AEW Rampage Live Coverage - December 31st, 2021

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AEW Rampage

This week on Rampage, the New Year's Smash continues! Darby vs Bowens, Technique by Taz on the cold-hearted HOOK, Ethan Page challenges Cody Rhodes for the TNT Championship, and an absolutely WILD street fight with TayJay vs Bunnelope!


:aew:

– The final AEW show of 2021 kicks off on TNT with the usual cold open video intro that kicks off Rampage each and every Friday night. From there, we shoot inside the Daily's Place amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL. for the special "New Year's Smash" edition of the weekly one-hour Friday night AEW on TNT program.

– Excalibur welcomes us to the show and introduces Taz and Ricky Starks before sending things down to the ring for our opening match of the evening here on AEW Rampage: New Year's Smash.

Darby Allin vs. Anthony Bowens

Darby Allin's theme song hits and out comes one of the pillars of AEW accompanied by "The Icon" Sting. The two make their way down to the ring as the fans give them a big reaction coming out. They settle inside the ring and the theme fades down.

From there, the theme hits to bring out The Acclaimed. On that note, out comes Anthony Bowens for his one-on-one showdown with Allin as his tag partner, Max Caster, does his usual freestyle diss rap gimmick trashing Sting and Darby Allin as the duo makes their way to the ring.

When Bowens takes the mic to do his "ladies and gentlemen ... The Acclaimed has arrived!" routine, Allin takes his shirt off and throws it right in his face, which is caught on camera. The two back into opposing corners of the ring and wait for this one to get underway.

The bell sounds and we're off-and-running with our opening contest. Allin and Bowens circle each other as the crowd makes some noise and Excalibur quickly plugs the transition from TNT to TBS for AEW Dynamite starting next Wednesday night. Allin and Bowens start getting after it and we see Allin get the better of the exchanges.

Eventually Allin grounds the larger Bowens and goes for the cover, however The Acclaimed member kicks out and then rolls under the bottom rope and out to the floor, where he regroups and talks to Caster for a moment or two before re-entering the ring. Once he does re-enter the ring, a loud "Darby Allin! Darby Allin!" chant breaks out.

Bowens disregards the fan-chants and goes to work on Allin, getting in his first offense of the bout thus far. He backs Allin into a corner and chops the hell out of him before mixing in some punches, backing him into another corner of the ring where he delivers some kicks to the bread-basket of the face-painted fan-favorite.

Allin ends up firing back with some shots and landing a big dropkick that leads to Bowens again rolling to the floor to regroup. As this is going on, Caster hops on the ring apron behind Allin and yells at him in an attempt to get his attention. Allin doesn't take the bait, instead lifting his hand to flip off Caster without even turning around to look in his direction.

We see Bowens re-enter the ring as Caster finally does cause the intended interference, which serves its' purpose, as it leads to Allin getting distracted enough that Bowens blasts him from behind. He then launches Allin into the steel ring post with authority. Allin bounces off the steel post and then crashes and burns on the floor at ringside.

After that, Excalibur talks us into a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break as the action continues with Bowens now settling comfortably into the offensive lead. When we return from the break, we see Bowens is still in control of the action, however Allin is in the middle of a fired-up comeback attempt.

Bowens ends up cutting him off at first, but instead of returning into the offensive lead, Allin ends up taking over and delivering his first offense since the early portion of the match. Bowens cuts Allin's offensive run short, blasting him with a big shot and then both guys remain on the mat recovering. Bowens is first to get back to his feet. He goes for the cover, but Allin kicks out at the count of two.

From there, we see Bowens blast Allin with a couple of chops and then sits him on the top-rope. He climbs up after him, however Allin cuts him off and drills him with some punches. Bowens crashes down to the mat below. Allin then quickly gets to his feet on the top-rope, turns around and sets up for the Coffin Drop. Bowens recovers before he can leap off the top, and ends up snatching him up and bringing him off the top-rope the hard way.

Allin takes a big bump off the top and then Bowens keeps busy, going right to work on Allin. Allin fires up shortly thereafter, and gets Bowens' hand on the ropes as he climbs up and stomps on it. The referee lectures Allin and warns him to stop, and he eventually does. Bowens crashes down to the floor at ringside. Caster gets too close to the action for comfort at ringside, leading to Sting getting physically involved. He takes Caster out and leaves him laying.

Bowens heads out after Allin on the floor and once out there, Sting asks him, "Where's your boy at?" Bowens asks if Sting is going to hit him and then heads back into the ring with Allin. Allin hits his Code Red semi-finisher on him for a near fall and then sends him to the floor. He builds up a head of steam and connects with a suicide dive onto him before bringing him back in the ring, hitting his Coffin Drop off the top-rope and scoring the pin fall victory. Good opening match on this week's show.

Winner: Darby Allin

– After The Match, we see Sting join Allin in the ring to celebrate the victory. Instead, the familiar sounds of Andrade El Idolo's theme hits and out he comes to the top of the entrance way.

Sting and Allin notice this and while looking in his direction, they are ambushed and attacked from behind by both members of The Acclaimed. The duo lays out both guys and then Caster wraps a steel chain around his fist and drills Allin while Bowens holds him.

The fans boo as The Acclaimed leaves Sting and Allin laid out in the ring. Excalibur talks us into another commercial break and promotes the women's Street Fight coming up next.

– When we return from the break, we immediately shoot to the "Technique By Taz" segment hosted by Team Taz leader and Rampage commentator Taz and featuring the finishing move used by AEW newcomer and Team Taz member Hook.

"The Human Suplex Machine" breaks down his old "Tazmission" submission finisher used by his son, which has been re-named the "Redrum" (murder backwards).

As he breaks down each step required to apply the hold and use it to finish off your opponent, we see highlights of Hook's two victories in AEW, both of which were finished off with the "Redrum."

Women's Tag-Team Street Fight: Penelope Ford & The Bunny vs. Tay Conti & Anna Jay

Once Taz's technique segment on Hook wraps up, we head back inside Daily's Place where Penelope Ford and The Bunny begin making their way down to the ring for our second match of the evening. They have their trademark brass knuckles with them, as well as some other weapons.

The two settle into the ring and their music dies down. From there, the theme hits to bring out their opponents for this Women's Tag-Team Street Fight and out comes the duo of Tay Conti and Anna Jay.

As Conti and Jay make their way to the ring, we see Ford and The Bunny on the wrong end of a beatdown, as the two go straight to work on them. They enter the ring and when The Bunny tries using brass knuckles, Anna Jay holds a steel chair up and The Bunny's hand smashes into it. Anna then grabs the brass knucks herself, puts them on and knocks out The Bunny with them.

We then see Penelope Ford land a pump-kick on Tay Conti on the floor. Afterwards, she sets up a table and lays Conti out on top of it. She then climbs to the top-rope backwards and as the fans "ooh" and "ahh" she connects with a crazy moonsault but the table doesn't break. The referee checks on them and then Ford grabs a glass bottle from under the ring.

She enters the ring and breaks it over the side of Conti's head. She notices The Bunny still loopy on the floor from the brass knucks shot. She heads out to check on her and when the camera pans over to The Bunny, we see she is a complete and total bloody mess. Wow. She's bleeding profusely. Now the duo of Bunny and Ford grab a decorated table from under the ring. They head into the squared circle with it and prop it up in the corner.

They grab two steel chairs and unfold them, setting them up in the middle of the ring. Now the camera catches up with Conti on the floor and we see that her face is a total crimson mask, as she is busted open as well. Back in the ring, Anna Jay gets the better of an exchange with The Bunny and then hoists her up and connects with a suplex that sees The Bunny crash through the two aforementioned steel chairs in the ring.

The commentators call this match absolutely nuts as they talk us into a mid-match, picture-in-picture commercial break as the action continues. We return from the break and we see Anna Jay jump on The Bunny's back as blood continues to stream down the face of the heel women's wrestling star. The Bunny ends up throwing herself backwards, which puts she and Anna Jay through the decorated table set up in the corner, with Jay taking the brunt of the impact.

The Bunny is shown close-up on camera and we see another good shot of blood pouring down her grill. She plays to the crowd a bit off of the reaction to her bloody dome and then she heads out to the floor and grabs a sack full of thumbtacks. She heads into the ring with them and pours them all over the mat. Now we see she and Anna Jay on the top-rope where they both come crashing down onto all of the thumbtacks. The fans react with a loud "Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t!" chant.

From there, we see Ford recover and return to action, as she goes to work on Conti. Conti ends up fighting back while covered in blood, where the two end up on the ring apron outside of the ring ropes. Conti hoists Ford up, but struggles in doing so. As she nearly drops her, the two go off the ring apron as Conti puts Ford through another table set up at ringside with a leaping sit-down power bomb.

Moments later, Anna Jay gets some barbed wire and wraps it around her arm. She uses the barbed-wire-covered arm to apply her Queenslayer on a very, very, very bloody Bunny. Bunny taps out and Conti and Jay pick up the victory in an insanely violent street fight.

Winners: Tay Conti & Anna Jay

– Now we shoot to the trademark pre-main event split-screen interview segment hosted by Mark Henry. "The World's Strongest Man" sets the stage for our final AEW match of 2021, which will feature Cody Rhodes defending his TNT Championship for the first time since regaining it by defeating Sammy Guevara on last Friday's show, as he takes on "All Ego" Ethan Page.

Mark Henry introduces his guests at this time. On one side of the screen, we see Cody Rhodes accompanied by Arn Anderson. On the other, we see The Men of the Year -- Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky -- accompanied by American Top Team founder Dan Lambert.

Things start with Lambert blasting Cody for taking opportunities for himself that others in AEW have earned. He takes him to task for putting himself over simply to plug outside projects such as the "Go Big Show" he is one of the judges on.

Finally, Arn Anderson chimes in on behalf of Cody and claims he's done his homework. He says he knows how much of a bad ass Ethan Page is, putting over his legitimate martial arts background and even acknowledging the fact that Lambert is also a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. He says Cody is going to take full advantage of the "you have to beat me to win the title, I don't have to beat you to retain it" method to ensure he keeps his TNT Championship heading into 2022.

Henry wraps up with his trademark closing line and then we head to a pre-match commercial break before our main event of the evening gets underway.

TNT Championship: Ethan Page vs. Cody Rhodes (C)

As we settle back in from the break, we see "All Ego" Ethan Page and ATT founder Dan Lambert. From there we hear the familiar sounds of the theme song of "The American Nightmare" and out comes the reigning, defending, three-time TNT Champion Cody Rhodes.

Rhodes makes his way down to the ring accompanied by Arn Anderson. He gets a mixed bag reaction as we see Page being cocky and arrogant in the ring. He settles in the ring and plays to the crowd as well, looking fired up and ready for action.

The bell sounds and we're off-and-running with our headline bout of this AEW Rampage: New Year's Smash special event. We see these two circle each other and then they finally get after it. Early on, we see Page getting in some offense, however Cody sends Page out to the floor and begins shifting the momentum in his favor.

Back in the ring, "All Ego" takes over and begins working over Cody until "The American Nightmare" manages to take out Page's leg with a devastating chop block to his knee. He slaps on a submission and focuses his attack on the weakened leg of The Men of the Year tag-team member as the commentary team talks us into our final commercial break of the evening.

When we return from the commercial time-out, we see that Cody is still very much in control of the action, as he continues beating down Page and focusing heavily on his softened up leg. Soon after returning from the break, we see Page start to shift the offensive momentum back in his favor. He lays Cody out and talks briefly with Lambert from inside the ring.

Page gets back up and checks the status of his weakened leg before re-engaging with the TNT Champion. He starts working over Cody, however Cody makes him work for it. He hits a back-body drop as Cody comes out of the corner and then hits a big DDT for a near fall.

Cody ends up on the floor where we see Scorpio Sky get physically involved, beating down Cody at ringside until Arn Anderson comes over and pulls him off of him. Immediately after he does, Dustin Rhodes arrives on the scene to make the save, as the two brawl out of picture and then we return to the action inside the ring.

Back in the ring, we see Cody in the middle of an offensive comeback. He ends up getting a hold of Page and he connects with his Cross-Rhodes finisher. He immediately makes the cover and goes for the pin, however Page manages to kick out before the count of three to keep this match alive.

The camera briefly shoots over to show Dustin and Scorpio still brawling through the crowd to the back of the arena. The camera shot returns to the ring and we see Cody taking off the knee pad of Page. He blasts away at the injured knee of Page and then brings him to the corner of the ring.

Cody sits Page on the top-rope and begins climbing up after him. Page fights back from the top-rope and he ends up hoisting Cody up. It looks like he's going to go for a tombstone piledriver off the top-rope, but instead, he turns Cody over in mid-air and connects with an insane top-rope powerslam directly into a near fall.

"The American Nightmare" keeps this one alive, kicking out of the pin attempt by Page after the wild high spot off the top-rope and then the two fight back to their feet. They trade back-and-forth punches at close distance. Cody drops Page to one knee but Page then blasts him with a pair of roundhouse kicks.

He goes for his Ego's Edge finisher on Cody but Cody avoids it and ends up hitting a big cutter for another close near fall of his own. Cody turns to Arn Anderson and acknowledges how close he was to finishing Page off. He then turns around and grabs the leg of Page. He lets out a loud "WOOOOO!" in an homage to Ric Flair.

From there, he secures the figure-four leg lock submission. Page ends up reversing it after suffering in the hold for a few moments. Cody makes it to the ropes to force the hold to be broken. Back on their feet, Page plants Cody with a big move and again goes for the cover, only for Cody to kick out at two once again.

The action continues and we see Cody on the top-rope when Page gets his hand and yanks him off into a slam on the mat. Cody recovers and ends up fighting back into the lead. He connects with his Cross-Rhodes finisher, but holds on after landing it. He hits a second one in a row and hangs on again, this time getting back up to hit a Tiger Driver '98 -- the same sequence of moves he used to defeat Sammy Guevara to capture the TNT on last week's show -- and once again it works, as Cody picks up the three-count and wins in an excellent main event on the special edition of AEW Rampage: New Year's Smash.

Once the match wraps up, we see Arn Anderson and Dustin Rhodes join Cody in the ring to celebrate his main event victory in the final AEW match of 2021 and the first defense of his newly won TNT title. Excalibur thanks us for tuning in, wishes us a Happy New Year and wraps up the broadcast. That's how this week's show goes off-the-air.

Winner and STILL TNT Champion: Cody Rhodes