AEW Rampage Thread 2023

[Chili]

Happy Days!

 

[DavidB6937]

If only he could replace him on everything ever.

[JLM]

Rampage 31/05

Spoiler

Rampage 31/05

Maaan Penta vs Takeshita with no fanfare on entrances to kick off Rampage is peak AEW roster misuse. It was pretty good when it got going, but this on a bigger stage with more time and a bit of build would be a dream match for me and did not feel like it here. 

Daddy Magic replacing Jericho on commentary is my favourite part of The Learning Tree gimmick. 

Roddy claiming that he was the next guy in the Casino gauntlet was a great idea. Fun little bit of additional storytelling you can do with this gimmick. 

Satnam Singh sure did beat Peter Avalon there. 

Cage of Agony promo! One sentence from Bishop Kaun, still think that's the longest promo I've heard from him. Even Toa had more to say. Cage sounded good. Also they got Hechicero to join in for some reason. 

Toni Storm/Viva Van allowed Toni to be thoroughly entertaining for a bit. 

Saraya/Harley promo was amusing.

Kyle O'Reilly did a squash. It was fine. 

Lovely to see Johnny and Taya on the main shows. Johnny TV vs Claudio was unexpected. 

Cassidy/Fenix was a really fun TV match. Cassidy has been consistently great in his past few appearances. I'm not sure what the finisher was from Fenix but it looked absolutely brutal.

It was a Rampage. If we had to do Penta/Takeshita on this show, I'd have cut a big chunk of this episode and made that the main event at least. 

Rampage 07/06/24

Spoiler

Rampage 07/06

Penta vs Butcher was not good. They should have had a hard hitting brawl, instead Penta tried to do his usual quick TV singles match formula and Butcher seemed half a step behind him for most of it. It was also a couple of minutes too long. Disappointing as this could have been a fun pairing. 

OK I feel dirty saying this, but the Jericho bit got a smile out of me on this show. Him and his crew making their entrance solely to come down to the desk, give Daddy Magic tips on commentary, then leave again was quite funny. Would have been funnier with pyro though. It doesn't make up for his 20 skits on Dynamite but this one worked for me.

I don't know what's going on with The Acclaimed. Caster seemed to be doing a thing hinting at a heel turn, then they got cut from Dynamite and called out The Bucks and got all mad, now they're on Rampage wrestling jobbers just doing the same old Acclaimed Schtick as if nothing happened. I dunno. I was going to skip this but was intrigued because the jobbers looked like some crazy barbarians. Sadly they didn't get to do anything. 

Solid promo from Shane Taylor. As much as I like Ogogo as part of this act, his speech impediment and slightly nerdy voice unfortunately don't lend themselves to on camera promos. Kept it short though. 

Actually liked the sound of Gates of Agony vs Private Party when the graphic popped up and it did not disappoint. Brother Zay takes fantastic bumps and is a great underdog babyface against a monster, Toa is one of my favourite monsters. This was loads of fun, easily the best thing on the card for me. Nice to see Quen back in action as well, highlight from him was his shooting star press, always gets incredible hangtime on that move. Toa and Zay's exchanges were the best bits as expected. The pounce, and towards the end Kaun throwing Zay into the air for Toa to catch and then deliver a Winds of Change/Black Hole slam which looked absolutely murderous.

Bang Bang Gang vs Jobbers was just a brilliant celebration of Juice Robinson's return. Tremendous. Also fully approve of the BBG Freebird Ruling the trios titles. 

Deeb and Shirakawa was like two different matches. They were not on the same page at all for the first half with some very awkward botches, particularly on an Irish whip reversal and Deeb attempting a Gedo clutch and Shirakawa not going with it. Then about half way through they kicked into high gear and turned it around completely. Ended up being a really fun main event. Great post match stuff with Shirakawa and Toni Storm battling over Mariah May's affections again. 

Much like the main event, this episode started off rough but got back on track and I was thoroughly entertained by the second half. 

Rampage 14/06 

Spoiler

Rampage 14/06

Fun match with Toni Storm and Alex Windsor. Hadn't seen Windsor before this AEW run but have been impressed every time. Loads of confidence, knows how to wind up the crowd, very capable in-ring and has nice gear and a good look. 

Excellent vignette for Purazzo/Rosa no DQ match on Collision. 

Cage of Agony killed some jobbers. They didn't launch the jobber nearly as high with the triple team birthday bumps finisher thing they're doing. It looks pretty rubbish when the jobber doesn't go very high. Might want to reconsider that one. 

Shota Umino/Rocky Romero was a very good TV match and a strong showcase for Umino. Did not expect him to do the Mercedes Mone dance. 

Satnam Singh with the lesser seen bear hug referee stoppage. Big fan of that. 

Quality main event from Pac and Lethal. 

Pretty Rampagey Rampage. 

Rampage 21/06

Spoiler

Rampage 21/06

Arkady Aura ring announcing for this episode! Not bad at all for a first go at it. 

Private Party vs Metallik/Kommander sounded like an ideal Rampage opener to me and it was as entertaining as expected. Lots of flashy spots, though sadly Quen/Komander going for stereo shooting star presses and landing on their feet was spoiled by Quen not sticking the landing. Would have been an amazing visual. Also this match had a really bizarre brainfart from Cassidy. He got whipped into his own corner with Quen reaching for the tag, but decided not to tag and run to the opposite corner to attack Metallik instead. Then he immediately hit a spinebuster and flopped onto his front and slowly crawled over to Quen for the hot tag. The commentators were so baffled by it and spent the whole sequence questioning what the hell he was doing. 

Again, I do not care AT ALL about Private Party vs The Learning Tree. 

Quite a novelty to see Rey Fenix in a singles squash match. Was very impressive. 

Lio Rush and Action Andretti worked very well together, but it mostly highlighted that Rush is better than Andretti in every way. More physical charisma, better name, better look, they both do speedy/flippy/cruiserweight stuff but Rush has a unique style with his quick changes of direction and signature moves nobody else does to set him apart. Still a fun match though. 

I had forgotten AR Fox was employed. First match in AEW in 2024. Crazy. Wild sprint match here, always a treat to see Shingo. The match with Danielson will be a belter. 

Cracking main event from WIllow and Deeb. Praise be to the Owen tournament for providing a Rampage main event of some consequence. Great back and forth action, the crowd was very much into it by the end, one of Deeb's better matches since her return.

Good episode that. Very easy watch, an eclectic bunch of performers and a real non-filler main event which had the crowd engaged. 

Rampage 28/06

Oh we're in the Riccabone Zone for this one. Excellent. 

Orange Cassidy vs The Outrunners was an unexpected opener. Amusing comedy match. I do enjoy Turbo Floyd. 

Oh good, The Learning Tree. Thankfully it was a short promo.

Kidd/Strong vs Infantry was fine. Infantry are just so dull though. 

EL Phantasmo and AR Fox worked well together but it was a pretty cold match. 

Good promo from Deonna Purazzo. Good points about Shida being either absent and/or not winning much of late. 

Dalton Castle vs Shingo Takagi was short and sweet. Given 10 minutes these two could put on a real belter and I'm a bit disappointed they didn't. I know Dalton's matches are usually short for a reason, but he went 12 minutes against Kyle Fletcher on ROH the other week. If he's going to do a 10-15 minute banger from time to time I'd rather they were on AEW shows at least. 

Fun Harley/Saraya promo as usual. Did not expect Saraya to call Mariah May a slag but I did appreciate the Britishness of it. Harley necking her champagne and then the camera hanging on her for an uncomfortable length of time at the end also amused me. These two always entertain me. 

Aminata vs Skye Blue was a cracking match, the best thing on this card by a country mile. Brilliant chemistry between them and you can tell they're close friends because they'd clearly agreed to smack the hell out of each other. Sadly even by Rampage standards the crowd was flat and hard to win over. The post match attack by Skye gives me hope that they'll do this again after some build on a bigger stage. I'd love to see it if they do. 

Very missable Rampage there, though I'm glad I watched the main event despite the live crowd not loving it as much as I did. 

 

[JLM]

Rampage 05/07/24

Good opener from Komander and RUSH.  Little speedy guy vs mad violent bastard is a fun match up. Komander bumped like a champ, drew good sympathy and had great mini flurries and hope spots before he inevitably had his head shattered. A game opponent for RUSH doing his always excellent ultra-violent/cocky bastard schtick. Again, I don't know how RUSH hits that finish safely and still makes it look so utterly devastating. Such a simple move but one of my favourite finishers in pro wrestling currently. 

Takeshita/Fletcher vs Private Party. Takeshita nearly booted a Shark Boy in the face at the start of this one:

Even for the Don Callis family that would have been a dastardly move. He did well to stop his momentum and did stop to make sure the lad was OK afterwards. I've been enjoying Isaiah Kassidy's work a lot lately and he was excellent in this one, particularly his hot tag half way through. Quen is still looking a little bit off the pace and isn't moving like he used to, though not surprising as he's been injured on and off for absolutely ages. They both made for quality underdogs for the monstrous Callis family team though, can't remember the last time I heard a "Private Party" chant break out but they earned it here. Kassidy is the king of the competitive semi-squash. Takeshita's always a joy to watch and Fletcher is always impressive too. Good stuff. 

Kingdom and Roddy promo on The Conglomeration was pretty good, mostly because Roddy telling Ishii it's been 3,059 days (!!) since he took Roddy's ROH TV title made me laugh. Perfect for this Roddy character to be that insanely petty.  I don't care about Undisputed Kingdom trying to recruit Kyle O'Reilly though. Stop it already. 

Loved Joe's promo as I love all of this promos. Shame it was on Chris Jericho. 

Excellent Toni storm vignette/promo thing. Probably more effort than a match against Trish Adora on Collision is worth but I appreciated it. Toni is too good. 

Really fun main event from Shida and May. Shida in particular was great in this match, a lot more aggressive and borderline heelish than normal, which is exactly the opponent Mariah needs as she is a very sympathetic underdog. Shida beat the hell out of her for the vast majority of the match and it was definitely the right choice. Crowd was hot for Mariah's comeback. I like that they went with the same finish as the Paige match, Mariah countering her opponent's finish into that new rolling cradle pinning combination she's doing. Big win for Mariah's credibility too, a clean win over a very established opponent. 

Enjoyed that episode a lot, also helped by the same hot Chicago crowd from this week's Dynamite. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Fuck me, how many heels are having wine backstage this week?!

 

Ok, 2. But that's a lot compared to thr years average

[Supremo]

Dream blunt rotation.

[The Gaffer]

Purrazzo's a heel? Thank fuck. 

Guess I have to start catching up on Rampage. 

[Lorne Malvo]

Anthony Ogogo has completely lost it, hasn't he? I don't know if he's lost the passion and just can't be arsed anymore, or if the injuries stalled his progress, but he looks completely lost out there. I remember thinking in his first few matches he looked competent at the very least and quite impressive at times, but I'm thinking now that maybe Cody pulled off one of the all-time carry jobs. He had a lot of presence in his first few months too, and now he's just utterly dull.

I feel quite sorry for Top Flight too. I don't think any act could be in the same position for around 3 years, with stop-start pushes and injuries getting in the way, and still remain over and interesting. But they have become 'fucks sake, not these again' material for me. 

Mostly a nothing show but I did really enjoy that House of Black vs Premier Athletes match. If HOB just dropped all the spooky shite I'd love them as pure arse-kickers.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

If HoB wanted a bit of a freshen up or a bit of a change, how about adding someone like The Butcher into the group? Decent enough in the ring, believable enough as a hard case and has enough tattoos to fit in. Butcher I've always liked, but he hasn't done anything since Blade and Bunny left. Saw him a couple of weeks ago against Danny Garcia I believe and he still looked in good shape and effort to be a decent member of the regular roster if he wants to be.

[JLM]

Rapage 12/07/24

House of Black vs Premier Athletes was a cracking opener. Everyone had their working boots on, was way more intense and chaotic than you'd expect from a Rampage opener. I've really turned a corner on Tony Nese since that feud with Ethan Page. He has value as a lower card heel. He can wind up the crowd, he looks great, he isn't afraid to make an arse of himself, he takes phenomenal bumps and can do spectacular shit on offense. Again I'm still looking for him and Woods to be the two man team from this group, with Daivari doing the outside shithousery. Not sure if Woods is injured or what but he hasn't done much since this Premier Athletes reboot. HOB were great too, Brody cross body smashing Sterling into Daivari was a brilliant spot and the finishing visual was superb. Good stuff all round this. 

THE CONGLOMERATION on commentary for Roddy's match was a treat. Is there any chance AEW can produce a t-shirt for these lads that isn't hideous? I would be tempted if so. Between these guys and Joe/Hook/Shibata I am loving these babyface super team ups of excellent dudes at the moment. OC signing off with "OK let's go stare'em down" before going to stare down Roddy and the boys really made me laugh. Don't think I've heard that said out loud before, but now I'm imagining everyone doing that in Gorilla position just before they go out. "OK boys, music hits, onto the stage, we stare them down. Hold for one minute, then leave. Just like we practised".This was also notable for gigantic jobber "Big Trouble" Ben Bishop and the hilarious twitter video he made off the back of it. What an excellent idea, can't believe nobody's done that as a bit before. 

Purazzo Vignette was OK. She always sounds good but it didn't really say anything. All been very stop start for this AEW run. 

Four way match was an entertaining enough little spotfest, highlighted by Rey Fenix and Komander. I really hope Rey Fenix makes it over to the UK this year. If not on the All In card then at least the tapings in Cardiff. Would love to see him live. 

Thunder Rosa's gear/paint combo was tremendous. She has many great looks but I particularly loved this one. Rachel Ellering... same stuff I say every time I see her. She should definitely be a heel, the hugger Bayley headband/pony tail combo doesn't look good at all, but her powerhouse offense does look good. For a glorified squash this was quite a fun, hard hitting affair and she worked well with Rosa in the short time they had. I don't think she's a lost cause but she is not playing to her strengths at all. Purazzo run in and beatdown was good stuff. More of that from her please. 

Couldn't be arsed with the main event. Completely agree with Lorne Malvo that Top Flight have fast-forward heat. I partly put it down to Andretti, who has had fast-forward heat from me since he beat Jericho. One of the most fundamentally unlikeable and devastatingly boring wrestlers I have ever seen. Remember when he tried to make drinking a bottle of water really fast his gimmick? So yeah, it's partly shitarse Andretti, but it's mostly how incredibly stagnant they've been for an eternity. I know Dante lost a lot of time due to the horrific injury and it's lovely that he's made a full recovery, but they are just soooo dull. Not a good promo between the three of them, the look, the theme, the formula for their matches, no direction whatsoever, plenty of people on the roster who do what they do better and with other selling points on top of the high flying. So very, very cold. Dante can be a likeable underdog babyface, he's still young and they might be able to do something with him still, but it'd need a complete rebrand for me to care at this point and I'm not if there's space or time to do that at the expense of all the people he's competing with on this roster. 

OK Rampage. Opener was an unexpected gem, everything else was just sorta fine. 
 

 

Edited July 15, 2024 by JLM

[Merzbow]

Let's fucking Go!!!

 

[JLM]

Rampage 19/07/24

OC/O'Reilly/Ishii (sorry, Big Tom)  vs Undisputed Kingdom was another very strong Rampage opener. Good heat, wrestled at a pleasing pace and helped along by Daddy Magic having the best time on commentary. It's nice when Rampage has matches that wouldn't *quite* fit onto the Dynamite card but aren't too far off it, rather than complete filler. They need to call the spot where Cassidy dropkicks a guy and Kyle sweeps the leg the Total Conglomeration. Continuing to enjoy the increased fire and intensity from Orange Cassidy during these dark times. I do hope he gets more focus and moves up the card/back into a title hunt again soon though. HIs story continues to be told effectively, he remains one of the best characters and stories  in wrestling at the moment, but disappointingly it looks like he won't be in a featured singles match for the second All In running. 

Saraya declaring she will find a way onto the All In card was interesting. Could see her hijacking the show at some point, demanding a match and a returning Jamie Hayter destroys her in a few seconds? Would be a decent return spot for Hayter and a nod to Saraya getting what should have been Hayter's spot last year. I am just trying to manifest a Jamie Hayter return by mentioning it constantly and coming up with countless ways they could go about it. She can't miss two Wembleys in a row, it's too unfair. 

Big Bill squashing The Outrunners was on the show for a bit. I liked him stomping the guy in the corner while laughing hysterically. 

Suzuki/Butcher was, disappointingly, a generic squash match. I didn't need this to be a 30 minute epic, but doing the Suzuki short match thing where the match starts at closing stretch pace and they throw bombs for 5 minutes would have been a lot more fun than this. 

Briscoe explaining that not being a shithead is a key quality someone must have to join the The Conglomeration was perfect. He truly gets it. 

Statlander squash was pleasingly violent. She's growing into the in-ring side of her heel persona. 

Lucha Bros/Private Party was a fun little spotfest tag. Much like OC, would love the Lucha Bros to be doing something more substantial. 

Three Rampages out of Rampage.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2024 by JLM

[BomberPat]

10 hours ago, JLM said:

Saraya declaring she will find a way onto the All In card was interesting. Could see her hijacking the show at some point, demanding a match and a returning Jamie Hayter destroys her in a few seconds? Would be a decent return spot for Hayter and a nod to Saraya getting what should have been Hayter's spot last year. I am just trying to manifest a Jamie Hayter return by mentioning it constantly and coming up with countless ways they could go about it. She can't miss two Wembleys in a row, it's too unfair. 

This is 100% what I'm expecting - I think the surprise pop for her music and a quick squash is way more satisfying than bringing her back to have a match at Wembley at this point, and the moment Saraya did that promo I figured this is the route to get there.

[LaGoosh]

Royal Rampage was good fun. AEW's deep roster means these types of matches are usually worth watching. Darby winning makes me think Danielson is for sure winning at All In as I can totally see them going with a big Darby vs Bryan title match for Grand Slam.

[Supremo]

Saw a couple of guys ended up appearing on both Rampage and ROH at the same time. Someone should have done a Rick Rude and shaved their beard off. For the love of the game.

Royal Rampage was great. Similar to the Casino Gauntlets, AEW always excels with this type of mad, fast-paced, multi-entrant matches. Reminds me of doing those 40-man Battle Royals on WCW/nWo Revenge, where the roster is so massive it feels like absolutely anyone could come out next.

Special shout out to Double J getting the Stone Cold pop, Daddy Magic entering from the desk and Hangman running in, more unhinged than ever. All my faves.

Darby was the perfect winner. I worried the winner getting the Title shot at Grand Slam would spoil the main event of Wembley, but thankfully I can imagine Darby challenging either Swerve or Danielson. But yeah, about fucking time Darby was moved to the top of the card. He’s the life blood of this company, willing to die for the cause, wild chemistry with everyone, giving them all their best matches. I’d genuinely consider putting the belt on him at some point. Imagine coming back out for this after doing Blood and Guts fifteen minutes earlier. Amazing.

See you next year, Rampage.