AEW made it’s formal conception on January 1, 2019 and has since been making a number of accomplishments since. Including sold out shows, record merch sales, signing major stars, and  breaking one million viewers semi-regularly just to name a few. As we come to closing out the year AEW is looking to continue the highs they’ve been receiving in 2021 with the debut of their second televised program AEW Rampage. An hour series that will act as an equal to it’s sister program AEW Dynamite. And with the show they put on for night one that promise has so far already been kept.

AEW Rampage is a 2021 pro wrestling series produced by AEW & WarnerMedia. It currently airs Fridays at 9:00 AM Central on TNT. 

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for the debut episode of AEW Rampage and potential spoilers for the second episode may be present within this review.

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

In the opening (and first ever) contest of AEW Rampage, AEW featured a historic moment in which the Impact World Championship was defended for the very first time on another national wrestling promotion’s television program. AEW, Impact, and AAA World Champion Kenny Omega defended against challenger Christian Cage in a bit of a preview to their upcoming All Out main event match for the AEW World Championship. First just wanted to point out that the Pittsburg crowd was HOT for this show from start to finish. It really goes to show that if you give your audience a bit of respect they often respond in kind. Which is a polar opposite to a lot of WWE crowds who often attack the shows with obnoxious chants such as “What!?” & “CM PUNK!”. But WWE often shows little respect to their audience so it can be a bit forgiven.

Omega and Cage are both rather high level in-ring performers, especially the latter at age 47. AEW typically has their best matches open and close their shows and this philosophy continued on the debut of Rampage. Most of the offense surprisingly came from Christian who was really showing out against Omega who was mainly selling everything. At one point in the match Christian hit Omega with a Spear and had a cool near fall. Finish saw the Young Bucks coming out while Don distracted a ref and they handed Kenny a chair. As Omega was preparing for the One-Winged Angel, Christian turned the tides with a Killswitch on the very chair Omega had prepared for a three count. Omega sold the Killswitch like he was shot and Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus join Cage for the post-match celebration.

Winner AND NEW Impact World Champion Christian Cage: **** 1/2 stars

Following the commercial break with get Mark Henry interviewing Cage with Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus having A Little Bit of the Bubbly. Cage said Kenny caused him to bring everything he had and felt he wasn’t going to win. He then states that if he gave him so much trouble for the Impact title it’ll be next to impossible for him to win the AEW title, but the victory has Cage in Omega’s head. Next match is God’s Favorite Champion Miro taking on everybody’s favorite jobber Fuego del Sol for the TNT Championship. If Sol wins he’ll be signed to an AEW contract.

Fuego del Sol vs Miro (c) for the TNT Championship:

If you’re even remotely apart of AEW’s social media circles you’ve probably heard of the rise of Fuego del Sol fka Kage. Sol began wrestling in a trampoline fed on Youtube prior to pursing his dreams on the independent circuit. Fuego; real life best friend of rising AEW star Sammy Guevara found his way to the promotion through recommendation working AEW Dark during their stay at Daily’s Place during the pandemic. Fuego also had a starring role in Guevara’s vlog entitled “Sammy’s Vlog” in which he films & documents his & his friends & co-workers’ real lives and careers as a professional wrestlers. Fuego became a fan-favorite due to his likable personality and optimism. AEW took notice of Fuego’s skyrocketing popularity and often had him featured on Dark and occasionally on flagship series Dynamite. The running gag of Sammy’s Vlog was Fuego’s real-life quest for a contract despite his losing streak and the fact that he also worked at Burger King to support his family while on PPA (pay per appearances) bookings with AEW.

Sammy stated many times that the goal of his vlog was to help his friends and guests to establish a gimmick, place to explore personality, and an opportunity to reach an audience basically to help wrestlers get over. And it’s kind of poetic that Fuego is one of the first to truly accomplish those goals. Fuego is now a hit on social media with many of his tweets gaining five digit numbers in likes something that’s rather unheard of from someone who’s had no real presence in the WWE. Now that we’ve gotten to the background of Fuego and the importance of this storyline (apologies for being so long winded about it) we can move on to the match itself. 

This was more or less a squash match, but the point was to get Fuego over in front of a big crowd. As the match began Fuego showed his bravery by hitting Miro with a variation of the Tornado DDT his finishing move of which he is the master. Fuego goes for a pin but only got a one count, he follows up with a second Tornado DDT as the crowd goes ballistic in cheers and Miro wisely rolls out of the ring. Commentary reminds people at home that if Fuego wins via count out he may not win the title but he will in fact still win the AEW contract. Miro unfortunately gets back into the ring at nine only to be hit with THIRD Tornado DDT at this stage the crowd is all over Fuego. He goes for a pin, but gets a very close near fall. As Miro recovers he nails Fuego with the Bulgarian Drop & Thrust Kick followed by the Game Over submission for the win.

Winner and still AEW TNT Champion Miro: *** stars

Miro celebrates and rips the contract as we head to commercial. Returning from the break Fuego recovers from his heartbreaking loss as the Pittsburg crowd gives him a standing ovation for his efforts. Commentary is selling the idea that this is Fuego’s final official appearance in AEW as they’re back on a touring schedule. Suddenly, Sammy Guevara’s music hits and he appears (briefly) with Tony Khan who hands him a mic and clipboard. Sammy tells Fuego that despite losing he may have still won. Reminding him of his disappointing win-loss record, he tells him it doesn’t matter as the fans and the wrestlers in the back all love him. Realizing what’s about to go down Fuego starts ugly crying as Sammy tells Fuego that Tony Khan wanted himself as his best friend to inform him that as of tonight he is officially All Elite and the crowd goes nuts. In an interview with Sports Illustrated Tony Khan stated that this was 100% shoot and that only Sammy knew Fuego was getting signed regardless of his loss. If you’ve followed Fuego’s journey from the beginning or middle where he made his AEW it really shows that anyone can get themselves over if they work hard enough and have the right platform. Contrastingly, in WWE if you get over without being their chosen guy or gal you’re punished for it being viewed as “having gone into business for yourself”. A testament to this is the infamous rise of Matt Cardona fka Zach Ryder who rose to fame with his “Z! True Long Island Story” Youtube series and had a fundamental role in teaching pro wrestlers to use the internet and social media to work for themselves to get over and would go on to inspire shows such as BTE (Being the Elite) & Sammy’s Vlog.

Cardona would regularly embarrassed and buried on WWE TV after a pity run with the WWE United States Championship rarely finding success beyond point for the remainder of his run in the promotion. Reports stated that morale among talent hit a record low, Cardona’s best friend Impact Wrestling star Brian Myers was also quoted as saying WWE “would hold “brass ring” pep talks every WrestleMania that suddenly stopped once Cardona got over”. So in short, unless you’re their flavor of the week/month/year WWE won’t take it kindly if you work hard and gain a following without their say. Whereas AEW (and virtually every other promotion ever) will do the compete opposite and show support, but enough of the rant it’s time for the main event.

Red Velvet vs Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D for the AEW Women’s World Championship:

As the match starts Velvet is understandingly thrown off by the boos. More confusingly Velvet is working as a babyface for much of the match, rectifies this when she begins working Britt’s wrist. Obviously, Britt is the heel, but for the sake if the circumstances I’m glad Velvet played into being the baddie for the night. Also can I just say how crazy it’s been seeing Red Velvet grow as an in ring performer? I’ve seen her since her debut on Dark and basically followed through since her debut on Dynamite with Cody against Jade Cargill and Shaq. She’s still fairly fresh and young as a worker, but has really shown off her potential especially here. Lots of back and forth offense from Britt and Red. The finish saw Britt attempting the Lockjaw with the hurt wrist, but once Velvet escapes she brilliantly reverses it with her opposite arm for the submission. 

Winner and still AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker: **** stars

While Britt celebrates she beats down Velvet who comes back only to be beat down again by the returning Jamie Hayter with a new look. Hayter had a bit run on AEW Dark & NXT UK prior to her return as a full-time AEW talent. Britt had been hinting that she was opening up a bodyguard position and Hayter will fit that role moving forward. AEW Rampage’s debut was an extremely strong show with fantastic matches and excellent storytelling. This Friday is surprisingly going to be even more important, as unless you’ve been living under a rock “The First Dance” in the United Center will be the host of the long-awaited return of CM Punk to pro wrestling and not as an analyst as an in-ring talent. AEW and Punk himself are barely trying to throw fans off of what is undoubtedly going to be a legendary moment for them in their short time alive. 2021 has been very good to AEW and pro wrestling as a whole and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. AEW gives AEW Rampage’s debut episode an 80 out of 100.