All Elite Wrestling’s weekly edition of Rampage this past Friday was the last stop before the promotion’s highly anticipated pay-per-view, All Out, this Sunday. The show was headlined by Darby Allin taking on Daniel Garcia with CM Punk on commentary. Malakai Black continued his crusade against the Nightmare Family as he took on Lee Johnson. Kris Statlander looked to continue her hot streak by taking on Rebel and Jamie Hayter in a two on one handicap match, and Miro would make an appearance ahead of his TNT championship defense against Eddie Kingston. With an exciting card on paper and more build-up to All Out, let’s recap what happened. 

To open up the show, Malakai Black took on Lee Johnson. Right off the bat, Black looked great; he was imposing and intimidating during his entrance. Once in the ring, Black continued to carry that aura, which Johnson sold beautifully. Johnson’s look of concentration and worry showed off how much of a threat Black is, and that was much of the story of the match. Black had control throughout, and he shut down every attempt Johnson tried at gaining offense in the match. At one point, Johnson hit a dropkick, a dive to the outside, and a frog splash, but it meant nothing because Black hit a thunderous kick to Johnson’s chest to regain control of the match. The ending saw Black look strong once again, as he gave a chair to Johnson, who was staggering to his feet, just for Black to hit with Black Mass before Johnson could use the foreign object. After the match, Dustin Rhodes made the run to challenge Black next week on Dynamite. Black looked great: he was dominant, played mind games, and looked strong overall. The thing that hurt this match was Dustin Rhodes running in because Black wasn’t attacking Johnson post-match, so there was no need for Rhodes to come out. Anyway, it set up the next part of the feud for Black’s crusade against the Nightmare Family serving its purpose.

GRADE: 7/10

Next, on the card, the TNT Champion, Miro, made an appearance. He called out Eddie Kingston by saying, “His god was disappointed in him, he got soft, and he took a charity contract from AEW.” Kingston then came out to respond, saying, “Your god sent me to beat you. My skillet is your weakness.” The two exchanged more words before the promo broke down into a fight. Miro struck Kingston with the championship, but as he went for a stomp, Kingston moved to counter with a backhand followed by a DDT. Overall, it was an average segment. Kingston got credibility heading into the title match, but the exchange about Miro’s god was odd and would have confused a fan that didn’t follow AEW all that much.

GRADE: 6/10

Kris Statlander took on Rebel and Jamie Hayter in a two-on-one handicap match. This match started with Statlander and Hayter in a collar-elbow tie-up as the two showed off their strength. After Statlander endured the heels’ early control, she took over the match. Statlander hit Rebel with a scoop slam then slammed Hayter to the mat as she ran in. Continuing to show off her strength, Statlander sat Rebel on top of her shoulders, caught Hayter in a failed crossbody attempt, and proceeded to slam both to the mat, allowing Statlander to lock in a spider crap submission on Rebel to win the match. This match showed off how strong Statlander is and makes her look like a threat to Britt Baker’s championship reign. The only downside: Hayter didn’t look as strong as she should be. Rebel did eat the pin, but I still wanted to see more from Hayter.

GRADE: 6.5/10 

The main event featured Darby Allin taking on Daniel Garcia with CM Punk on commentary. In this match, Punk did a great job of selling Allin. Punk called him the heart and soul of AEW, like how Sting was to WCW. The match was back and forth, but the turning point came when Allin hit a Coffin Drop to get out of a rear sleeper hold. Allin then performed the Pepsi Twist, one of Punk’s moves, which Punk sold again on commentary. Allin eventually picked up the win with a leg hold rollup. After the match, 2.0 immediately began to attack Allin leading Sting to help out his protege, but it was still three on two. Just as it looked Allin would be out of luck, Punk walked down from commentary, distracting 2.0 long enough for Allin to hit a dive taking out the pair of heels ending the show in a staredown with Punk. It was a great way to end the show, especially with Punk hyping up Allin on commentary, and ending with the staredown was gold. Seven and half out of ten. 

The go-home show of Rampage had a nice card featuring an entertaining slate of matches but was hurt by the Miro-Kingston segment. Despite that, the show still finished with a seven out of ten.