AEW Rampage Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from June 16

Welcome to Bleacher Report’s live coverage and recap of AEW Rampage on June 16.

The debut of Collision is this weekend but that doesn’t mean Tony Khan skimped on Rampage. In fact, this show had a match that has been building for weeks.

Mark Briscoe has finally had enough of Jeff Jarrett, Karen Jarrett and Jay Lethal’s nonsense, so he teamed up with Papa Briscoe and Aubrey Edwards for a mixed trios match to settle their differences.

We also saw United Empire take on Chaos, Konosuke Takeshita battled Bandido, and Taya Valkyrie faced Trish Adora.

Let’s take a look at everything that went down on Friday’s show.

Chaos and United Empire were already in the ring to start the show. Kyle Fletcher and Trent Beretta started for their teams with a competitive exchange of strikes and takedowns.

Since Mark Davis is injured, Jeff Cobb was teaming with Fletcher and Will Ospreay for this bout. Ospreay and Rocky Romero tagged in and kept the fight going as the crowd began to chant.

AEW trios matches have become one of the company’s biggest strengths. So many different trios exist across AEW and ROH, and we have seen several of them make a good argument or why they should be in consideration for a title shot in recent months.

Even just by looking at the participants in this match, you could tell it was going to be good before it started. Everyone brings a little something different to the table, so we saw a lot of different styles represented in this one bout.

After the obligatory sequence involving all six competitors, United Empire picked up the win by pinning Romero. The first several minutes were all business as usual, but the final few moments had some fantastic action.

Winners: United Empire

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• Jeff Cobb is the second coming of Rhyno. 
• Beretta’s moonsault from the middle rope to the floor looked really good. Great form. 
• Beretta and Chuck Taylor complimenting each other in the middle of a double-team move was hilarious. 
• Chris Jericho was great on commentary for this bout. 
• Cobb using a German suplex to break up a pin was a great spot, but breaking up the three-way hug by suplexing Beretta and Taylor at once was even better. 

The second match of the night saw Taya Valkyrie take on Trish Adora. While Adora was able to get in a bit of offense here and there, this match was almost all Valkyrie.

This match wasn’t very long but it was surprisingly physical. La Wera Loca picked up the win with a curb stomp. There wasn’t much to this, but it was better than the usual squash match we get on Rampage.

Winner: Taya Valkyrie

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• They might have forgotten to ring the bell to start the match.
• Adora has such a unique look and is a talented wrestler. She should be a featured talent somewhere by next year. 
• Valkyrie’s sliding German suplex was nice. The fan in the front row no-selling it was hilarious. 

Mark Briscoe brought in Papa Briscoe to team with him and Aubrey Edwards to take on Jay Lethal, Karen and Jeff Jarrett.

Mark and Lethal started for their teams. The former close friends traded some words and a quick handshake before locking up, so there was still a level of respect there.

A lot of AEW matches favor action over storytelling, but this bout was all story. It obviously had physicality, but it felt like every exchange was planned and served the story being told.

However, this match is not going to be for everyone. It leaned into comedy a bit too much for some fans, especially where Karen and Aubrey were concerned.

Mark, Lethal and Jeff all had some good spots while everyone else did what was expected of them during their brief moments in the ring. This won’t be on any Match of the Year lists, but it’s the kind of goofy match that makes pro wrestling fun sometimes.

Aubrey ended up getting the win for her team by using a Figure Four on Karen.

Winners: The Briscoe Family and Aubrey Edwards

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• Jericho was being extra petty and it made his commentary even better. 
• The little girls in the crowd dressed as refs were adorable. 
• Papa Briscoe should have hooked the leg. 
• Sonjay Dutt is such an integral part of his group. Without him, it wouldn’t be entertaining at all. 
• Can we get Paul Turner a hearing test?

The main event of the night saw Takeshita take on Bandido. Don Callis was by his new client’s side during the pre-match interview, but he sat with commentary instead of watching the action from ringside.

Both of these guys favor a more physically demanding style, so they wasted no time making this feel like a competitive fight.

Bandido might have been the smaller competitor but his impressive power kept him from ever feeling like an underdog. He even held him up for a couple of delayed vertical suplexes to show off his strength.

As expected, this match stole the show. Takeshita has adjusted his style well to being a heel and Bandido played a great babyface.

Callis moved to the ringside area as Bandido had the upper hand. Takeshita countered the 21 Plex and eventually scored the win with a knee to the face.

Winner: Konosuke Takeshita

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

• The artwork seen during Takeshita’s entrance was made by the amazing Mel Coleman. Go follow her on Twitter @MelColemanArt for more great artwork. 
• Get that paycheck, Mark Henry. 
• Bandido has such a cool look to him. He really stands out among the other masked wrestlers 
• Watching two guys yell at each other in Japanese and Spanish added an extra level of tension for some reason. 
• Bandido pressing Takeshita above his head was a great display of power.