GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Rampage showed no signs of slowing Jon Moxley down as he once again defends his Interim AEW World Championship as Mance Warner makes his AEW debut. Also making her debut in AEW is Madison Rayne, who takes on “Interim Baddie” Leila Grey. With Konosuke Takeshita and the main event being a Street Fight for the Tag Team Championship, tonight was sure to be filled with action.
Jon Moxley (C) vs. Mance Warner – Interim AEW World Championship Match
Before the bell rang, Moxley went to Warner on the entrance ramp and threw him into the barricade. Warner fights back, but Moxley throws him into the ring to start the match. The two continue what they started outside the ring as Moxley suplexes Warner and Warner delivers massive chops before dropping Moxley crotch-first on the guard rail.
With the fight back in the ring, Moxley locks in a figure-four that Mance escapes from thanks to a well-timed eye-poke followed by punches. While Moxley fought back, he couldn’t fully take back control from Mance as Mance threw Moxley into the ring steps outside, landed a suplex on a chair then went back to the steps to hit a DDT.
While Mance was throwing chairs into the ring, Moxley ran at him and hit the chair into his face. Now bleeding, Mance took a suicida from Moxley and a superplex from the second rope. Moxley didn’t stop there as he landed elbow after elbow before performing continuous stomps. After a piledriver and Bulldog Choke, Mance passes out, giving Moxley another successful championship defense on his record.
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Ryan Nameth
Takeshita kicked the match off strong with a huge clothesline. After a boot and a flurry of punches, Takeshita goes off the ropes but is stopped by Peter Avalon. This interference allowed Nameth to land some knees and a boot, but he couldn’t stop Takeshita’s Blue Thunder Bomb and Jumping Knee. Takeshita picks up the victory against Nameth.
Madison Rayne vs. Leila Grey
In her Rampage debut, Rayne tries to end the match quickly with many pin attempts and two-counts against Grey. When Rayne is on the apron, Stokely distracters her, and Grey gets the upper hand until Rayne lands a jawbreaker and an enziguiri. After a knee to the Grey’s head, Rayne hits her with a Northern Lights Suplex for a two-count. Rayne kicks out of the pin from Grey’s sit-out side slam before landing a Cross Rayne for the win.
Swerve in Our Glory vs. Josh Woods & Tony Nese – AEW Tag Team Championship Street Fight
The fight begins outside the ring between Strickland and Woods as Strickland is driven into the rail. Lee goes after Nese until Woods comes after Lee too. Nese throws protein powder into Lee’s face, but Strickland redirects it back at Nese before throwing him into the steps. Strickland keeps it coming by attempting to launch a toolbox at Nese.
In the ring, Nese throws Strickland into a garbage can in the corner, followed by Woods landing punch after punch on Strickland. With a table set up outside the ring now, Nese seeks to send Strickland through the table to no avail. Woods and Nese hit Lee with a double DDT onto a chair; when both go for the pin, Strickland stops it with a 450 splash.
“Smart” Mark Sterling hits Strickland with a wrench before attempting to drive him through the table from the top rope. Lee interrupts Sterling by throwing him through a table inside the ring. Woods wants to suplex Lee through the table outside the ring to get him off the apron, but Lee won’t budge until Nese lands a superkick to open him up for Woods’ German Suplex through the table. In the ring, Strickland lands a Swerve Stomp to Nese on chairs to retain the Tag Team Championships.
Next for AEW is the Battle of the Belts III on Saturday, August 6, on TNT with Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Thunder Rosa vs. Jamie Hayter, and Wardlow vs. Jay Lethal.
