Winners, News And Notes On December 7, 2022

AEW Rampage advertised a Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale, Samoa Joe vs. Darby Allin, Jade Cargill and The Baddies vs. Madison Rayne, Skye Blue and Kiera Hogan, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta vs. Jake Hager and Daniel Garcia and FTR challenging The Acclaimed for the AEW World Tag Team Championship in the main event.

Last week’s broadcast of AEW Dynamite garnered a disappointing 870,000 viewers during what was a nightmare week or AEW viewership. AEW followed last week’s low number for Dynamite with a record low for AEW Rampage.

AEW Dynamite Results | December 7, 2022

• Ricky Starks wins the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal
• Samoa Joe def. Darby Allin | TNT TV Title
• Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta def. Jake Hager and Daniel Garcia
• Jade Cargill and The Baddies def. Skye Blue, Kiera Hogan and Madison Rayne
• The Acclaimed def. FTR | AEW World Tag Team Championship

AEW Dynamite Ratings

• November 30, 2022 | 870,000
• November 23, 2022 | 880,000
• November 16, 2022 | 818,000
• November 9, 2022 | 930,000
• November 2, 2022 | 911,000

• AEW Dynamite Venue: H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Texas
• AEW Tickets Distributed: 3,157
• AEW Tickets Available: 3,967

AEW Dynamite Winners and Highlights | December 7, 2022

Ricky Starks wins the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal

There was a lot of heat for the eliminations of Jungle Boy (eliminated by W. Morrissey) and Orange Cassidy, who was eliminated by Kip Sabian.

Fans were very much behind Ricky Starks winning this Battle Royal, and thankfully he did just that by eliminating Ethan Page.

Ricky Starks Destroys MJF in a Promo

Staying true to form, MJFs promo was loaded with WWE references, including accusing Ricky Starks of ripping off The Rock. MJF even called Starks “The Pebble,” which set off Starks enough to cut the promo of his life. Starks began by calling MJF “Maxi Pad,” which got over huge with this crowd. Then he kicked it into high gear and flamed Maxwell. It simply has to be seen to be believed.

MJF called Ricky Starks a Dollar-Store Dwayne. Ricky Starks called MJF a fifth-rate Roddy Piper. AEW needs to be careful booking its wrestlers to call each other ripoffs, or it’s going to come off like a watered-down Nitro.

Ricky Starks cooked MJF in a promo and these people loved it. It was so refreshing to see a true babyface getting cheered over a despicable heel.

During a backstage promo, Jon Moxley confirmed he would be competing on Rampage. Anything to save those record-low ratings.

Samoa Joe def. Darby Allin

Samoa Joe’s rear-naked choke is a perfect counter for Darby Allin’s Coffin Drop. Unfortunately for Allin, this was the finish of the match, though Darby passed out rather than tapping out.

Darby Allin may be in a dry spell of late, but he had a helluva match against Samoa Joe.

Darby Allin head-butted Samoa Joe after his loss, which led to Wardlow making the save.

Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta def. Jake Hager and Daniel Garcia

The Jericho Appreciation Society is vilified as “Sports Entertainers.” To lean into this, Jake Hager wears a purple hat. Problem is, the “Sports Entertainment” hat has gotten over in AEW. When Claudio kicked it into the crowd, he was booed.

Fans chanted “we the people,” which led to a nice and awkward quiet moment on commentary.

Following this match, Tony Schiavone aired a pretty awkward backstage promo with William Regal from a couple weeks ago. It was essentially Regal’s goodbye promo. Fans could be heard chanting “boring.” Regal’s message was to always stay one step ahead and always keep eyes in the back of your head. Moxley all but blew it off in his response.

Jade Cargill and The Baddies def. Red Velvet, Madison Rayne and Skye Blue

Jade Cargill received a rousing ovation for a hot tag.

Cargill planted Hogan with a great chokeslam before vanquishing Madison Rayne with Jaded. It was the perfect showcase for her from the moment she tagged in. She advanced to 43-0.

Backstage, AEW is already building up a tag team match with Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter vs. Saraya and a mystery opponent. Given the one-month build, I expect the mystery partner to be a big deal, and possibly a former WWE star.

The Acclaimed def. FTR

In his rap, Max Caster called FTR bottoms and also made a mention of Herschel Walker losing.

Both teams were predictably over, but The Acclaimed were definitely the bigger babyfaces. Not to be outdone, the FTR backers chanted for FTR shortly The Acclaimed was serenaded with “Scissor Me Daddy.”

FTR hit aBig Rig late in the match, but Anthony Bowens broke up the pinfall in a great nearfall.

The Acclaimed won the match with a rollup from Max Caster. It was the right decision because The Acclaimed are the more over tag team, but FTR’s window to hold all the tag team titles may have come and gone.

After this match, The Gunn Club challenged FTR to a double dog collar match at ROH Final Battle.