AEW Rampage Thread 2023

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

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.

It’s made me think Danielson winning is more likely; given that Bryan/Darby is one of the obvious dream matches left for Bryan in AEW. If you’re looking to sell-out Arthur Ashe, a match like that won’t hurt. Heck, if I lived close enough I’d be looking to buy a ticket to see that one in person.

[Lorne Malvo]

Hangman keeping himself occupied with Jeff Jarrett while Swerve is busy elsewhere on the card is something I didn't expect at all, but I love it. I really want a Hangman vs Jarrett match at All In now - no mad gimmicks or teams getting involved, just Hangman in a featured match and Jeff getting his flowers infront of that Wembley crowd. 

I'm a big fan of Darby and Brody rekindling their feud once a year at the Royal Rampage. Darby putting on this performance 10 minutes after Blood and Guts is crazy. 

Darby and Orange Cassidy being in the same gimmick match but not interacting at all? They're full on trolling me at this point, give me my dream match!

[LaGoosh]

On 7/27/2024 at 10:07 AM, Supremo said:

Hangman running in, more unhinged than ever

Worth highlighting how good this was. Testament to the excellent character work and storytelling here as seeing Hangman who for years has been the ultimate good guy and love-able hero cowboy so spitefully attack Jeff Jarrett felt genuinely shocking. And yet it's also completely logical and in line with the story they're telling. Hangman feels like a genuine wildcard now and wrestling hasn't had one of those for years.

[JLM]

Rampage 26/07/24

Royal Rampage was tremendous. Orange Cassidy rolling across both rings made me laugh. "DADDY'S GETTIN' A TITLE SHOT, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!" Bloody brilliant. Daddy Magic is the greatest. Loved that he returned to the desk to be roasted by Tony and Excalibur too. Hangman somehow managed to jump scare me again. Great pop and another brilliant fiery babyface performance from Jeff, I was naively wondering to myself who would take him out. Of course it was that lunatic. I'm glad I never broke into Hangman's house, I'd clearly be a sitting duck when he came for me. Sabian getting his revenge on Nick Wayne was a nice moment, Killswitch being blamed for it was better. Jeff Jarrett facing off against The Beast Mortos is about as Royal Rampage as it gets, what a mad cast of characters this had. Very happy indeed with the result, and avenging the Brody elimination from last time in the process was a great touch. 

Every time I see Leila Grey I am reminded that she is still employed. Enjoying these violent Stat squashes. 

I feel like Archer hasn't done the bringing the jobber to the ring shtick for a while. Works for me every time. 

Typically fun promo from the queens of Rampage. Harley's delivery on "NO ROOOOAAAD!" really got me. She's excellent. The road to the Jamie Hayter return rolls on.  

Main event was fine. My highlight was Dutch hitting a massive Bossman slam, naturally. Private Party looked good too. 

Good episode because The Royal Rampage was most of it.  

[BomberPat]

10 hours ago, JLM said:

Jeff Jarrett facing off against The Beast Mortos is about as Royal Rampage as it gets, what a mad cast of characters this had. 

I assumed that Jarrett and Mortos must have been in the ring together before, so I looked it up, and their only previous match was Jeff Jarrett, Taurus (Mortos) & Killer Kross vs. Dr Wagner Jr, La Parka and Psycho Clown. Talk about a mad cast of characters.

[JLM]

Rampage 02/08/24

Solid match from Yuta and Butcher. It's nice that Yuta's been featured a lot lately but hope he gets something worthwhile to do soon. 

Brian Cage sure did kill that jobber. Definitely setting Fletcher up to be the next one out of the Callis family. 

I'm a fan of both Nyla Rose and Harley Cameron but it was a bit of an awkward match up. Harley is very good for 10 matches (!) into her AEW career, but It was  tough for her to be the heel and maintain heat against a much larger and more imposing opponent. Not a horror show by any means but just ended up a bit flat. 

Brian Keith sure did kill that jobber. Good promo from Shibata, his delivery keeps getting better. 

I liked that MXM and Private Party both got to cut little promos on each other ahead of the main event. 

Main event was good fun, have enjoyed all of MXM's matches so far. Favourite bit was Madden catching a suicide dive into a huge Bossman Slam, then yelling "I'M SO BIG AND STROOOOONG" in celebration. 
 

Highly missable Rampage there. 

[LaGoosh]

14 hours ago, JLM said:

Highly missable Rampage there. 

Sadly this is the case for me for months now. A shame how Rampage has fallen off. There's so much potential in Rampage but they fail to utilise it effectively at all.

So Tony Khan, if you're reading this, here's how you can fix Rampage:

- Dynamite is the flagship, Collision the midcard building dependable B-show, Rampage is the mental, wild, experimental wacky hour.

- AEW has a roster of high flying spot monkeys and lucha guys, Rampage showcases them every week in a fast paced bonkers match of some kind. Singles, tags, trios, 3 ways, scrambles, four ways...the more mental the better.

- guest commentator every week. Let the guys be fun and light to create a fun, late night party vibe to the shows.

- AEW has a huge roster filled and some of those will never have a storyline reason to fight eachother so just throw it on Rampage. The weirder styles clashes possible the better. Ignore face/heel alignment - the weirder the better. Do WAR-esque trios matches with wrestlers from all over the roster. 

- regularly bring in outside stars for guest spots, especially old WWF, WCW and ECW guys who can still pull off 5 minutes of something half decent.

- lots of comedy and fun backstage hijinks. Harley Cameron being a nut job, RJ City, all that stuff. A regular cast of crazies doing their thing on Rampage. 

- experiment! Maybe one show is an Iron Man match between two feuding midcarders? An all women or all lucha hour one week. Maybe Don Callis takes it over one week and turns it into the Don Callis Family Showcase hour? Whatever you can think of really, just try it.

- show matches with AEW guys from overseas. MJF just wrestled at CMLL, air that match on Rampage. Show a Takeshita match from the G1. 

- AEW posts loads of really cool backstage promos on their YouTube channel only. Collate them together in a block like those wicked Pulp Fiction bits from ECW back in the day.

I could go on and on really. Just a bit of effort and creativity and Rampage could be something fun and really different. At the moment it feels like it's sinking. 

 

[JLM]

Rampage 09/08/24 

Really fun opener from Darby and Butcher. I do like the Butcher but still thought this was his best match in some time and it was largely down to the sense of chaos and peril Darby injects into any match up. He feels a bit like OC did last year where he could have a compelling match and get the crowd fully behind him against anyone on the roster. Daddy Magic was especially delightful on commentary for this one. I mean he always is, but the Butcher in particular always brings him so much joy. 

The balls on Don Callis to dress RUSH down on camera. I forgot Preston Vance was a thing. 

Thought we were going to get another amazing Double J promo after Dynamite, instead that LUNATIC had to jump him yet again. Fucking hell, Hangman. Jay Lethal tried his best at a fired up babyface promo. He tried his best. 

Nice violent performance from Yuta against Romero. I like that he's taken on the Cattle Mutilation from Danielson. 

Willow teasing something with Ishii for Wembley. Intriguing. Main thing is that Willow is on the card! 

Private Party sure did defeat some large jobbers there. 

These Purazzo pre-taped thingies aren't as good as her regular promos in her own voice where she isn't so overly scripted. 

Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara vs The Kingdom for the ROH tag titles is not the most thrilling proposition. 

Quite impressive that Nyla and Saraya had a 10 minute match, during which Saraya executed one pro wrestling move. I didn't particularly care though, I just find the queens of Rampage entertaining and enjoy them being on screen together. Harley shouting "Do the uhhh, do the RAMPAIGE!" and Saraya shooting the suggestion down because "THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S CALLED ANY MORE!" was my favourite bit. So presumably Saraya will scam her way to a few more wins before All In, so she feels justified in demanding a spot on the card so she can be killed by Jamie Hayter. It's all coming together. 

2.5 Rampages out of Rampage. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Top Flight vs MxM on this week’s show is exactly what you want from a Rampage. Really fun main event.

[Lorne Malvo]

It's a shame MxM have seemingly already taken up the JTTS spot but it's early days yet so maybe I'm jumping the gun. They're a ton of fun though.

Full on laughed out loud at Top Flights new presentation. Jesus christ.

As someone who has never been a big Saraya fan, I think this is the most I've ever enjoyed her. It helps that Harley Cameron is genuinely funny, but they bounce off each other very well. 

Scorpio Sky is on his 18th repackage by the look of things.

[JLM]

Rampage 16/08/24

Conglomeration vs Outrunners/Butcher was fun. Best bit was Briscoe doing the chair assisted dive to the outside and landing on his feet straight into high fives for the front row. Also Truth Magnum's "the lights are on but nobody's home" face after eating the Jay Driller was amazing. Criminal that the Daddy Magic Dream Team had their entrance buried on Youtube:

 

Quote

As someone who has never been a big Saraya fan, I think this is the most I've ever enjoyed her. It helps that Harley Cameron is genuinely funny, but they bounce off each other very well. 

Yep, love these two together. As I've said before, I cannot imagine this is what Tony had in mind when he signed Saraya but it's the most I've ever enjoyed her work too. 

Acclaimed/Daddy Ass promo did the job. Max Caster currently does his best promo work after the shows go off the air. 

Good sympathetic babyface performance from Kip Sabian. The crowd was fairly cold but he got them behind him. Beltless Killswitch having to carry Nick Wayne on his shoulders was funny. Only Wardlow is a bigger chump than our Luchasaurus. 

The endless Scorpio Sky reboot thing has to be an intentional running joke at this point. I like that Abadon was invited to the private party. 

As ever, I very much liked the part in the RUSH match where he kicked the guy in the face. 

The funniest part about the Top Flight entrance to me was Lio Rush, who was presumably pitched the idea and was like "I will of course not be doing that". I'd get rid of Top Flight and ESPECIALLY Andretti but sign Lio Rush. Maybe keep him off Twitter (and, on this evidence, away from commentary), but as a pro wrestlerr he is basically every single thing that Top Flight is missing. A more exciting and interesting in-ring performer, more charismatic, better look, better gear, most certainly better entrance gear. He's not an amazing promo but he's even better than all three of them at that! Putting him out there with them only highlights what they're all lacking to me. 

MXM Collection haven't missed yet. Private Party, FTR, Top Flight and even Spanish Announce Project. A delight every time. Brimming with charisma, funny as hell, they make the opponents more entertaining by proxy AND they're a really slick tag team top top it off. That chokeslam off the shoulders into the bridging german suplex thing was lovely, feels like they have a cool new double team spot every match on top of all the other fun schtick. They're losing  right now but they're already getting over and when the tag titles are a thing again they need to be right in the mix. 

 

[Chili]

I've fallen a bit in love with The Outrunners. You NEED silly acts in your mid/lower card and they absolutely hit that lovely sweet spot. Catchy theme, great daft schtick, the perfect type of silliness. Amusing bit part goofs. My new 2.0. 

Edited August 18 by Chili

[JLM]

Rampage 23/08/24

Conglomeration vs Johnny TV/Brian Cage/Beast Mortos

Criminal that we didn't get a vignette featuring the TVs putting this squad together. Ishii vs Mortos is one of those classic fun AEW pairings where I didn't know I wanted to see it until it somehow came together. Entertaining opener helped along by the Arlington crowd who I will miss from these shows. 

Fuego vs Roddy was very good for such a short match. Fuego so over in Texas and he looked great for the time he was in control. Roddy shutting him down so brutally and swiftly in two moves to end it left him looking, well, strong, despite giving Fuego the offense for the rest of it. 

Shirakawa/Renegade was surprisingly competitive. Renegade is still not spectacular in the ring but she talks a lot of shit and has added some solid, violent looking heel offense to her repertoire. Still has some of the worst theme music of all time and I still don't know what happened to her sister and am wondering if I ever will. Shirakawa is always a joy to watch. Just brimming with charisma and infectious energy and she guided Renegade to one of her better singles performances that I've seen here. 

Shida promo was tremendous! Easy highlight of the episode for me, so much fire, great points and all done in a second language. She has definitely been an afterthought lately and I would dearly love this to be the start of something for her: 

Gates of Agony/Iron Savages. I didn't skip The Iron Savages for Toa Liona. That's how much I enjoy his work. Also I must admit the idea of Toa against Boulder did pique my interest. Did not like Toa wearing generic black trunks instead of his normal gear though. Not right at all. Anyway this was much more entertaining than I expected. It was an extended/semi-competitive squash but all four of them went absolutely ballistic at each other from the opening bell.  Iron Savages had a very enjoyable manic sprint against The Kingdom a while ago and I distinctly remember it as being the only match of theirs I've enjoyed. High energy, high impact sprint matches are apparently what they do best. 

Outrunners/Von Erichs was, for a Von Erichs tag, about as good as it could be. Outrunners make great fall guys for a vanilla babyface team, and everything the Von Erichs do is massively elevated by the Arlington crowd. Ross is still not good but Marshall has grown on me during this Texas residency. He's fine and both his dropkick and moonsault are beautiful. He is much much better than the other one, whereas before I only thought he was slightly better. That's something, right?

Normal Rampage elevated by the Arlington, Texas crowd who I am really going to miss from these shows. They've been an absolute delight and made both ROH and the B-shows a consistently more enjoyable watch. Well done to them. Shida's promo was excellent also.
 

Edited August 31 by JLM

[JLM]

Rampage 30/08/24

Three way tag was fine. Appreciated that the whole match was set up to build to a Jarrett hot tag and victory. Long may this run of celebrating Double J continue. 

Mina squash was also fine. Always great to see Shirakawa but wasn't there aaaanybody else on the AEW or ROH rosters she could have beaten here instead of a jobber. Felt like a waste of an appearance. I hope they build her up to face Mariah eventually. 

Statlander punching a camera man was funny.

Grizzled Young Vets vs The Youngest Men Alive! Love how The Outrunners seamlessly switch from heel to babyface and back again depending on the opponent. They were great underdogs here and Turbo Floyd's hot tag was a highlight of the match. Also enjoy how much Daddy Magic loves The Outrunners, and rightly so. 

Disappointed that GYV didn't enter with a Gibson promo. They're at their best when the opponents are already in the ring and Gibson comes down talking shit about them. I'm not a big fan of endlessly shouting "GRIT YOUR TEETH!" though. They never used to do that in NXT and I don't think they need to hammer a catchphrase this hard. Their promos when Gibson would talk all of the trash and Drake would be the hype man worked brilliantly. Drake being the less serious one was way more fun than the scowling hard man thing he's doing now. Also don't like the total elimination knock off finish as much as their old Ticket to Mayhem tombstone lift into lung blower. Wonder if they thought that move was a bit too close to the Shatter Machine. Those nitpicks aside though, still a massive fan of this team and I'm so glad they're in AEW. Similar to FTR, it's the fact that they treat the tag titles and tag team wrestling as the most important thing in the world, and their strength is how cohesive they are as a unit. The little sneaky behind the back tags, instinctively knowing where the other one is, blindly holding the opponent in place because they already know their partner will be there to take over etc. That and Gibson's non stop gobbing off before, during and after the matches. 

Loved Excalibur getting the Castlevania reference in re: Amina Belmont, the massive geek. 

Lio Rush vs The Beast Mortos vs Komander vs Konosuke Takeshita

Again, following up Takeshita's SENSATIONAL G1 climax performance with a Rampage multiman match is terrible and nobody should be happy about it. But, BUT, if you are going to do that, then I cannot deny this is a delightful line up for a 4-way. Appreciated that each of the guys in this match got a little hype video earlier in the show too. Rush vs Mortos, Rush vs Takeshita and Takeshita vs Mortos are all singles matches I would love to see. Komander and Mortos have already had a belter of a singles match this year too. This was guaranteed to be excellent fun and it was. 

The Komander and Rush high speed section was breathtaking, Rush was spectacular for the whole thing, Mortos killing Rush with one of the nastiest spears I've ever seen was also a highlight. I want the Takeshita/Mortos singles match so badly after this too. We only got snippets of them facing off and trying to outdo each other by seeing who could murder the small guys most brutally, but these two throwing bombs for ten minutes would be tremendous. 

Fairly normal Rampage highlighted by a very entertaining main event. 

[JLM]

Rampage 06/09/24

God damn that Outrunners bit was good. Was genuinely chuffed seeing the Youngest Men Alive celebrating their first main roster win. Sincerely great feel good moment for this act, so I was gobsmacked when they got taken out by Mox and Shafir. So well done, massively amplified this sense that nobody is safe from them and you can't predict their next move. A throw away backstage vignette on Rampage featuring a lower card comedy act, of all places for them to strike. 

Aminata squash was barely a thing. Not even a running air raid crash to be had. Boo. 

Dark Order vs Hologram/Sammy/Dustin was a pretty Rampagey filler match. Another solid showcase for Hologram though and he is catching on. Best bit was Daddy Magic's "A little how do ya' do?" and how much Schiavone enjoyed it. 

Holy crap Bishop Kaun cracking jokes and stringing sentences together on camera. Surreal. Austin's ongoing search for a nickname is a great running gag, Juice asking "you got a famous mom or somethin'?" and screaming back at Toa were the best bits. "Gates... Open" needs to never be said again ever. Awful. 

Beast Mortos tagging with anyone who pays him is great. I don't need an explanation or reason for him to be shoved into multiman tags as he invariably makes them better, but still, that's a solid enough one. Matt Taven slamming Top Flight for their outfits was funny. Imagine getting burned by Matt Taven. How is that not a wake up call. 

MXM vs HOB was awesome. MXM have yet to miss but this was their best effort yet. The judges schtick made me laugh, Madden's selling, the trash talk, all of their silliness landed for me. Then in the second half it was just a straight up barn burner of a tag match to boot. It's so great that MXM can do both of those things seamlessly. Be the silliest goofballs and also more than hold their own to deliver a hot tag team match at the same time. HOB joining the fun at the beginning was nice to see, and Buddy Matthews followed up his excellent match last week with another first rate performance. Those anti-air knee strikes get me every time. 

Solid go home promo from Ospreay. Thought the "no one's forgotten you, but we've lost faith in you" was a great line. Very accurate for Pac as a perennial nearly-man. 

The end of the crazy Collision main event took up a chunk of the show, some pure filler in the middle and a cracking main event. 

Edited September 8 by JLM