It’s Friday, and you know what that means …
AEW Rampage returns this evening from the Viejas Arena in San Diego, California with their special “Championship Friday” edition of AEW Rampage on TNT.
On tap for tonight’s show is Dralistico vs. El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Kommander for the AAA Mega Title, Willow Nightingale vs. Emi Sakura for the NJPW Strong Women’s Title, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Action Andretti for the NJPW TV Title, as well as Katsuyori Shibata vs. Lee Moriarty for the ROH Pure Title.
Featured below are complete AEW Rampage results from Friday, June 2, 2023. The following report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live at 10/9c on TNT.
AEW RAMPAGE RESULTS (6/2/2023)
It’s Friday, and you know what that means …
AEW Rampage returns this evening from the Viejas Arena in San Diego, California with their special “Championship Friday” edition of AEW Rampage on TNT.
On tap for tonight’s show is Dralistico vs. El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Kommander for the AAA Mega Title, Willow Nightingale vs. Emi Sakura for the NJPW Strong Women’s Title, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Action Andretti for the NJPW TV Title, as well as Katsuyori Shibata vs. Lee Moriarty for the ROH Pure Title.
Featured below are complete AEW Rampage results from Friday, June 2, 2023. The following report was written by Rajah.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live at 10/9c on TNT.
AEW RAMPAGE RESULTS (6/2/2023)
The “This is Rampage, baby!” theme and accompanying intro video airs as always to get this week’s post-Double Or Nothing edition of Rampage off-and-running from inside the Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA.
AAA Mega Championship
El Hijo Del Vikingo (C) vs. Dralistico vs. Kommander
A special “Championship Friday” edition of AEW Rampage kicks off with a three-way dance for the AAA Mega Championship, as Dralistico, El Hijo del Vikingo and Kommander duke it out in our opening contest.
All three men are in the ring and the bell sounds to get us officially off-and-running with our first of four big title matches with championships from three different promotions on-the-line tonight.
Del Vikingo puts his title up for grabs in this one, which gets off to a hot start. We see all three guys leaping and rolling, before popping back up to their feet. They do it around and near each other over-and-over again, to the delight of the fans in attendance.
Now we see Del Vikingo hit an absurd high spot from the ring to the floor. After that, we head to a mid-match commercial break as the action continues. When we return, we see two of the guys duking it out in the ring while one recovers on the floor.
The reigning champ does a tight-rope walk before running and leaping off the top out to the floor. The crowd goes insane for that and breaks out in a pro-Del Vikingo chant. Back in the ring, he hits a 450 splash for a close near fall attempt.
After a corkscrew hurricanrana we see another close near fall attempt. Del Vikingo hits the ropes and builds up a full head of steam before connecting with a 630 senton off the middle rope onto Kommander and Dralistico on the floor, putting them through a table in the process.
The fans respond with a well-deserved “This is Awesome” chant. Back in the ring, out of nowhere, Del Vikingo connects with a beautiful counter to score the pin fall victory. With the win, he moves to 547 days as the AAA Mega Champion. Excellent opener here on Rampage this week.
Winner and STILL AAA Mega Champion: El Hijo Del Vikingo
Aubrey Edwards To Wrestle Karen Jarrett?!
We see highlights of Karen Jarrett getting involved at Double Or Nothing in the tag-team title match between the teams of Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal and the reigning champions, FTR. We see Karen hitting referee Aubrey Edwards with a guitar.
Now we shoot backstage and Lexy Nair is standing by with Jarrett, Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Satnam Singh and Karen Jarrett. She brings up rumors of them being suspended for their actions over the weekend.
As they bicker and complain, we see Mark Briscoe make his way up to the guys. He tells them all to shut up and then informs them that there won’t be any suspensions. He just spoke with Tony Khan. It will be Jeff Jarrett and Karen Jarrett in action.
Against who?
Aubrey Edwards walks up and says she only sees air and opportunity separating them. Aubrey and Karen get into a cat fight, which they all try and break up as we head to a commercial break.
NJPW TV Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. (C) vs. Action Andretti
When we return from the break, we see Action Andretti making his way out. He heads down to the ring accompanied by Darius Martin for our next match of the evening here on tonight’s special “Championship Friday” edition of Rampage.
Andretti settles in the ring, where he awaits the arrival of his opponent. His music dies down and then the theme for the NJPW Television Champion plays and out comes the reigning and defending champion, Zack Sabre Jr.
The two are both settled inside the ring now and the bell sounds to get this one officially off-and-running. We see Sabre Jr. start off strong, using a lot of mat-based action as Jim Ross compares him to the late, great Billy Robinson on commentary.
We see Andretti start to use his high-flying offense to shift the momentum in his favor. The speed and pace picks up as Action controls the offense. We see Sabre Jr. end up grounding Andretti and slapping on a vicious arm-bar. He steps over the arm with his leg and cranks even harder for the win. Very good match.
Winner and STILL NJPW TV Champion: Zack Sabre Jr.
NJPW Strong Women’s Championship
Willow Nightingale (C) vs. Emi Sakura
“Your Highness” Emi Sakura makes her way out for our third of four title bouts here on this “Championship Friday” edition of AEW Rampage on TNT. The Japanese veteran settles in the ring with her cape and crown on.
The theme for Sakura dies down and now the familiar sounds of Willow Nightingale’s entrance tune plays. Out comes the reigning, defending NJPW Strong Women’s Champion for her latest title defense of the belt she won by defeating Mercedes Mone.
Now the bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this women’s title contest. We see Willow jump off to a strong start, however it isn’t long before the challenger takes over and starts to put it on the champ.
We see Nightingale outside the ring ropes on the apron, when Sakura runs and hits a belly-to-belly cross-body. Willow doesn’t go down. She looks to suplex her on the floor from the apron, but fails, and ends up knocked out herself.
On the floor, Sakura whips Willow into the steel guard rail and then follows in for another big running belly-to-belly cross-body splash as Willow was laying against the unforgiving steel guard rail. On that note, we head to a mid-match commercial break as the action continues.
When we return from the break, we see Sakura still in control of the action, however not for long, as Willow fires up on offense and ends up hitting her finisher for the pin fall victory. With the win, Willow retains her NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. After the match, we head to another break.
Winner and STILL NJPW Strong Women’s Champion: Willow Nightingale
ROH Pure Championship
Katsuyori Shibata (C) vs. Lee Moriarty
When we return from the break, we see Mark Henry in a suit backstage talking into the camera. “The World’s Strongest Man” introduces the pre-main event video package, which hypes up the final bout of the evening.
“Championship Friday” edition of AEW Rampage continues here on TNT from Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA. as the theme for the challenger, Lee Moriarty, hits and out he comes. He settles in the ring.
Out next is the reigning and defending ROH Pure Champion, Katsuyori Shibata. The fans give him a good reaction coming out. As he settles in the ring, the commentators run down some of the rules for the ROH Pure title bouts.
We see Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels and BJ Whitmer are the judges for tonight’s main event, and we are informed that they will give their scores in the event the match goes to a time-limit draw.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with our fourth of four scheduled championship matches here on tonight’s special-themed installment of the weekly one-hour AEW on TNT television program.
Early on, we see some good back-and-forth action after the two do the obligatory handshake for the code of honor used in all Ring Of Honor rules matches. We see Shibata jump into the early offensive lead.
Moriarty uses the first of his limited rope breaks early on as Shibata plays to the rules and slaps a submission attempt on the challenger near the ropes. Soon after that, we see Lee fight back with a drop kick to the knee to slow Shibata down as we head into a mid-match commercial break.
When we return from the break, we see Shibata has Moriarty in a figure-four leg lock in the middle of the ring. He uses his second of three rope breaks to get out of that one. He only has one left now. Moments later he uses his third and final one.
Moriarty gets his Border City Stretch on Shibata in the center of the ring and the crowd reacts appropriately and then begins rallying behind Shibata. He eventually escapes. Shibata slaps a sleeper hold on Moriarty and then lets it go to kick the crap out of him before finishing him off for the win.
Winner and STILL ROH Pure Champion: Katsuyori Shibata
Daniel Garcia Confronts Katsuyori Shibata
Once the match wraps up, we see Shibata celebrating in the ring with his ROH Pure Championship as the crowd in San Diego shows him a ton of live. His music dies down and the theme for Daniel Garcia hits.
The J.A.S. member and former ROH Pure Champion makes his way down to the ring. He settles inside and gets in Shibata’s face. Shibata stares back at him and raises his ROH Pure title over his head. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us!
?ONE HOUR TO GO?
It's championship Friday, as we have four HUGE championship matches set for #AEWRampage TONIGHT!
▶️ @AEWonTV at 10pm ET/9pm CT! pic.twitter.com/T4CMTOjywe— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 3, 2023
