AEW Rampage Thread 2022

[DavidB6937]

To be fair no one watched 205 Live so they'll be pretty fresh to most people.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

6 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Opener was decent, which considering I can’t stand Jon Silver at the best of times is quite the achievement 

You hurt me! I love Silver.

6 hours ago, Merzbow said:

But yeah that rap battle died the moment the guest judge opened his mouth and it only got worse from there. Gay jokes in 2022, nice.

And oddly Bowens acted insulted about it, despite being openly gay. 

 

But yeah, the rap battle just felt off. Too many people in the ring who had no reason to be there. The judge dude was shite. I quite liked Gunn being shit, made sense. But Caster has been far better.

[The Gaffer]

As much as I love Taz on the A show, I miss the dynamic of him, Ricky Starks and even Jericho flapping their gums like Tony blowing into his No Mercy cartridge. It was perfect fodder for a compact hour. Basically just put Taz on both nights and bin JR completely.

And - on the subject of verbiage - just give Claudio some sort of pre-voice acted JRPG gimmick. Honestly, fuck it. Text boxing his promos would be a vast improvement over giving him a live mic ever again. 

But yeah. ROH show to promote or not, you've got Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt and Christopher Daniels mucking about in the main event of your Smackdown equivalent. Not a good look. They're bursting with homegrown talent who have genuine star potential and I was waiting during that one for an ad break to come on flogging the Bagpipe Report and CZW. 

Edited July 23, 2022 by Gay as FOOK

[Guest]

4 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Yeah, I’d been looking forward to that, but it was absolutely terrible. The guest judge didn’t exactly help, but the material was also pretty weak.

Also, I can’t believe they’re bringing in yet another 205 Live wrestler. They used to talk about ‘TNA stink’, but the stench of that show is even more foul. The idea they have for him better be bloody spectacular to justify bringing him in over a fresher, younger wrestler. 

I can’t remember anything on Rampage about a new ex 205 guy, who have I missed?

[HarmonicGenerator]

35 minutes ago, Louch said:

I can’t remember anything on Rampage about a new ex 205 guy, who have I missed?

There was a “coming soon” vignette for Ariya Daivari. Who has appeared for AEW a few times but I guess is now All Elite.

[WyattSheepMask]

37 minutes ago, Louch said:

I can’t remember anything on Rampage about a new ex 205 guy, who have I missed?

Ariya Daivari, who was in the Cruiserweight Classic 6 years ago and then tucked on 205 Live until getting released last year. He got the vignette treatment when the show came back from an ad break.

Vignettes are something that AEW have rarely done since the early days of the promotion, and they decide to start using again to promote this nobody

Edited July 23, 2022 by WyattSheepMask

[RedRooster]

40 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Vignettes are something that AEW have rarely done since the early days of the promotion, and they decide to start using again to promote this nobody

It’s an eclectic bunch, who’ve got the vignette treatment. Wardlow, Lio Rush and now this guy. Their vignettes have all been surprisingly weak, though, they have a somewhat cheap feel to them, which is odd, given how high budget and slick the video packages on the ‘Road To’ shows and YouTube feel.

[Nick James]

Daivari was a producer in WWE up until a few weeks ago. Was let go during the 'budget cut bullshit' then rehired and then fired again, along with Curtis Axel.

[Infinity Land]

After being released last summer Daivari has made several appearances in AEW. Pretty sure the the day he had his tryout as a WWE producer it was on Smackdown and the next day was working the Dark tapings. Then got hired and fired as a Producer.

At the last set of Dark tapings they are going somewhere. Got a taste last night on ROH's preseason in a tag team with Slim J called the Trustbusters. Who have a 3rd member who's an ex-NXT alum.

Spoiler

Parker Boudreaux  aka Harland. Who I think is still meant to be green as grass.

With an appearance on ROH, Dark and a Daivari specific vignette it's hard to tell quite where they're going with it. Does feel like something more developmental and not take up a ton of space on AEW TV.

[BomberPat]

I don't mind so much when the ex-NXT crew are showing up on Dark, because there's a ton of people on those shows that there's no reason to care about, and they often feel like a bit a holding cell for people that they might have plans for later down the line. No excuse, given the roster AEW has, to put an NXT 2.0 cast-off like Cole Karter on the actual A-show, though, and I say that as someone who actually likes the "revolving door" vibe where someone might show up for one match and then never again.

There are people who get released from WWE that are absolute no-brainer signings no matter how stacked your roster already is. But anyone who's been hidden away on 205 Live, or been a bit part of the NXT rebrand, isn't someone you need to be rushing to get a contract in front of. 

 

Back in 2000, getting back into wrestling, my brother kept a hand-written list of names of every wrestler we saw on TV. He might have even kept a tally of how many matches we saw them in. But that was his way of trying to figure out who was on the WWF roster. Because we mostly saw stuff like Heat and Metal, it even had names like Low-Ki and Scoot Andrews on there, because we didn't understand that not everyone on those shows was under contract. Ever since then, I've had a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of who's under contract at any given time. The last couple of years with the rise of NXT 2.0 and 205 Live, is the first time where I might see a WWE match graphic and think, "who the fuck are these guys?". Just lists of names I've honestly never heard of before in my life. Even if Tony Khan is seeing some well of untapped potential in some of them, when you've got people like me not even knowing who half of them are, where's the rush to sign them? I'd be willing to concede that maybe Ariya Daivari brings something to the table as a producer/player-coach, maybe he has a ton of contacts that might come in handy later down the line, but what does Cole Karter bring to the table that a hundred other guys in or out of the AEW locker room don't? 

[Nick James]

The Cole Karter stuff feels like it was purely for a tie in due to it being 'Shark Week' and him being written off NXT by 'Sleeping with the fishes'....or at least I hope that's all it is.

Daivari to be fair, has a decent look and is pretty good in ring, perfect Dark fodder, but not someone to build up with Vignettes.

Spoiler

The pairing with Harland is very odd. He was supposed to be the next big thing and WWE cut him due to him making no progress at all, so to bring him in so soon seems rather odd. His name value isn't high either all things considered.

 

[Infinity Land]

3 minutes ago, Nick James said:

The Cole Karter stuff feels like it was purely for a tie in due to it being 'Shark Week' and him being written off NXT by 'Sleeping with the fishes'....or at least I hope that's all it is.

Daivari to be fair, has a decent look and is pretty good in ring, perfect Dark fodder, but not someone to build up with Vignettes.

  Hide contents

The pairing with Harland is very odd. He was supposed to be the next big thing and WWE cut him due to him making no progress at all, so to bring him in so soon seems rather odd. His name value isn't high either all things considered.

 

Spoiler

Vibe I get with tying up Harland with them is a minor league Satnam/Lethal/Dutt type combo. Play the muscle with some player coaches for on the job training.

As for Cole Karter they went with the joke. So I think that was the main reason for him being on TV. He's already done some of the Dark tapings after his NXT release. He feels like another guy likely to work the Dark/RoH circuit to see if he catches on.

[Supremo]

Embarrassing finish to the Barb Wire match aside, I’ve enjoyed AEW the last few weeks and felt like things were getting back on track after a wobbly Spring.

The cracks are still very visible though. This was the company where stipulations were supposed to be respected and adhered to, where you could put your trust in what they were selling, and yet here we are with people breaking out of shark cages and interfering in matches they were guaranteed not to interfere in. This was also the contemporary, progressive company, that handled sensitive topics maturely, and yet here we are with people make gay jokes and slagging off dead relatives. I don’t even have a particularly larger point to make. It’s just a bit shit when WWE tropes bleed through like this. Were they always here, but the higher quality of the shows made it less noticeable?

[CavemanLynn]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I don't mind so much when the ex-NXT crew are showing up on Dark, because there's a ton of people on those shows that there's no reason to care about, and they often feel like a bit a holding cell for people that they might have plans for later down the line. No excuse, given the roster AEW has, to put an NXT 2.0 cast-off like Cole Karter on the actual A-show, though, and I say that as someone who actually likes the "revolving door" vibe where someone might show up for one match and then never again.

There are people who get released from WWE that are absolute no-brainer signings no matter how stacked your roster already is. But anyone who's been hidden away on 205 Live, or been a bit part of the NXT rebrand, isn't someone you need to be rushing to get a contract in front of. 

 

Back in 2000, getting back into wrestling, my brother kept a hand-written list of names of every wrestler we saw on TV. He might have even kept a tally of how many matches we saw them in. But that was his way of trying to figure out who was on the WWF roster. Because we mostly saw stuff like Heat and Metal, it even had names like Low-Ki and Scoot Andrews on there, because we didn't understand that not everyone on those shows was under contract. Ever since then, I've had a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of who's under contract at any given time. The last couple of years with the rise of NXT 2.0 and 205 Live, is the first time where I might see a WWE match graphic and think, "who the fuck are these guys?". Just lists of names I've honestly never heard of before in my life. Even if Tony Khan is seeing some well of untapped potential in some of them, when you've got people like me not even knowing who half of them are, where's the rush to sign them? I'd be willing to concede that maybe Ariya Daivari brings something to the table as a producer/player-coach, maybe he has a ton of contacts that might come in handy later down the line, but what does Cole Karter bring to the table that a hundred other guys in or out of the AEW locker room don't? 

It's why I'm worried for AEW's direction or lack thereof at the moment. The big pull for AEW in its first few years were that it was built by and on guys who mostly hadn't been churned out by the WWE system. They had immediate experience of promotions all over the world, with the melting pot of influences that brings. Nothing I've seen from the NXT Gold castaways has shown me they have any ideas outside the WWE production cues and tropes. Backstage interviews that get cut off before they even start. Rigidly choreographed entrances. Looong matches riddled with unnecessary false finishes and no personality. And Little Tone is so in AWE of them all. 

[DavidB6937]

Funny thing is that era of NXT was entirely for a guy like Tony Khan. He's the perfect example of a fan it was aimed at. I imagine he was wanking himself (and/or his dogs) stupid in between Dynamite booking meetings dreaming of the day he could buy all these indy guys like he was collecting wrestling figures and just playing with them in a life size ring. Which is exactly what he's doing now. And he really needs to find a better balance soon because a lot of what he's doing is losing sight of all the good shit he was serving up before. He needs to think why he beat them regularly in the first place and not spend his time and money on focusing on guys he outperformed. It's a weird place he's in right now and not a good one. Omega needs to come back and course correct ASAP.