AEW Rampage is owned by All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan, Shahid Khan, and TNT

We’re back with even more AEW action, and I may be alone here but I’m glad that I’ll get to go a couple of days without ANY more wrestling!  It has been a busy week with four shows and a PPV to cover, but I powered through it and finally got caught up on the latest episode of Rampage!  Is it one last hurrah of great matches and fun promos before a very brief break, or is the final straw that broke the camel’s back?  Let’s find out!!

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Andrade El Idolo Vs. Pac

Andrade is accompanied to the ring by Chavo Guerrero Jr

The story of this match is kind of the story of Andrade’s run in AEW as both have had trouble getting off the ground and you start to wonder if something is going on that no one is telling us.  Fortunately those fears have been put to bed as the match FINALLY happened and Andrade FINALLY reminded us why we wanted him to be at AEW in the first place!  Andrade gets a pretty strong lead at the start, but unlike his other matches where he barely needed to try to win, Pac is one tough cookie (or I guess biscuit since he’s British) and it doesn’t take long for Pac to reverse his fortunes with a Hurricanrana that sends Andrade out of the ring followed by a Suicide Drive that wipes him out completely.  Pac then starts whipping him into the railing a few times before rolling him into the ring and despite all the damage he’s taking, Andrade is similarly unwilling to break and is practically BEGGING Pac to hit him harder while only giving him a one count on his pin attempt.  Andrade manages to escape the assault and lands a kick that sends Pac onto the apron which he follows up by flipping over the ropes and landing a DDT on Pac on the way down!  If that wasn’t enough, he ALSO gets back in the ring and lands a Plancha onto the still dazed Pac on the floor below… and yet all this gets him is a one count when he finally rolls Pac into the ring.  This is what Andrade needed more than anything else; not a bunch of tomato cans he can smugly tear apart, but a GENUINE challenger to bring out the best in him and remind us why it was such a shame that he was so underutilized in WWE!  I wouldn’t say he’s going full Lucha here as it definitely feels like a big heavy brawl, but he does show off some impressive moves here like the aforementioned Plancha, a Springboard Moonsault, and this ridiculous move on the top rope that got the crowd to pop right before the commercial break!  Andrade drags Pac to the top rope but of course it’s not as easy as he had hoped as Pac starts to fight back.  In the chaos however, Pac almost falls off the corner but manages to hook his leg around the top rope so that he’s kind of dangling there and is trying to pull himself up.  Andrade uses this precarious position to land a Double Stomp on Pac that sends him to the floor with Pac tumbling down only a moment later!  Oh, but Pac gets his revenge not long after that as Andrade gets on the top rope with Pac on his shoulders and is planning to spin him around for an Avalanche Power Bomb… only for Pac to reposition himself during the spin and lands an Avalanche Hurricanrana!  Both men are exhausted and take a minute to regroup before they start slugging it out again and Andrade is knocked through the ropes onto the apron.  Pac flips over the ropes and grabs Andrade for a Canadian Destroyer, but Andrade has the ropes and won’t fall backwards onto the floor.  Instead he manages to flip off the apron, but Pac hits him with a Pump Kick.  Pac is once again going to the top rope but Andrade knocks him off and somehow he hooks his leg in the same way as he did before and is dangling upside down.  Andrade goes for the stomp again, but Pac is ready for it this time and leans backwards so that Andrade whiffs the stomp and lands on the floor.  Despite all these ridiculous moves back and forth there’s only ONE spot where it looks like someone took a bad bump and that’s right after the failed Stomp where Pac gets up on the turnbuckle and lands a Moonsault on Andrade who is still on the floor below and Pac just kinda keeps going after he lands which means the back of his head hits the railing.  I haven’t heard anything about him being injured, but that must NOT have been fun to take; nor was it probably not fun to keep going with the match after that which STILL had like five more big moves before we got to the finish!  A 450 Splash, a Handspring Pele Kick, A Snap German Suplex, a Belly to Belly Suplex RIGHT into the corner, all great stuff from these two but eventually it has to come to an end; for their own sakes if nothing else!  Andrade catches Pac in a Springboard and has him in a Fireman’s Carry, but Pac SOMEHOW rolls off his back in such a way that he flips Andrade over into a pin!  Andrade kicks out, but Pac immediately transitions to the Brutalizer which threatens to end this match in a submission.  Andrade’s associate (the one with the glasses) tries to charge the ring with a stun gun, but The Lucha Bros run down and drag him out.  In the confusion however, Chavo runs in and bashes Pac over the head with an iPad.  By the time ref turns around, Andrade has Pac in a pin and counts it; giving Andrade the win to a chorus of boos from the crowd!  What’s weird about this finish though is that Andrade seems to be confused as to what actually happened, and that’s odd because he was looking RIGHT IN CHAVO’S DIRECTION WHEN HE HIT PAC!  What, was he in TOO MUCH PAIN to see what was going on right in front of him?  In any case, when the guy in the glasses (his name is Jose apparently) tells him about the finish, Andrade gives Chavo a quick forearm to the jaw and leaves him for dead on the ramp.  Chavo gets up and tries to argue with Andrade who’s already at the top, but The Lucha Bros come from behind and Superkick him; killing him for the SECOND time in the last few minutes!  Then Fenix tosses Chavo in the ring and Pac locks in the Brutalizer which Andrade does not seem to mind and the refs eventually have to come in and break it up.  Andrade didn’t win clean which was a BIT of a downer and frankly the explanation to kind of walk that back felt contrived at best, but DANG was this a fantastic match!  There were so many big moves from the two of them and they worked together AMAZINGLY well in what was clearly meant to be a PPV quality match that for circumstances outside of their control they had to give away for free on TV!  Andrade didn’t have the best start at AEW and honestly Pac’s return hasn’t been the most exciting thing in the world, but they brought the best out of each other here and gave us more than enough reason to feature them even more on the show!