AEW Rampage Review - November 26, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Cole and Bobby Fish def. Orange Cassidy and Wheeler Yuta

​Cole ditched Fish the last two times they teamed up, so I was worried they were already on the verge of breaking up. I'm glad that didn't happen and instead they remained a cohesive unit with Fish picking up the win for their team here. I'm not too high on Cole doing the comedy crap with a guy like Cassidy, but it didn't kill the match for me, which was enjoyable on the whole and had a nice pace. The outcome was the right one, though I'm not sure what it was supposed to accomplish unless we get Cole against Cassidy coming out of it.

Riho def. AEW Women's World Champion Britt Baker in a Black Friday Deal Match

​It was acknowledged on Wednesday's Dynamite that Riho was never actually eliminated from the Casino Battle Royale back at All Out 2021 (also in Chicago), so by virtue of her victory here, Riho has earned herself a shot at the AEW Women's World Championship. The finish came off like it was botched even though I'm confident it wasn't. I know Baker doesn't lose often, but I still wouldn't have had Riho beat her here considering she's barely been on AEW programming this year and it kind of came out of nowhere. On the bright side, they told a solid story with Baker never having beaten Riho one-on-one before and it was a well-wrestled match.

Eddie Kingston def. Daniel Garcia

​AEW will do this weird thing with Garcia and 2point0 where they'll be all over AEW programming for a few weeks before disappearing for a over a month. The 23-year-old Garcia is very talented and has a ton of upside, but he needs to pick up a meaningful win one of these days. Otherwise, it's impossible to take him seriously against a guy like Kingston. Garcia was on offense for a majority of the match, but the end result was never in doubt. Nonetheless, this was a quality main event. Maybe Garcia should take a break from headlining Rampage until he can beat someone of note. I remember 2point0 interrupting Chris Jericho backstage at Dynamite, but Jericho saving Kingston just feels random and it isn't a program I particularly care to see.

Overall Show

​I thought Wednesday's Dynamite was much stronger and hotter than this show, but seeing as how this fell on Black Friday, I probably shouldn't be surprised that it felt phoned in. I might be in the minority of people who weren't enamored with this show. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but other than Baker losing (which I didn't love), nothing felt like it truly mattered. Rather, it looks like they're waiting until next week's show to give us the more meaningful stuff, including Sammy Guevara vs. Tony Nese for the AEW TNT Championship and The Lucha Brothers vs. FTR in a two-out-of-three falls match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews