AEW Rampage Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights From Dec. 22
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- Skye Blue vs. Queen Aminata
- Black Taurus vs. Vikingo
- The Hardys vs. The Kingdon
- Orange Cassidy vs. Rocky Romero
Rampage. AEW
Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage and recap of AEW Rampage on December 22.
This is the annual Holiday Bash episode, so there were plenty of references to celebration, but that doesn't mean we didn't also have people trying to beat each other senseless.
Four matches were advertised for Friday's show:
Let's take a look at everything that went down on this week's episode of Rampage.
Orange Cassidy vs. Rocky Romero (International Championship)
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- Bryan Danielson jokingly tweeted that he was fining Romero for wearing an eye patch without actually having a broken orbital bone.
- Romero has a great suicide dive. He sails through the ropes and barely makes contact with them.
- OC's tornado DDT is alright but it looks too much like his opponent is helping him perform the move instead of trying to avoid it. Rey Mysterio is a great example of someone who hits the move without looking like they need their opponent to do half of the work, but he might be an unfair comparison.
- It felt like Chris Jericho wasn't speaking as much as usual on commentary.
- There was a sweet moment with OC giving his glasses to a kid after the match.
Rampage opened with Cassidy's full entrance, but Romero was already in the ring when the champion came out to defend his international title. Trent Beretta was at ringside to watch his friends fight.
The longtime friends and occasional tag team partners took it easy on each other at first, but after a few taunts got under Azucar's skin, they started amping things up.
Even though they're fun, Cassidy's matches tend to follow a couple of specific patterns. Once you start to recognize them, it makes all of the action very predictable.
That being said, this was a fun match between two guys who know each other well but rarely get the opportunity to fight as opponents. Romero is like a pro wrestling Swiss Army knife. He can do just about anything and it's going to work.
The champion was able to secure the win and retain his title, but there was one near-fall where it looked like Romero was going to win. The opponents and Beretta ended with the Best Friends hug to close out the segment.
Result: Orange Cassidy defeated Rocky Romero
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
The Hardys vs. Kingdom
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- AEW should make the Hardys' entrance feel more unique. They can do so much with some lighting changes and camerawork.
- Taven has a great enziguiri.
- Also, the word "enziguiri" is spelled differently depending on where you're reading it.
- Jeff taking off his boot and using it to beat on Bennett was hilarious.
Rampage. AEW
Matt and Jeff Hardy took on Matt Taven and Mike Bennett in tag team action, but The Kingdom had the advantage with Roderick Strong at ringside.
The Matts started for their teams with Hardy getting the better of Taven, much to the delight of the crowd.
We haven't seen the Hardys on TV much in recent months, so you could tell the crowd was excited to get the chance to see them perform live.
While they are nowhere near the death-defying duo they once were, Matt and Jeff have a special connection to wrestling fans that makes them fan favorites for life.
This was a decent bout with a few fun spots and chants, but this isn't going to be a talking point coming out of the show. It was fun and a little chaotic, which is something that can be said about most AEW tag team matches.
The surprising part of this was seeing Taven get a relatively clean win for his team with a rollup pin on the elder Hardy.
Result: The Kingdom defeated The Hardys
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
Skye Blue vs. Queen Aminata
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- Jericho mentioned that Aminata was returning from a knee injury. She's a great talent and hopefully, we get to see more of her in 2024.
- Blue's superkicks never look like they make contact unless the camera shoots them from a certain angle.
Rampage.AEW
Blue and Aminata met in the third match of the night. They started with a stiff exchange of forearm strikes that led to Blue unloading on The Queen.
The Chicago native showed off her new darker attitude by being much more aggressive, which turned Aminata into the underdog on defense from the start, which is surprising given Aminata is several inches taller and likely has a power advantage.
She had a short burst of offense, but this match was all about making Blue look good following her heel turn and alliance with Julia Hart.
The Code Blue earned her another victory in a match that only lasted a few minutes but included some energetic action.
Result: Skye Blue defeated Queen Aminata
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
Vikingo vs. Black Taurus (AAA Mega Championship)
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- Vikingo takes his mask off before he enters the ring, but both men have bull horns on their masks. It makes them stand out among the other luchadors in AEW.
- Seeing a guy who looks like Taurus casually do a complete 360 in the middle of an arm drag is wild.
- The popup Samoan drop Taurus hit was incredible. Vikingo had so much height.
- A press slam from the top rope is wild. It was cool to hear Tony Schiavone mention how Jericho and Rey Mysterio did the same spot 25 years ago.
Rampage. AEW
Vikingo and Taurus put on a fantastic match at ROH Final Battle, so Tony Khan decided to have them run it back on this week's Rampage to give the TV audience a taste of what ROH subscribers got to see last Friday.
Taurus had a significant size and power advantage but that doesn't mean he wasn't just as capable of hitting an exciting array of high-flying moves.
This match didn't have as many high spots as their previous match, but it was just as exciting because they were taking more time to sell big moves and allowing the crowd to react.
This is one of those "You should just go watch it" matches. No recap is going to do these bonkers acrobatics justice.
Once again, Vikingo emerged victorious from his battle against a man who may or may not be the illegitimate son of former WWE Superstar Mantaur.
Result: Vikingo defeated Black Taurus
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
