AEW Rampage live results: Two championship matches

Ahead of WrestleDream, two championship matches will air on tonight’s edition of AEW Rampage.

Eddie Kingston puts his NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line against Rocky Romero. Kingston recently became a double champion, winning the ROH World Championship from Claudio Castagnoli in a title vs. title match at Dynamite Grand Slam. Kingston is scheduled to defend both belts against Katsuyori Shibata at WrestleDream this Sunday.

The AEW Trios titles will also be defended tonight as The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn take on The Hardys & Brother Zay.

In another match with championship implications, Ruby Soho faces Hikaru Shida. The winner challenges Saraya for the AEW Women’s World Championship on the upcoming Title Tuesday edition of Dynamite on October 10.

The Righteous will be in action ahead of challenging for the ROH Tag Team titles at WrestleDream. At the pay-per-view, they’re facing MJF for the titles in a handicap match. MJF has to defend the titles on his own due to Adam Cole’s broken ankle.

Our live coverage starts at 10 p.m. Eastern time.

Excalibur & Taz were on the call this week, with Tony Schiavone on assignment and Chris Jericho preparing for his matches this weekend.

AEW World Trios Title Match – The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, & Billy Gunn) defeated Isiah Kassidy & The Hardys (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy) to retain the titles

This was the best possible version of this match. The Hardys looked much better in this trios setting.

This was the fourth defense by The Acclaimed.

Kassidy & Bowens started with a handshake before Kassidy used his speed to get the better of an exchange. Bowens came back with a jumping Fameasser before Caster tagged in. After a misdirection, Caster ended up on the wrong side of a Jeff Hardy splash for a nearfall. Caster evaded a Twist of Fate but couldn’t avoid a reverse kick.

Matt Hardy and Gunn tagged in, and after some hand signal shenanigans, Gunn took Hardy down with a shoulder block. Hardy avoided a corner charge before bashing Gunn’s head into the ropes. The challengers triple-teamed Gunn, hitting a pair of Poetry in Motions. The Acclaimed cleared the ring and hit Kassidy with Scissor Me Timbers for a nearfall.

The Acclaimed held serve on Kassidy after a commercial break. After a Matt Hardy distraction, Kassidy evaded a corner charge. Kassidy hit an enzuigiri on Gunn before tagging in Jeff Hardy, who ran wild on all three champions.

Hardy hit a Whisper in the Wind, and after a flurry of offense from the challengers, Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb on Gunn for a nearfall. The Acclaimed came back and ran wild on the Hardys, allowing Gunn to tag out to Bowens. Kassidy tagged in on the other side and hit a twisting facebuster on Caster. Kassidy followed with a springboard moonsault on Gunn, but springboarded into a double team from the Acclaimed. The Acclaimed hit the KRS-1 on Kassidy to win and retain the titles. It was announced here that The Acclaimed would defend the Trios Titles on WrestleDream: Zero Hour against New Japan’s TMDK – Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls, & Bad Dude Tito.

Backstage, Eddie Kingston spoke on his STRONG Openweight Title match tonight against Rocky Romero. He respected Romero before getting interrupted by Jay Lethal & the Jarrett crew. Lethal said that he spent most of his life fighting for the ROH World Title, and Kingston was unfit to be ROH World Champion. Kingston laughed them off and left.

In video from last Saturday, Lexy Nair spoke to Andrade El Idolo after his loss to Jay White. Andrade asked Juice Robinson – who cost him the match – if they had a problem. Andrade told Robinson that he would see him in Seattle.

NJPW STRONG Openweight Title Match – Eddie Kingston defeated Rocky Romero to retain the title

A fun, hard-hitting bout here. A real highlight of AEW is having fun matches like this in the middle of any show.

This was Kingston’s third defense of the STRONG Openweight Title.

Romero won the opening exchange with a dropkick that sent Kingston into the corner. Excalibur talked about Romero’s success in Japan and Mexico as Romero took Kingston to the floor with a hurricanrana. Romero hit a pair of dives to Kingston on the outside. On the third try, Kingston caught Romero and hit a suplex on the floor as we went to a commercial.

We came back to see Romero fight out of a Northern Lights Bomb. Romero rocked Kingston with a jumping knee before tying Kingston in the ropes. Romero hit a spin kick before hitting a springboard dropkick for a nearfall. Romero went for Sliced Bread, but Kingston shoved him away and hit the machine gun chops in the corner. Kingston brought Romero to the top rope, but Romero hit an Avalanche Sliced Bread for a nearfall. Romero hit the Forever clotheslines but ran right into a Kingston Backfist. Kingston hit a second Backfist before locking on the Stretch Plum and scoring the submission win.

The two men bowed to each other after the match, with Romero raising Kingston’s hand. Katsuyori Shibata made his way to the ring to go face-to-face with his opponent at WrestleDream. The two men shook hands.

Aussie Open were backstage. Mark Davis was tired of hearing FTR walk around with their egos unchecked. Kyle Fletcher said that their loss to FTR last year broke them, but this year, they would take the AEW World Tag Team Titles and build their empire here in AEW.

The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) defeated Caleb Crush & Gunnar

A quick win for the Righteous before their WrestleDream title match. I’m impressed at the level of heat they’ve garnered this quickly into their run in AEW.

For anyone interested, this was not the Gunnar of TNA Impact fame. Dutch dropped both men with a double clothesline. Vincent sent Gunnar into a Bossman Slam from Dutch. Vincent did the same with Crush before tagging in and hitting Autumn Sunshine on Gunnar for the quick win.

We got a video from Ortiz, going over the history between himself and Mike Santana. We got clips of their highlights over the years, with sound from their longtime manager Konnan talking about how the two don’t talk anymore.

We got a video package highlighting Christian Cage & Darby Allin, hyping their match at WrestleDream. Backstage, Nick Wayne spoke about his role in their situation. He said that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be at ringside for Darby at WrestleDream, but he did want to finish his business with Luchasaurus. He wanted payback for Luchasaurus chokeslamming him at Wembley Stadium and would get it in a singles match on the WrestleDream Zero Hour.

We got a rundown of the Collision and WrestleDream cards.

Backstage, Renee Paquette spoke to Zack Sabre Jr. Sabre felt fresh as a daisy after his fifteen-hour flight from Japan. He said that a stiff breeze could knock Danielson over, much less a match with Sabre. Sabre said that Danielson didn’t have a year to retire, he barely had a weekend. Sabre was going to force Danielson to retire in Seattle for the second time in his career. He called it The Final Retirement before humming The Final Countdown. Be careful Zack, Europe will charge for that too.

AEW Women’s World Title #1 Contender’s Match – Hikaru Shida defeated Ruby Soho

An excellent Rampage main event. Shida and Soho had a fun match here, with a couple of good nearfalls that I thought would be the finish. It’s been good to see Shida stay in the mix in the women’s division.

The winner of this match will challenge Saraya on the October 10^th Title Tuesday edition of Dynamite.

Shida knocked Soho down with a shoulder block, but Soho escaped the ten punches in the corner. Soho grabbed Shida by the hair and clubbered on Shida in the corner. Soho escaped the ten punches again, but Shida hit her with a reverse crossbody. Shida finally got the ten punches before hitting a missile dropkick as we went to a commercial break.

Both women were down as we came back from the commercial. They traded forearms before Shida hit a jumping knee. Shida followed with a brainbuster for a nearfall. Soho rolled out of the way of the Kitana, but Shida hit a missile dropkick off of the stairs to the floor. Shida carried Soho up the ramp, where they brawled before diving into the ring at a nine count. Soho hit Shida with a Saito suplex for a nearfall.

Soho grabbed Shida’s kendo stick, but only used it as a distraction. Soho went for the spray paint, but Shida caught it. The referee got knocked down in the process, costing Soho the win after she hit No Future. Soho went to hit Shida with the kendo stick, but Shida took it, cracked Soho in the head, and hit a Kitana. Aubrey Edwards came out to count the pin, but Soho was able to kick out. Soho avoided a Meteora before hitting an STO. Soho went for a top rope senton, but Shida got the knees up and hit a Falcon Arrow for a nearfall. Soho hit No Future, but Shida came back with the Kitana for the win.

After the match, Saraya came out to collect Soho and stare down her challenger for October 10^th.