Paid Members LaGoosh Posted December 13, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2023 I wanted to do a big, in depth post breaking the match down bit by bit but haven't found the time to do so but will just say that Bryan Danielson vs Daniel Garcia was an incredible bout. Some of the best in-ring storytelling you'll see, one of the best matches of this year or any year. Technically excellent but also highly emotional, original and creative. Long live the Continental Classic! Bryan Danielson is the greatest wrestler of all time and watching him do his thing right now is an absolute joy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted December 14, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 14, 2023 Live reports saying Top Flight vs Vikingo, Penta, Kommander was absolutely incredible. Looking forward to watching it over Frosties on Saturday morning, hell yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ReturnOfTheMack Posted December 16, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 16, 2023 On 12/14/2023 at 3:58 PM, LaGoosh said: Live reports saying Top Flight vs Vikingo, Penta, Kommander was absolutely incredible. Looking forward to watching it over Frosties on Saturday morning, hell yes. I'm not normally a massive fan of the overly choreographed fluppy tag stuff, but this was a cracker. On the flip side, the Von Eric's were not good at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted December 16, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 16, 2023 (edited) It was stupid, ridiculous and incredible fun. Not the type of thing you want to see every week but sometimes it's good to do something bonkers. If I was 11 years old it would have been my favourite match of the year. Edited December 16, 2023 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted December 17, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 17, 2023 On 12/16/2023 at 7:49 AM, ReturnOfTheMack said: On the flip side, the Von Eric's were not good at all. If you thought they were bad on Rampage, their match on the Final Battle pre-show was much worse. The lad with the black beard in particular looks completely lost out there. That main event was bonkers fun. And the commentary team remembered that The Acclaimed exist! Top Flight vs The Acclaimed for the Trios titles doesn't sound bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted December 17, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 17, 2023 (edited) Opener was OK. Nice big pop for Kevin Von Erich slapping on the iron claw. The bigger Von Erich with no boots looked alright. The other one, physique aside, looked like the most Indy wrestler of all time. Mark Briscoe backstage thing was good stuff. Him saying he's basically a rookie as a singles wrestler made good sense. Didn't come off as an excuse, just a good reason why he isn't letting the losses in the CC break his spirit. Also loved him getting sidetracked and then politely referring back to the interviewer's question. Came across as humble, personable and likeable as ever. Don Callis getting a free punch on the defeated jobber was an excellent dick move. Red Velvet and Anna Jay was very bad. Julia Hart and Skye Blue have both improved in-ring over the past year or so, but I don't feel like Anna has progressed at all. The bit early in this match where Velvet kicked out of the back slide and Anna sort of thumped the mat and then sat staring at Velvet waiting for the next move looked esoecially terrible. Then we saw Anna score the pinfall and the ref count 3, then Daddy Magic came out and the ref pretended it was only a 2 count, only for Menard to eventually distract Velvet so Anna could win the match she had already won. Deary me. Red Velvet has looked decent since her comeback, but I can't help but thinking of @Dr. Alan Grant "are you a baker? are you a cake?" post when I see her now. She never talks, she doesn't have a character, she appears to be a babyface but is mostly sort of "there". Main event was magical stuff. For them to go at that pace for that long with so many incredibly intricate and complex sequences is a truly remarkable feat, whether you like the style or not. How all six of them managed to remember everything they'd laid out here is mindblowing to me, never mind nailing it all with no noticeable botches or big moments of hesitation. It built well, the crowd was red hot for the whole thing, everyone got to shine and the commentators were marking out for it, just a wonderful spectacle. Loved it. Edited December 17, 2023 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted December 17, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, JLM said: Julia Hart and Skye Blue have both improved in-ring over the past year or so, but I don't feel like Anna has progressed at all. If anything, I'd say Anna Jay has regressed. She looked really promising when she first debuted (even getting a surprisingly good match out of Brandi Rhodes) but then she got injured a while back and hasn't been great ever since she returned. One of the biggest problems with them scrapping Dark/Elevation (other than missing out on Taz and Excalibur commentary) is people like Anna not getting regular match-time anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Version1.0 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Not sure how you are supposed to get better when you wrestle 22 matches in a year, half of which are tags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted December 29, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 29, 2023 (edited) Rampage 22/12 Really fun opener between OC and Rocky Romero. Kicked into high gear in the last five minutes in particular. Loved OC having to work extra hard and do a deadlift beach break due to his lower back damage. As I've said before, I hope OC gets more time to shine once the CC is over. He can knock out a high quality International Title defence like this in his sleep at this point, so I hope he's either given a feud to sink his teeth into or some more juicy opponents once the space for it opens up on the main shows again. He is just one of about 30+ talents I'd like to see squeezed onto the main shows as much as possible. Briscoe, Garcia, Hobbs, Takeshita, Starks and Big Bill, most of the other CC participants, Willow, Statlander, Julia, Toni Storm. Obviously Swerve and anyone in or on the cusp of the main event scene. Christian Cage. Penta, people bubbling under/recently returning/hopefully returning soon like Hayter/Pac/Fenix/Bandido. I'd like to see the Trios and tag titles return to prominence. I could go on and on and on and on and on. I guess what I'm saying is please don't fucking sign Dolph Ziggler. Interesting segment with Stokeley and Statlander. Respect to Statlander fighting the good fight for Kayfabe by claiming Kristen "isn't even her name". Trying to stir up shit between Willow and Statlander is the most dastardly heel move imaginable in my mind. Fuck you Hathaway. Solid promo from Brian Cage. He promos precisely how a preposterously jacked guy with a mohawk would promo. It checks out. Nana's presence also makes any promo ten times better of course. Roddy is very hit and miss for me these days, but I got a kick out of him shouting individual fans' names back at them and calling them stupid. I'd be up for more of that. Kingdom vs Hardys tag match is not for me, thanks. Looks like it was nice and short. That's good. Saraya cockblocking Cool Hand continues to be the best work she has done in AEW by far. Sky Blue/Queen Aminata was better than expected. Figured it'd be a short squash. It was short, but surprisingly competitive and hard hitting, with Aminata getting some very tidy looking offense in. Black Taurus vs Vikingo is the reason I watched this episode and oh boy I was not disappointed. After seeing these two go at it twice now, I don't really want to see Vikingo against anybody else. Such perfect foils for one another. Buttery smooth high speed lucha stuff, incredible counters and reversals, dazzling high spots (Vikingo thankfully much less shaky on these than he was at Final Battle) and of course Black Taurus' fucking MURDEROUS offense. My god, the torture rack into backbreaker in this match made me curse out loud and scare the shit out of my dog. The top rope military press was no less jaw dropping the second time either. I want a best of 7 of this match up. Or maybe I just need to seek out the other times they've done this in AAA. Tony please also book Taurus vs Komander. With the form Komander's been in lately it would slap so very hard. Two weeks in a row the Rampage main event has knocked my socks off. Lovely stuff. Edited December 29, 2023 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted December 29, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted December 29, 2023 Taurus is one of the best bases in wrestling, and I don't think Vikingo would have got as much success as he's had without him; they've not had a lot of singles matches, but they've been in multi-man matches in a lot of Vikingo's US indie appearances and all over Mexico, and Taurus is the glue that holds those matches together. I don't know if he's going to get signed by AEW or what, but it's great to see him getting a showcase either way, he's one of my favourites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 1 Paid Members Share Posted January 1 Rampage 29/12 Sammy Guevara stuck in an endless loop of back slapping and back stabbling with Chris Jericho is very boring. Pissed off Daddy Magic and Garcia promo was great. "Brody King you big dumb bastard!" Garcia/Matthews and Garcia/Malakai would both be good matches but maaan I hope Danny doesn't get bogged down with them stalking his social media and burning photos in barrels. They beat him up after he won fair and square so he's pissed. He eliminated Brody from the CC, so HOB are pissed. That's all it needs to be, but I have a horrible feeling it won't be. Do. Not. Fuck. Up. Daniel. Garcia. Ruby Soho/Marina Shafir was there. Again cautiously intrigued by this Harley Cameron thing. No Cool Hand/Ruby development. Booo. Powerhouse Hobbs says at World's end we'll find out why he's big, why he's black and why he's jacked. I actually like the catchphrase but this did not make sense. Unless we're going to meet his parents and get a breakdown of his eating/gym routine. Statlander/Willow segment was clunky. I don't like them having a singles match on the World's End pre-show. I also don't really like the Stokeley driving a wedge angle. I'd rather they remained pals. Yuta/Sydal was fine. Some nice chain wrasslin' at the beginning. Hard to care about a Matt Sydal match though. Attacking Danhausen was some good heat for Yuta. Main event was also fine, but the past two Rampages have had stellar main events and it wasn't anywhere near that level. Very skippable Rampage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 6 Paid Members Share Posted January 6 A boring Hardy Boys match and a crappy ROH Pure Title match I don’t care about in the main event. Arguably the Ramapagiest episode of Rampage ever. Only thing worth caring about was the backstage segment with Double J, where they finally made it canon that he’s carrying the group and Jay Lethal is dragging the whole thing down. If there’s any justice in the world, Jeff’ll beat Lethal clean and then move on to bigger and better things. He has a win over the Continental Champion, don’t you know. Ain’t he great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 6 Paid Members Share Posted January 6 Komander being one of the only people to reverse the Seatbelt because the guy who trained him invented the move is the kind of nerdy shit I love. Can't believe I forgot to nominate the Hardys for Worst Wrestler. Jeff in particular can't even do the Stinger Splash without it looking like it might kill him. Even Mark Briscoe felt diminshed several notches just by teaming up with them. Please let Private Party beat them in some kind of passing the torch moment then fuck them off for good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 7 Paid Members Share Posted January 7 (edited) Skipped to the end of the Hardys match so I could watch Mark Briscoe win. Really drip feeding these Cool Hand Ang romance updates. I'm watching an extremely ropey episode of Rampage, throw me a light entertainment bone at least guys. Also skipped the Jericho/Guevara promo. This whole Stokeley/Willow/Statlander thing is such a waste of their time. I hate it. Anna Jay/Shida was a weird one. Overall was better than some of Anna Jay's other recent matches, but there was definitely an accidental 3 count which the crowd shat all over, and Shida was somehow bleeding from the mouth at the end of it. Whoops. Komander/Yuta was fine. I appreciated the Skayde chat on commentary. Sent me on a brief Wikipedia spiral to see what became of some of the Toryumon/Dragongate guys I used to follow religiously, as he trained many of them too. Retired, still with Dragongate in their late 40s/early 50s, or working for tiny Japanese Indies mostly. Don't know what I expected but it did make me feel very old. As @Supremo says, the Jarrett/Lethal thing was the most interesting thing on the show. I've missed Double J. I hope they don't think anyone's interested in a Jay Lethal post-CC redemption story, though. Edited January 7 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted January 13 Paid Members Share Posted January 13 Three absolutely terrible things from Rampage this week: 1. The wonderful Mark Briscoe has been pulled into the shit vortex of the Hardyz. 2. That prick Jeff bragging about Rampage beating Collision in the ratings. What the fuck is the point of that? 3. Braindead midlife crisis Matt wearing an Omar Little t-shirt. Horrendous on the eyes. The Hardys need to be binned off ASAP. Nothing to offer at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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