This week on Rampage, the show continues its hot streak by once again putting on a true main event.
Orange Cassidy outsmarts Will Hobbs
In the opening match, Orange Cassidy takes on Will Hobbs in the first match of the current World Championship Eliminator Tournament. Finally glad that they're putting on a proper opening match, with two guys who aren't too big names, but can still put out a decent match.
A sequel to their 2020 match which saw OC beat Hobbs in 12 seconds, Hobbs actually gets to look good this time, with the eventual pinfall loss coming from the Freshly Squeezed one taking advantage of the Powerhouse's temper to put him in the Mouse Trap.
While poor Hobbs does lose to a guy smaller than him, it's still a sensible outcome due to Orange being the more experienced wrestler between the two of them. I'm not mad at it at all, though I suspect the semifinal round is about as far as he'll reach in this particularly stacked tourney.
Britt Baker reestablishes herself
In the token women's match of the evening, Britt Baker reestablishes her dominance against the Dark Order's Anna Jay, who is admittedly on a hot streak and shouldn't have been fed to the champ so soon.
The good dentist doesn't have much of a story as the main focus of the women's division right now is the TBS Championship tournament, so she's messing around with Anna Jay and Tay Conti. On paper, the division is deep enough to host all of these angles, so I'm hoping they build on that for Full Gear. Admittedly, however, it's going to be a bit of an uphill climb after Britt won—I wish Anna had been given the upset win here. It's WWE booking, but they've backed themselves in that particular corner, and it wouldn't have hurt.
PAC and Andrade have a banger
Anyway, here's the main event, an actual main event—the rematch between PAC and Andrade, two big names by AEW standards.
In a show of badassery that you likely wouldn't have gotten on the WWE main roster, PAC and Andrade have themselves a great TV main event, which has to be seen to be believed. After the match, Malakai Black comes out and spits mist in PAC's face, setting up some sort of alliance between the two heels and the Cody save (which was actually cheered). Not quite sure where this one is headed just yet, even after the events of Dynamite, so we'll have to wait and see if this is turning into some sort of tag team feud.
Rampage 10/22/21 Report: Rampage stays consistent for the second week in a row, and I hope Tony Khan keeps it the way it is for the next few weeks. Bryan Danielson is wrestling on the show next week so I hope he gets the main event spot. Another A.
*****
Romeo Moran (@roiswar) is the Editor-in-Chief of Smark Henry and one of the three hosts of the Wrestling-Wrestling Podcast. He gets by in this hard-knock life through working in advertising. Smark Henry was his and Stan Sy's original vision of a watering hole for local wrestling fans. He roots for the undersized guys who hit hard, and he likes taking your wrestling questions over on his Curiouscat account.
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