A new AEW match will headline Friday’s AEW Rampage in the first-ever Three Kings Christmas Casino Battle Royale with the winners taking home $300,000.
Some of the teams involved include Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta & Claudio Castagnoli), Dark Order, Orange Cassidy & Best Friends, Top Flight & AR Fox, The Butcher & The Blade and Kip Sabian, LFI, and more.
TBS Champion Jade Cargill will look to remain undefeated in her second title eliminator challenge of the week, this time against Dark regular Vertvixen.
In hot pursuit of a Tag Team title shot, Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal will take on The Acclaimed’s Anthony Bowens & Billy Gunn as Max Caster is on the sidelines after taking a guitar shot from Jarrett last week.
The show will also feature promos from former TNT Champion Wardlow, and Eddie Kingston & Ortiz. Wardlow has Samoa Joe in his sights while Kingston & Ortiz have put together a nice record since starting their team.
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Taped in San Antonio, Texas.
Jim, Ross, Excalibur, Tony Schiavone and Tony Schiavone were on commentary.
AR Fox and Top Flight won The Three Kings Casino Battle Royal last eliminating Claudio Castagnoli (21:55)
This was royal rumble rules with a new trio entering every two minutes. A team is not eliminated until all three team members are eliminated. I’m glad the winners are getting $300,000 in fake money, because I would have really been worried about how they were going to divide $100,000 in fake money evenly.
Kip Sabian & The Butcher & The Blade, The Best Friends and Rush, Preston Vance and Dralístico started out. Vance took out Taylor with a spinebuster and eliminated him. The Blackpool Combat Club came out next. The action is just typical battle royal action.
Next out was John Silver, Alex Reynolds and Evil Uno to a huge pop, and they went after Preston Vance. Reynolds and Uno almost eliminated Jon Moxley, and Vance pounded down Silver in the corner.
After a commercial break, Sabian, Orange Cassidy and the Blade were all eliminated in rapid fashion. Serpentico, Angelico and Luther (the Spanish Announce Team) were the next entrants, and they entered from the Spanish announce table. Angelico was quickly eliminated. Dralistico was eliminated by Silver, then Silver dumped Rush. Uno and Rush exchange chops in the corner. Moxley hit Uno with a cutter and eventually dumped him to the floor.
Claudio Castagnoli dumped Luther after a forearm shot. Ari Davari and Varsity Athletes entered next. They triple teamed Beretta on the floor. Yuta (I think) dumped Alex Reynolds. Rush gave Yuta the Bulls Horns and eliminated him. Vance gave Serpentico a discus lariat and eliminated him.
AR Fox and Top Flight were the last team to enter. Top Flight launched Beretta into a cutter from Fox. Castagnoli booted Davari out of the ring for an elimination. Moxley booted Vance to the floor. Fox tried a springboard into the right but got caught with a knee from Josh Woods. Dante Martin tossed Woods to the floor. Nese tried a springboard splash but Darius shoved Nese on the rebound and to the floor for an elimination.
Beretta hit a piledriver on the apron to the Butcher to eliminate him, and Rush hit a sliding dropkick to eliminate Beretta. Castagnoli and Rush exchanged forearms and both fought to the apron. After a long sequence, Castagnoli eliminated Rush with a forearm. Moxley then eliminated AR Fox.
This left Claudio and Moxley against Top Flight. While they squared off, Hagman Page ran in and attacked Moxley. A gaggle of security guards came in to keep Page from Moxley. In the chaos, Darius Martin eliminated Moxley with a dropkick from behind. The fight between Moxley and Page continued fighting on the floor while the security tried to separate them. Moxley came off the top with a splash onto Page and the guards.
Back in the ring, Castagnoli caught Dante coming off a springboard with a forearm. Castagnoli picked up both members of Top Flight on his shoulders and tried to dump them. They slipped out, and both tried to suplex Castagnoli out, but he slipped out of that and nearly backdropped both of them to the floor. The fans got behind Castagnoli. He sent Darius Martin over the top with a gutrench, but he stayed on the apron. Darius hit a spinning DDT on Castagnoli and Top Flight double clothlined him over the ropes but his feet didn’t hit the floor. Finally, Dante caught Claudio with a rana (using Darius as a springboard) and Darius gave him an extra push out to send Claudio to the floor to get the victory.
Most of the battle royal was the usual boring battle royal stuff, but when it got to the end with Moxley/Caudio and Top Flight, it got great.
– Eddie Kingston and Ortiz did an in-ring promo. Kingston and Ortiz sent a contract to House of Black but they didn’t sign it. Kingston wants them to hit the lights like they’ve got a power outage problem (well, they’re in Texas). The lights went out, with Julia Hart on the stage pointing to the KhanTran. Malakai Black cut a confusing promo, insinuating that Ortiz and Kingston aren’t on the same page. This led to dissension between Kingston and Ortiz.
– Renee Paquette interviewed Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia. There’s dissension between Garcia and Guevara too! Garcia doesn’t like Guevara, but he’s a professional and will work with Guevara since he’s a professional. Guevara tried to work out their dissension with a hug.
TBS Champion Jade Cargill (w/ the Baddies) defeated Vertvixen in an Eliminator Match (3:53 aired)
Inexplicably, this match went through a commercial break. After the break, Cargill won with an ax kick and then a pump kick. Almost all of that match took place during the split-screen break.
– Ruby Soho has enlisted Willow Nightingale in her feud with Tay Melo and Anna Jay.AS and they will fight on Wednesday’s Dynamite.
– Also new for Dynamite, Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli will take on Top Flight.
– Wardlow cut a promo about facing Samoa Joe for the TNT Championship on Wednesday.
– A commercial aired for the “New Dynamite” that will debut on January 4th.
– Outside the arena, Powerhouse Hobbs attacked someone.
Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal (with Sonjay Dutt & Satnam Singh) defeated Billy Gunn & Anthony Bowens (w/ Max Caster) (11:49)
Gunn was in this match because Caster couldn’t get medically cleared after the guitar shot from last week.
Caster’s rap was great. He called Singh the “not so great Khali,” promised to send them back to the Impact Zone and shut them down like the power grid.
Lethal and Bowens started the match. Soon tags were made to the 50-something Jeff Jarrett and the somehow even older Billy Gunn. Gunn got a near fall after a jackknife. Lethal tried an ax handle off the top and Gun caught him with a right hand. Bowens and Gunn hit a double team elbowdrop. Bowens dropped to the floor and Jarrett caught him with a clothesline.
During the split-screen break, the Jarrett/Lethal team dominated the match. Excalibur tried to get “Triple J” over as the team name for Jarrett and Lethal. Bowens countered a suplex attempt with a cradle for a near fall, but Lethal came back with the Lethal Combination. Jarrett got the tag and Bowens caught him with a superkick. Gunn and Lethal got the tags. Gunn cleaned house on the heels and clotheslined Singh out of the ring when he tried to interfere.
Lethal went for the Lethal Injection, but Gunn countered with a cobra clutch slam. Dutt jumped on the apron and Bowens took him out, but this allowed Jarrett to hit Bownes with the Stroke. Caster got involved and this distracted the ref. This gave Dutt the chance to run behind the ref’s back and hit Gunn with a low blow. Lethal hit the Lethal Injection to get the pinfall.
Final Thoughts:
This episode of Rampage was like coal in my stocking.
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