AEW Rampage Live Coverage - February 4th, 2022

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AEW Rampage

Rampage comes at you this Friday night from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL. Two championships are on the line as Sammy Guevara puts the TNT Title on the line against Private Party's Isiah Kassidy and Jay Lethal challenges Ricky Starks for the FTW Title! Plus, Thunder Rosa finally gets a chance to square up with Mercedes Martinez while Evil Uno aims to derail Adam Cole's nine match singles win streak!


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– This week's show kicks off with the usual "This is Rampage, baby!" cold open and theme song. We then shoot inside the arena and Excalibur welcomes us to the show. His co-broadcast partners chime in and introduce themselves, and after we briefly hear from Chris Jericho and Taz, the three send us to the ring for our opening match of the night.

Adam Cole vs. Evil Uno

As soon as the bell sounds Cole sprints across the ring and decks Uno with a big boot to the grill.

Cole goes on to dominate the offense for the next minute or so until Uno hits a big neck-breaker to slow him down. He follows that up with a big back elbow and a clothesline and then goes to work on Cole in the corner. After putting the boots to him in the corner, Cole starts to fight back again.

This doesn't last for long, however, as Uno decks Cole again and then heads to the top where he hits a big senton splash. Cole recovers from that and ends up taking over again, knocking Uno face-first into the mat like a chopped down tree with a big super kick. Cole then lifts his head up and connects with one more for good measure before "Lowering the Boom" for the pin fall victory.

Winner: Adam Cole

Once the match wraps up, Cole hops on the mic for a post-match in-ring promo. He lists off everyone he has defeated in his tenure thus far in AEW and says he doesn't care what happened last week, he is still an undefeated contender. He says all last week did was ensure that he is now a new and more ruthless Adam Cole. He goes on to vow to become the AEW World Champion.

– We shoot backstage where Jade Cargill is shown with her manager "Smart" Mark Sterling. She says everyone channel surfing just stopped to see her fine ass. She then talks about wanting to know who is next to challenge for her TBS Women's Championship on her show. "That b*tch show."

TNT Championship: Sammy Guevara vs. Isiah Kassidy

We head back inside the arena for our next match of the evening, which is the first of two title bouts scheduled for this week's show.

Justin Roberts wraps up his pre-match ring introductions and the bell sounds to get this one off-and-running.

The commentators point out that Guevara's ribs are still taped up, and after he enjoys the early offensive control, we see Kassidy take over and focus his attack on the injured ribs of the TNT champ.

Guevara fights back into the lead a moment or two later and ends up knocking Kassidy out of the ring and out to the floor. He builds up a head of steam and goes flying, launching himself from the ring and splashing onto Kassidy on the floor.

Back in the ring, Guevara continues to dominate the action, taking it to the Private Party member until we see Matt Hardy get involved. While the referee is distracted by the other Private Party member, Marq Quen, Hardy hops on the ring apron and hits his finisher on Guevara.

Sammy bounces from the hard part of the ring apron and lands on the floor, where we see Kassidy follow up on the assist provided by "Big Money" Matt Hardy as Excalibur talks us into a mid-match commercial break.

When we return from the break, we see Guevara fight from underneath and ends up once again taking over on offense. He goes to finish this one off, heading up the top-rope. He settles on the top but before he can come off with his trademark 450 splash, we hear Andrade El Idolo's theme hit.

Out comes Andrade to provide a distraction, and it helps as Kassidy takes full advantage by knocking Guevara off the top. After the assist from Andrade, Kassidy starts putting together a hell of an offensive run, capped off by a big senton off the top for a close near fall.

Andrade and Hardy are shown arguing at ringside, with Andrade asking why Hardy's man couldn't finish him off just now. As the focus resumes on the action in the ring, we see Guevara fight back into competitive form. He decks Kassidy with a pele kick and both guys are now slow to get back to their feet.

Finally, Guevara gets up and knocks Kassidy down before heading to the top and launching himself onto Quen on the floor at ringside. He heads to the ring apron and springboards into the ring, connecting with a cutter for a close near fall. After the Double Fantasy Cutter fails to wrap this one up, Guevara follows up by hitting his GTH for the pin fall victory to retain his TNT title in what was an excellent match.

Winner: Sammy Guevara

Once the match wraps up, we see Andrade and Hardy hit the ring and threaten a post-match attack on the TNT Champion. Before anything can happen, however, the familiar sounds of Darby Allin's theme hits and out comes the charismatic fan-favorite.

He hits the ring and with the numbers game no longer in Hardy and Andrade's favor, the high-tail is out of the ring and to the back. Before exiting the ring, Darby does his trademark gesture to Sammy, which prompts Jericho on commentary to question if that was a stamp of approval or a warning from the fellow former TNT Champion.

– We shoot to a special message from QT Marshall, who talks about being fed up with all of the talk about the promising prospect Hook. He says all he hears lately is "send Hook," and then says next week he is sending someone for Hook. After this, we head to another commercial break.

– Backstage, we see Tony Schiavone standing by with Kris Statlander. He asks about the issues with Leyla Hirsch lately and she mentions how this is pro wrestling and not amateur, and even though she's got a decorated background in amateur wrestling, she needs to exhibit more professionalism from now on.

Before she can say anything else, here comes Hirsch. She blasts Kris with a chair shot and follows up by kicking the chair into her face. She walks off and Red Velvet comes to check on her.

Thunder Rosa vs. Mercedes Martinez

We head back inside the arena where the theme for Mercedes Martinez hits. She makes her way to the ring as the commentators put this over as a highly-anticipated grudge match.

The bell sounds and we're off-and-running with this one. We see Rosa jump off to an early offensive lead. She hits a big missile drop kick off the top-rope and follows up with some more offense.

Excalibur talks us into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues in the ring with Martinez starting to take over on offense. We return from the break and see the action still in progress. The match spills out of the ring and out to the floor where Martinez ends up getting disqualified after blasting Rosa with a pipe.

Winner: Thunder Rosa

– After a "keep running, I'm faster" vignette from the new and more-vicious Serena Deeb, we shoot to Tony Schiavone, who is standing by with Mercedes Martinez.

Schiavone asks about her actions moments ago and she begins to explain them, only for Britt Baker to approach her and interrupt her. She tells Martinez that a DQ was not part of the deal.

Martinez explains herself and then Baker tells her next time to finish the job or she's not going to like what happens. After this, we head to a commercial break with our main event coming up when we return.

FTW Championship: Jay Lethal vs. Ricky Starks

Now we head back inside the arena where after the commentators run down some upcoming confirmed matches for next week's AEW programming, we head down to "The Dapper Yapper" Justin Roberts for the pre-match introductions for our main event.

Jay Lethal is introduced and out comes the former ROH Champion. He settles into the ring and his music dies down. Now the reigning and defending champion coming into this match, Ricky Starks, is introduced and he comes out accompanied by Powerhouse Hobbs.

Both guys are in the ring and now the bell sounds to get this one off-and-running. We see Lethal take it to Starks coming out of the gate, however it isn't long before "Absolute" is in the offensive lead. After blasting Lethal with some knife-edge chops, we see Lethal fire back with one of his own that drops the champ.

As the fans chant "Let's go Lethal!" we see him go for a vertical suplex, only for Starks to counter his way out of it. The two exchange shots and then Lethal sends Starks out to the floor. He hits the ropes and builds up a full head of steam before diving through the ropes and splashing onto Starks. He heads back in the ring, hits the ropes and does the same thing a second time.

On the floor, we see Hobbs walk over and confront Lethal. This leads to Lethal being distracted and allows Starks to attack him from behind. With Starks now back in the offensive lead, we head to a mid-match commercial break as our FTW Championship main event of the evening continues.

When we return from the break, we see Starks still in control of the action. He goes for a suplex or DDT, but Lethal hits him with some body shots to escape his clutches. Starks ends up grabbing hold of him again a moment later and pushes off the ropes with his feet for a tornado DDT, only for Lethal to once again counter his way out of it. Lethal hits a vicious clothesline that buys him some time, as both guys are down now.

Starks and Lethal get back to their feet and we see Lethal start to make his big offensive comeback. He hits a couple of big spots and goes for the cover, however Starks kicks out. Lethal turns Starks inside-out and goes for the cover again, but once more we see Starks avoid being put away. Lethal whips Starks into the corner but runs into a big boot from Starks on the way in for a follow-up spot.

We see the FTW Champion take over the action again, as he hits a big sit-out power bomb for a close near fall of his own. Starks dominates the action for another minute or so until Lethal hits a pump-kick and a follow-up roundhouse kick that decks the champ. Hobbs hops on the ring apron. Lethal runs to take him out but things don't go his way and he crashes and burns on the hard floor outside of the ring.

As Hobbs hops down, we see Dante Martin come from out of nowhere. He builds up a head of steam and launches himself onto Hobbs on the floor. Meanwhile, back in the ring we see Lethal start to take over on offense again. The commentators speculate that he is looking for his Lethal Injection finisher, however when he goes for it, he leaps right into a big counter from Starks. Starks then follows up with the cover and scores the three-count for the victory.

Starks retains the FTW title -- in impressive fashion. He heads up the entrance ramp with Hobbs while Martin checks on Lethal in the ring. The commentators plug the Texas Death Match for the AEW World Championship on next week's Dynamite before wrapping things up. That's how this week's show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us!

Winner: Ricky Starks