AEW this Friday’s edition of Rampage and next week’s episode of Dark: Elevation from Bridgeport with results sent to POST Wrestling.
Below is a live report from correspondent Dave LeClair, who attended the AEW taping on Wednesday at the Webster Bank Arena (edited for clarity):
AEW Dark: Elevation (Airs on Monday, February 28th)
Jay Lethal over Jora Johl. Matt Hardy threatens to delete Johl after the match for losing.
Red Velvet over Skye Blue – Leyla Hirsch came out after the match and confronted Red Velvet
Frankie Kazarian over Alan Angels – Kazarian won with a submission, was a solid match.
Nyla Rose, Emi Sakura, Diamanté vs. Unknown team – Diamanté gets the win via submission.
Fuego del Sol got murdered by Lance Archer. Archer did a great job of getting the crowd to hate him.
Leyla Hirsch over Willow Nightingale with an armbar
Evil Uno & Stu Grayson over Serpentico & Luther
Tony Khan came out at 7:58 p.m. and hyped up being in Connecticut. The crowd loved Khan.
Post Dynamite
Jon Moxley hung out in the ring for a bit, everyone went nuts for him.
AEW Rampage (Airing on February 25th)
Tony Khan came out again. He talked about how awesome Dynamite was and thanked the crowd for being awesome. He likes Connecticut.
Matt Hardy and Andrade El Idolo in a stairwell promo. Andrade says he doesn’t need help to beat Sammy tonight.
Cutler cam with reDRagon and Adam Cole. The Young Bucks come in and get mad. Adam Cole tells reDRagon to get along with the bucks.
Chris Jericho opened the taping with a Judas singalong before going to the commentary area.
Sammy Guevara vs Andrade El Idolo for the TNT Championship
This was taped first. It was a great match including a huge Spanish Fly off the top by Sammy. Sammy hit a springboard cutter after Andrade went into an exposed buckle. Matt Hardy attacked Sammy after the match and Darby made the save. Sting went after Isiah Kassidy, who was ringside. Coffin drop on Isiah Kassidy. Darby raised Sammy’s hand.
QT Marshall came out and cut a promo on Taz and Hook. He said he taught Hook to be respectful, takes credit for Hook’s success. Hook’s music hit to a huge reaction. Hook came out and stood there being awesome at the top of the ramp. He took out the security guards that were protecting QT and left.
Nick Comoroto (with Aaron Solow) vs Wardlow (with Shawn Spears)
Strong man stuff with the big men. Wardlow actually sold way more than you’d expect (and maybe more than he should have, but that’s debatable I guess). He hit his comeback and powerbombs rained in a symphonic fashion. Spears came in after, raised Wardlow’s hand. Solow tried to hit a splash from the top on Wardlow, he caught him, and then, Spears hit Solow with a chair.
Spears got on the microphone and said, “power symphony isn’t working”. He said it’s not getting over. The crowd chanted “one more time” trying to get him to powerbomb Spears. Spears said he was proud and hugged Wardlow. Spears left and Wardlow followed.
Kayla Sparks vs. Serena Deeb in a five-minute challenge
Deeb won via half crab in about 2:30 or so.
Contract signing for Britt Baker vs Thunder Rosa
Thunder Rosa cut a short promo and signed. Britt talked next, cut another great promo that had some stinging lines in it, Britt signed, and Thunder Rosa attacked her.
Britt and Reba bailed leaving Jamie Hayter alone. Mercedes Martinez put Hayter through a table (after two tries). Rosa posed with the belt to end the segment.
Anthony Bowens vs. Orange Cassidy for a spot in the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match
Orange Cassidy was funny as always, as was The Acclaimed.
The Acclaimed rap compared Orange to Putin in terms of popularity. Orange Cassidy rapped by putting his hands in pockets and doing slow kicks. Orange said “word to your mother”.
The match was fine, pretty standard Orange Cassidy match. There were plenty of shenanigans from Caster. Orange hit a really nice dive to the outside into a couple of DDTs. Caster throw in the boom box, but the referee saw it. Danhausen saved Cassidy from Caster and won with Orange Punch.
Tony Khan thanked the crowd again.
