
AEW Rampage Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights From Dec. 8
Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of AEW Rampage on December 8.
The Continental Classic has mostly played out on Dynamite and Collision, but a match from the blue league took place on Friday's show when Bryan Danielson took on Daniel Garcia.
Abadon was back in action this week against Trish Adora, Powerhouse Hobbs and Konosuke Takeshita took on Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal, and Orange Cassidy put the International Championship on the line against Angelico.
We also heard from Danhausen, and Renee Paquette interviewed Top Flight and Action Andretti. Let's take a look at everything that happened on Friday's show.
Orange Cassidy vs. Angelico (International Championship)
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The first match on this week's show saw Cassidy put the International Championship on the line against the underused Angelico. OC was accompanied to the ring by Danhausen to keep things even since Serpentico was in Angelico's corner.
The first half of this match was a highly technical exchange of holds, counters and takedowns. Cassidy played his usual mind games, but Angelico's unique technical ability allowed him to control the pace quite a bit.
As soon as the submission specialist saw the champion favoring his right knee, he hit a chop block and began focusing all of his offense on the injured leg.
This is one of those bouts that might surprise some people because Angelico has been so underutilized. Casual AEW fans may not be aware of his abilities, so seeing him have a really good performance is going to open some eyes.
OC retained the title thanks to the Orange Punch. The shenanigans outside the ring didn't have much of an impact on the outcome and gave the crowd a reason to laugh, so it didn't hurt the match in any significant way.
Result: Orange Cassidy defeated Angelico to retain the International Championship
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Daddy Magic's accent wasn't as heavy as it usually is when he was on commentary.
- Danhausen's stepdaughter came out wearing his face paint with OC, Danhausen and Hook during their entrance. It was cute.
- The look on Cassidy's face after Angelico kicked him in the back was hilarious. He almost looked mad, which is not an expression OC shows very often.
Abadon vs. Trish Adora
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Abadon scored a very quick win over Adora that barely lasted a couple of minutes. After it was over, she had a quick segment with Julia Hart that teased a possible feud or alliance. It's hard to say right now, but they will almost certainly have a match at some point.
Result: Abadon defeated Trish Adora
Grade: Incomplete
The next bout was a tag team match with Hobbs and Takeshita taking on Daniels and Sydal, who have been much more active in ROH than AEW as of late.
Even though this wasn't a completely one-sided fight, it was as predictable as anything else we saw on the show. Takeshita and Hobbs both had a size and power advantage over their opponents, but Sydal used his speed to take control right before the commercial break.
This was a solid match, but the outcome was always going to be Hobbs and Takeshita walking away with the victory.
Result: Powerhouse Hobbs and Konosuke Takeshita defeated Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Daniels and Sydal have been teaming together for months. They should make more of an effort to have matching gear. Hobbs and Takeshita did and they're not even a tag team. They are just allies in the same stable.
- The exchanges between Daddy Magic and Callis were hilarious.
- Takeshita is one of those guys who is so proportional that you forget how big he is until you see him next to a guy like Hobbs.
Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia
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The main event of this week's episode was a Blue League Continental Classic match between Danielson and Garcia. These two had three singles bouts prior to this show. Danielson won their first encounter and their 2-out-of-3 Falls match. Garcia won their second bout, so he was looking to even the score here and make their record 2-2.
As expected, these two highly skilled technicians employed several holds during the first few minutes, but once they started using strikes, both men began to unload on each other.
The American Dragon still had an eye patch, but it didn't feel like Garcia was making a big effort to target the injury. It almost felt like he was avoiding it to prove he didn't need to exploit a weakness to beat Danielson at first.
During the break, Garcia could be seen using the same elbow strikes the BCC has used to hurt its opponents many times, but even then, he was connecting with the side of Danielson's face that didn't have the broken orbital bone.
This was an outstanding performance from two men who will likely have many more great matches during their AEW careers. They told a story and put on a clinic that easily stole the show. This might even be the Match of the Week for a lot of people.
Garcia eventually started going after the injured eye, but it was too little, too late. The American Dragon wasn't able to put him away with a running knee, so he unleashed a tirade of stomps and forearms before applying The LeBell Lock to get the win.
Result: Bryan Danielson defeated Daniel Garcia
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Garcia is back to wearing trunks instead of pants. He and Bryan almost matched with the same colors, but Bryan had a lighter shade of red.
- Garcia's flurry of punches looked awesome. A lot of wrestlers have a hard time making worked punches look real, but he did a great job.
- Danielson hit a nice suplex into a bridge during the picture-in-picture segment.
- The way Garcia looked after the match was a nice way to add to their story.
The Final Word
4 of 4The biggest complaint about this week's show is once again directed at the amount of time given to the lone women's match on the card. Abadon beating Adora certainly made sense, but giving them less than five minutes is ridiculous.
The tag team bout won by the Don Callis family was filler, but the two matches that bookended the show made it worth watching.
Angelico and Cassidy had a fun title bout that helped show why the ROH regular is one of the most underrated stars in the company, but Danielson and Garcia definitely put on the best performance of the night.
This was their fourth singles match to date and put The American Dragon up 3-1 over The Read Death. If you only watch one thing from the show, make it this. It had a little bit of everything.
Grade: B+


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