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ALL ELITE WRESTLING RAMPAGE PREVIEW 2/4: Rosa vs. Martinez, Starks vs. Lethal for FTW Championship, Cole vs. Uno, Sammy vs. Kassidy for TNT Championship

BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

February 3, 2022

Full analysis of the hits and misses from AEW Dynamite
Adam Cole photo - Ring of Honor (c) ROHWrestling.com
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

ALL ELITE WRESTLING RAMPAGE PRIMER
FEBRUARY 4, 2022
CHICAGO, ILL. AT THE WINTRUST ARENA
AIRS ON TNT NETWORK, 10:00 p.m. EDT, 9:00 p.m. CDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Taz, Ricky Starks (various combinations)

Match Results and Key Segments from Last Week

  • Jon Moxley defeated Anthony Bowens of The Acclaimed.
  • AAA Tag Team Champions FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) defeated “Shotty” Lee Johnson & Brock Anderson in a non-title match.
  • Jade Cargill defeated Julia Hart to retain the TBS Championship.
  • Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy) defeated Private Party (Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy) to retain the AEW Tag Team Championship.

Arena

Tonight’s episode of Rampage was recorded following this week’s episode of Dynamite. See the Dynamite preview for more information about the Wintrust Arena.

Thunder Rosa vs. Mercedes Martinez

It’s finally happening. Thunder Rosa goes one-on-one with Mercedes Martinez. A video package aired last week where Martinez said that the match between these two would take place next week (tonight).

Martinez cost Rosa a chance to advance in TBS Championship in her match against Jade Cargill. These two women have faced each other outside of AEW when they wrestled at the Queens of the Ring event for Title Match Wrestling back in 2019. Here’s a link to that match:

https://twitter.com/realivelisse/status/1488588708198690818?s=21

Frank’s Analysis: I know this is LONG water under the bridge, but I’m so glad Martinez is out of WWE. Making her a part of the God-awful Retribution gimmick was a terrible decision. With their shortage of talented veteran women, it’s crazy they couldn’t find work for her. I’m not shocked, because she doesn’t “fit the mold” over there. That said, this should be a fun match between two ring generals.

FTW Championship: Ricky Starks (champ) vs. Jay Lethal

The FTW Championship will be on the line as Jay Lethal challenges Ricky Starks.

Lethal challenged Ricky back on the January 14 edition of Rampage at the commentary table. He said Ricky was more concerned about what he was wearing instead of defending his championship and had to ask “daddy” (Taz) for permission to do so. On last week’s Dynamite, Ricky said he hasn’t forgotten about Lethal’s challenge and said he wanted to face him next week on Rampage. Here’s the initial confrontation in case you forgot or missed it:

https://twitter.com/starkmanjones/status/1488631637101486083?s=21

Frank’s Analysis: I’m sure we’re anxiously awaiting this match but I’m sure they must work around Ricky’s neck injury. Hopefully he is in a good place and can go. I’m personally very high on Ricky as he feels like a true heel with his promos, and I enjoy his ring work. I think he retains, but Lethal winning would not be a surprise.

Adam Cole vs. Evil Uno

Adam Cole goes one-on-one with Evil Uno of the Dark Order. As I mentioned earlier, Cole lost a Lights Out match to Orange Cassidy last week, seemingly ending their feud. This past Wednesday, he cut an intense promo backstage where he said anybody that says he lost to Cassidy will get slapped in the face. He said after the match, the whole world will know what’s next for him.

The Dark Order recently feuded with Bryan Danielson member by member in Danielson’s runup to his two championship matches against “Hangman” Adam Page. Evil Uno has never won a singles match on AEW television proper. Any victory has come on Dark or Dark Elevation. Here is that promo from Dynamite:

Frank’s Analysis: I don’t think there’s any doubt as to who is winning this match. It will be interesting to see if he is moved into the title picture considering MJF just knocked off CM Punk, albeit by nefarious means. Cole vs. Page feels like the match at Revolution, but MJF may have something to say there.

TNT Championship: Sammy Guevara (champ) vs. Isiah Kassidy (Private Party)

Sammy Guevara puts his TNT Championship on the line against Isiah Kassidy of Private Party. Private Party came up short in their attempt last week to win the AEW Tag Team Championship from Jurassic Express. This past week on Dynamite, their manager Matt Hardy expressed disappointment, and said he wanted the TNT Championship after which he said Kassidy has the match on Friday. Marq Quen said he wanted the match, but Matt said he lost.

Andrade, a partner in the AHFO, is a part of this and is actively trying to recruit Darby Allin. When Matt questioned Andrade, he said he was working on it and maybe he wants more money.

Kassidy tried to mess with Sammy posting a picture of Tay Conti, Sammy’s current girlfriend and calling them “ZayTay:”

Frank’s Analysis: I don’t know about that one Kassidy. Messing with someone’s girl online? I mean I guess it’s all in good fun in the wrestling world, but if someone’s posting pictures of my wife on their Twitter timeline, not cool bro. Anyway, it’s good to see Private Party in the fold on regular TV, but why does Kassidy get a TNT Championship match after they lost last week? It should be a fun match, nonetheless.

Summary

I think this is a good episode of Rampage with some consequences. I want to see the positioning of Thunder Rosa and Mercedes Martinez moving forward. You got two championship matches and the Cole vs. Uno match. The FTW title match seems to have a less certain outcome than the TNT match. We know who’s winning between Cole and Uno, it’s a matter of what we see afterwards. He is obviously not happy about losing a Lights Out match, regardless of whether it counts or not.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!

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