Christian wins the Impact World title in the first match in AEW Rampage history

The first-ever episode of AEW Rampage on Fri., Aug 13 opened with Kenny Omega defending one his Impact World title against the undefeated Christian Cage. The crowd at Pittsburgh’s Peterson Events Center was red hot, and that was even before Christian turned Omega’s signature taunt into the bird.

The champ was didn’t have all of his Elite cronies with him, but he had Don Callis. That was enough to give the Belt Collector the early advantage over the veteran. Christian wasn’t going to lay down against them he’ll challenge for AEW World title at All Out, though.

Back and forth they went, and it looked like this one would go like all of Kenny’s other title defenses. A Callis distraction allowed Omega to hit a low blow, and brought The Young Bucks to the ring. They slide their teammate a chair to hit One Winged Angel onto, but Cage turned the tables and nailed his Kill Switch finisher onto it. He threw the chair out of the ring before Brian Hebner turned around, and we had a title change!

Cage last held gold in the company now known as Impact back in 2007. In 2021, in the first show from a company that didn’t even exist then, he’s their World champion.

Get complete Rampage results here.