AEW Rampage Thread 2023

[King Mal the Glorious]

He was on ROH this week. But yeah, disappointing lack of Danhausen on AEW recently.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Why was Dutch never part of Meat Madness? 

(Also, Archer and The Righteous taking the Trios titles and then smashing up other teams, please)

[LaGoosh]

14 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Why was Dutch never part of Meat Madness?

Because Jericho needed a match so they cancelled the Meat. Sad times.

I love Lance and wish he was featured regularly. I rewatched his match with Hangman recently and it was fucking tremendous. I'd rather he was a singles guy but if a Trios gets him on TV each week I'm happy with that. Dutch's wonderful Bossman Slam also needs to be on TV each week.

[Infinity Land]

23 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Because Jericho needed a match so they cancelled the Meat. Sad times.

I love Lance and wish he was featured regularly. I rewatched his match with Hangman recently and it was fucking tremendous. I'd rather he was a singles guy but if a Trios gets him on TV each week I'm happy with that. Dutch's wonderful Bossman Slam also needs to be on TV each week.

As much as I like Lance, the dude's pushing 50. If a big lanky bastard's going to get a singles push, Big Bill's right there twiddling his thumbs while Ricky Starks looks at Orlando real estate.

Wasted opportunity if they don't do HOOK v. Lance Archer for the FTW title. Should get a sampling tomorrow. HOOK's someone that should have had the babyface title run with multiple hoss defenses like OC/Mox/Cody.

[LaGoosh]

14 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

If a big lanky bastard's going to get a singles push, Big Bill's right there twiddling his thumbs

Push them both! More big lanky bastards!

[JLM]

Rampage 23/02/24

Top Flight and Andretti vs Private Party and Matt Sydal vs Penta, Komander and Bryan Keith

This was pretty darn Rampage-y. The match was an entertaining sprint but ooh I do not like Action Andretti. Is he actually supposed to be a babyface? The giant launching tornillo from Komander was crazy. Penta was awesome, as was his black and gold ring gear. 

Zak Knight boooo. Is he the jock coming to beat up Cool Hand? He better not beat up Cool Hand. Or embarrass him at the big homecoming dance. I don't know what Harley Cameron is doing. We're getting the next date!

CAPUCCINO JONES! 

Mariah May and Anna Jay decided to hit each other pretty hard. This was more fun than I thought it would be. 

I enjoyed the main event much more than expected too. Haeger generally bores me senseless, but all the bells and whistles and the hot hometown crowd got me on board. 

A solid Rampage. 

Rampage 01/03/24 

Rugido vs Claudio was a very ordinary pro wrestling match. Rugido hit an impressive powerslam considering the size difference, other than that it was just the OK-est of OK. I am still not over Hechicero being cruelly taken away from us by US immigration policy. Enjoyed Daddy Magic and Nigel bickering more than the match here. Appreciated the post match shithousery from Claudio. 

The Righteous and Lance Archer vs Jobbers. Again, please free up the trios titles and make Lance Archer and The Righteous a permanent thing. I will watch jobber squashes to get my Dutch fix and it will temporarily satisfy my bloodlust, but I crave more. They destroyed the jobbers with extreme prejudice and I was satisfied for now. Dutch was thoroughly entertained with Archer's abuse of the jobbers and even gave him a little pat afterwards in recognition of his work. Stop flirting and make it official, guys. Murderhawk Minister Lance Archer. I'm beggin' ya. 

Trish Adora vs Riho. I liked the test of strength where Trish put both hands up, as is tradition, but Riho used both hands to try and beat just one of Trish's. I don't think I've seen that before. Fun little Rampage filler match, elevated by how over Riho still is, and by Trish leaning into that and being a bit more heelish than usual. 

Cool Hand and Ruby's date! At last! Oh nooooooooooooooooo Zak Knight. I like them cementing this split. Ruby acting pretty much as herself (and the very real chemistry she has with Cool Hand) has made her the most likeable she's ever been to me. Ruby vs Saraya isn't going to be pretty, but it'll be all shenanigans and smoke and mirrors and I want the best for Ruby and Cool Hand, so I'm on board. Daddy Magic going right back to bantering with Tony and Nigel and having no reaction to this assault on Cool Hand was a touch awkward. I know he's Danny's surrogate father and JAS is over, but Cool Hand is surely still his boy right? 

Magnus vs Matt Sydal. I like that Magnus came out still pissed at what Claudio did to his tag partner earlier, and that he didn't want any part of Sydal's handshake as a result. I've seen what you people do in this promotion. I shake your hand you kick my balls. Never again! This was a weird one. I thought it'd be a bit of a Magnus showcase, but Sydal was on offense for pretty much the entire thing. Then he lost. Just barely squeaking by Matt Sydal is not a very impressive way to qualify for the scramble. 

I have to wonder if Rugido and Magnus were not the luchadors they wanted to use here after the via issues. They are the CMLL tag champs though, so maybe not. Either way, neither of them was particularly impressive. 
 

[HarmonicGenerator]

I said it about Dutch last week. Now it is the turn of The Butcher. Why was The Butcher never part of Meat Madness?

I grow more and more convinced something deeply deeply wrong happened with Meat Madness. They announced the match. They made it just a Triple Threat. Then they abandoned it entirely claiming not enough meat. But there’s clearly, clearly enough meat. WHAT HAPPENED TO MEAT MADNESS.

[JLM]

Rampage 03/08/24

OC/Trent vs Butcher/Sabian was a solid Rampage tag match. Sabian and OC had some lovely reversal sequences and I enjoyed Butcher's manhandling of OC. OC taking forever to make the hot tag because he didn't want to de-pocket his hands was funny, and thought it leaned into Trent Baretta not quite feeling the Best Friends love as much as he used to, as did the understated group hug after. 

The little promo for Dynamite with the wrestlers working out and doing voice overs was very cool. Completely different feel from how they used to do these, in keeping with this "new era" of Dynamite. 

Ruby's promo was great! Once again this silly romance story with Cool Hand has been my favourite thing she's ever done and this continued it. "You and your inbred family!" Daaaaamn. 

Have to say the "women's wrestling" chant makes me cringe at this point. I'm sure it's well-intentioned but it feels very patronising. 

House Rules returns! Robyn Renegade with the tape on her shoulder, the commentators talk about how Julia's Heartless submission is ideal for an injury like this and how the tape is basically a target on the limb for the opponent to aim at. Standard wrestling commentator analysis. However, Robyn Renegade, knowing she has a shoulder injury, knowing she's challenging for her first singles title against a champion with a deadly arm and shoulder based submission hold, has chosen "no top rope moves" as her stipulation. I thought Cole still believing Wardlow will hand over the world title if he beats Joe made him the dumbest wrestler of the week, but no, Robyn Renegade is a complete and utter moron. She did, of course, lose to the Heartless submission hold, because Julia Hart is not a stupid dumb dumb head. 

Zak Knight's comical attempts at doing intense face are not helping him defend against the inbreeding allegations. Saraya as a the gobby little shit who tries to get people into fights with her dead 'ard older brother is funny though. There were kids like that at my school. 

Penta vs Action Andretti was fine I guess. Again, I cannot stand Action Andretti. I do love Penta though. So conflicted. 

Main event was also fine I guess. I am awfully tired of Top Flight vs Private Party. Not been feeling Private Party at all since they've been back as a team. They just don't feel necessary on this roster. Nor do Action Andretti or Bryan Keith really. 

[LaGoosh]

On 3/10/2024 at 8:40 AM, HarmonicGenerator said:

I grow more and more convinced something deeply deeply wrong happened with Meat Madness. They announced the match. They made it just a Triple Threat. Then they abandoned it entirely claiming not enough meat. But there’s clearly, clearly enough meat. WHAT HAPPENED TO MEAT MADNESS.

I think the most likely explanation is Jericho threw a wobbly about not being booked on the show and talked them into changing Meat Madness into a match he could be in.

[Chili]

 

Whats that you say? Chili's favourite background angle continues? Yes, please. Even with Saraya's gormless brother in the mix, I'm still enjoying this tale. Cool Hang Angelo confronting Norwich's maddest man was great. Saraya is a treat in this angle, just a shithead bully who deliberately causes a ruck so her brother can smack someone about. Pitch perfect character when Angelo lamped him and Saraya starts going "GET ORF MY BROTHER" when he gets a smack. No idea what Harley Cameron's end game in this is. Sterling promo from Cool Hand, all the 2.0 lads are great cutting those hidden fire interviews. Long may this strange fable continue. 

 

Edited March 18 by Chili
Gespacho Soup.

[JLM]

Rampage 15/03/24

OC/Trent vs Dark Order

Textbook Rampage opener. Bit of comedy, fun scrambly bits towards the end, John Silver keeping OC out of Pockets-stance by putting his own hands in the pockets was an inspired move. 

Loved The Righteous Vignette. The tag team tournament only has six teams in it Tony, no room for a bit of the ol' Dutch? Shame. 

@Chili has covered all he Cool Hand/Ruby/Saraya Knight/Zak Knight business. It's brilliant, I love it. Like Dalton Castle on ROH, it's the throughline and ongoing story I look forward to on a show that can often just be as series of matches. The "someone I appreciated/someone I love" line was so good. It's silly soap opera fun but I also reeeallly wanna see Ruby and Cool Hand prevail. 

Storm/May/Purazzo stuff was all good fun. Mariah May is having a blast playing this role and it shows. The spinning side slam with way too many rotations was great, she should keep that. Nice to see Thunder Rosa involved in something other than Collision jobber matches. 

Takeshita/Komander was, unsurprisingly, rather good. Komander has good matches with most people and Takeshita is some kind of superhuman anomaly, so a pretty safe bet. Takeshita is such a spectacular performer to watch. Anything he does looks as good as or better than any other version you've seen of it, highlighted in this match by the spinning falcon arrow at the end. He should be one of those guys where any number of moves could end the match for him, because it all looks utterly devastating. 

Main event was fine. My eyes do glaze over a bit when I see Top Flight and Andretti these days, same with The Kingdom. Six guys in a match and Roderick Strong has the most personality out of them. Oof. But yeah, perfectly watchable six man. 

Another very easy hour of wrestling TV. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Cracking main event this week, surprised that Hart and Blue went over though.

[Supremo]

Damning for Rampage that even when they air it immediately after Dynamite, with the main event of Dynamite overrunning into the show, it still has barely anyone commenting on it.

It was my first Rampage in a while. Fun show. As a rare occurrence, doing a three hour block on Wednesdays was fun. They absolutely should not consider doing it regularly through. Fuck that.

With Copeland’s win technically happening on this show, is that one of the first Title switches on Rampage? Nothing comes to mind when I try and think of another one.

Really good vignette with Bullet Club Gold. They’re instantly back to being wildly entertaining now they’re heels again. I laughed when the skeleton came down the water slide. “Oh look! Here’s Darby now!” There’s big money in the eventual feud when Darby returns. Hopefully Jay White keeps the stolen bat until then. When’s Juice back? 

By contrast, The Acclaimed are absolutely finished as an act. It was insane watching how little reaction they got here. Max waffling on to silence. Remember how over they once were? I can’t decide if it’s the lacklustre onscreen stuff, or Max Caster being a bit of an idiot on Twitter, but either way this felt like the last hurrah for a team destined for the bin. They’re done. Call it a day. Anthony Bowens could make something of himself as a singles. Sticking around with Caster at this point just feels like holding him back.

Great match with Rocky and Takeshita. Takeshita rules. He should go for the TNT Title against Copeland.

Fun tag with Best Friends. Still hoping for a big heel turn from Trent.

Considering they had to follow the I Quit match, that Main event was nothing short of a miracle. They managed to do a wild, weapon-based brawl in a way that still set it apart from what Christian and Cope had done forty minutes earlier, massively overdelivering. Willow and Skye in particular put on phenomenal performances. The women in AEW always deliver with these crazy hardcore matches. 

But yeah. Once again. Willow Nightingale. She’s the one. She’s always been the one. She always will be the one. If Tony Khan doesn’t have a spreadsheet that maps out a storyline that results in Willow being the Women’s Champion in the next six to twelve months then he’s lost his mind.

Edited March 22 by Supremo

[Infinity Land]

11 minutes ago, Supremo said:

With Copeland’s win technically happening on this show, is that one of the first Title switches on Rampage? Nothing comes to mind when I try and think of another one.

Christian v. Kenny Omega for the Impact World Title on the first Rampage is the only one that comes immediately to mind.

[LaGoosh]

22 minutes ago, Supremo said:

By contrast, The Acclaimed are absolutely finished as an act. It was insane watching how little reaction they got here. Max waffling on to silence. Remember how over they once were? I can’t decide if it’s the lacklustre onscreen stuff, or Max Caster being a bit of an idiot on Twitter, but either way this felt like the last hurrah for a team destined for the bin. They’re done.

I think more than any other reason it's as simple as they've just had their time. Every act has a shelf life. They are the modern day equivalent of the New Age Outlaws and that includes everyone just kinda' being bored with them after 2 years. They've done everything and there's not really anything left in the tank that can interest audiences anymore. They should be happy with that and just call it a day.