neckbreaker on Cage and a DDT on Big Bill.
Matt Menard entered the red ring at #9. Menard looked like he would challenge The Gates of Agony, but changed in mind and stomped on Darby Allin instead. Jeff Jarrett entered the blue ring at #9 and squared off with Hardy. Jarrett did the Fargo Strut to a huge pop. Angleo Parker joined the blue ring at #10, so again in the blue ring we have two heel tag teams squaring off and Allin selling in the corner. The last entrant in the blue ring (which was much more crowded) was Jake Hager.
During the split-screen break, Hager, Cage, and Big Bill had a hoss fight in the center of the blue ring while Jarrett watched in the corner. Komader helped Bill eliminate Hager. Hager and BIll then double-teamed Komander and dumped him. Meanwhile, in the red ring, the four heels quadrupled teamed Allin.
After the break, all four of the heels had Allin above their heads, but he escaped. The Gates of Angoy and the JAS started to fight with each other, and the Gates eliminated Menard and Parker. Meanwhile in the Blue Ring, Hardy eliminated Jarrett. Hardy was triple-teamed by Bill, Cage and Strickland and eliminated by a clothesline from Big Bill. Bill tried to chokeslam Nick Wayne over the top, but Wayne countered with a guillotine and tried to pull Bill out from the apron. Strickland pushed Bill out of the ring, and Cage (Bill’s partner from The Blind Eliminator tag tournament) was not happy about it. Big Bill looked tremendously strong up to his elimination. Strickland and Cage started to argue, and Wayne jumped into the other ring to help Allin eliminate Kuan.
Wayne hopped back into the blue ring and eliminated Cage. This left Wayne and Strickland in the blue ring, but Strickland quickly dumped Wayne, and Allin dumped Linoa.
This left Swerve Strickland and Darby Allin as the final two to finish the match in the red ring. Swerve charged at Allin, who backdropped him over the top. Allin couldn’t knock him to the floor, and Prince Nana ran in and hit Allin with a skateboard. Swerve power bombed Allin onto the wheels of the skateboard, but Allin hung on when Strickland dumped him over the top. Allin was out on the apron. Swerve came off the top rope with a stomp, but Allin blocked it. Swerve tried for a suplex, but Allin escaped back into the ring, then ran the ropes and hit his high-speed tope through the middle ropes. Allin and Strickland both crashed to the floor, but since Allin went through the MIDDLE ROPE, he was victorious. Very good battle royal but I loved the clever finish.
The Acclaimed & Bill Gunn defeated QT Marshall, Aaron Solo & Johnny TV (w/ Harley Cameron)
Max Caster took advantage of the lateness of the hour when he made his rap, with most of the insults directed at Cameron. Then Caster handed his chain to a kid at ringside, which is a great babyface move.
Marshall’s back was taped up from the Ambulance Match he had at TripleMania last weekend. The Acclaimed triple-teamed Marshall and Gunn clotheslined him to the floor. Then they scissored in the ring.
During the split-screen break, the heels got the heat on Caster, but after the commercial, he got the hot tag to Gunn. 59-year-old Billy Gunn cleaned house on QTV, and even though it’s just QTV I still don’t think a guy this old should get that much shine on them. Bowens came and wore out Marshall with forearms and elbows, and then hit a superkick on Solo. QTV triple-teamed Billy Gunn and got a near fall after a top rope stomp from Solo. The QTV crew tried to set up Scissor Me Timbers on Gunn, but the Acclaimed made the save. Gunn hit a corba clutch slam on Solo, and the Acclaimed finished Solo with the Arrival/Mic Drop combo. Billy Gunn then got the pin.
New for Collision tomorrow: Ricky Starks celebrates his Owen Hart tournament win. Skye Blue takes on Taya Valkyrie. Action Andretti and Darius Martin will take on Juice Robinson and Jay White… does this show have a main event yet? Also, we’ll hear from CM Punk and FTR (in a separate segment), and CM Punk is looking for a fight.
Kris Statlander defeated Markina Shafir (w/ Nyla Rose) to retain the TBS Championship (5:02 aired).
Announced for Dynamite during this match is PAC v. Gravity. But I thought PAC was the man that Gravity forgot? Also an Adam Cole & MJF segment, and Darby Allin v. Swerve Strickland.
Statlander is 7-0 since her return and on a 13-match winning streak overall (I guess going back before her injury). Excalibur did a read for the red cross blood drive during this match, which was way less ironic than when he did it during Blood & Guts on Wednesday.
Shafir got the advantage on the mat with Statlander and worked her over with kicks. Statlander got sick of this, caught one of the kicks, and pulled Shafir up into an electric chair before dropping her face first to the mat. A big vertical suplex got Statlander a near fall that the replay crew liked so much that they showed it three times.
Statlander went for her finish, the Friday Night Fever, but Shafir escaped and transitioned into a standing figure-four. Statlander escaped, hit a discus lariat, and hit the Friday Night Fever on the second try to get the pinfall.
Final Thoughts:
The two-ring battle royal made for one of the better Rampage shows of the year. Big Bill got a lot of shine, the finish was clever, and there was hardly any laying around during the match. The rest of the show wasn’t great, but the battle royal more than made up for it.
