BRM Reviews the 8/12/2022 Rampage (bad)

All AEW Related Reviews and Discussions
Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

BRM Reviews the 8/12/2022 Rampage (bad)

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 15th, '22, 08:35

TONY SCHIAVONE’S IN-RING INTERVIEW WITH BRYAN DANIELSON IS INTERRUPTED BY DANIEL GARCIA-didn’t like it
Dragon says that his career will never end voluntarily, and it won’t end at the hands of Daniel Garcia. Garcia came out and said a bunch of crap that didn’t feel authentic at all (even though I do believe that Dragon actually is his hero). He says that he will end Dragon’s career and thus not only be the Dragonslayer, but also will then be known as “the greatest technical sports entertainer of all time.”
This angered Dragon because he hates “sports entertainment.” He says that Jericho has led Dainel Garcia astray. Dragon says Garcia was one of the first people he mentioned when he wanted to start the Blackpool Combat Club, and asked Garcia “if I’m really your hero” do you want to be the best technical wrestler I the world or the best sports entertainer in the world.”
I’m sure many people loved this, but for me it fell flat for the same reason much of this feud has: their inability to explain what this evil “sports entertainment” is that makes it different from pro wrestling. How is the current “sports entertainment” Chris Jericho that different from his first AEW heel run? And what makes the JAS any different from, say Sonjay Dutt, whose promo style is also cartoonish yelling?
Has anything about their wrestling style changed from before, when they weren’t “sports entertainers?” Not that I can see. That Daniel Garcia that I saw wrestle Wheeler YUTA on the ROH PPV or Bryan Danielson on TV felt a hell of a lot less a contemptable “sports entertainer” than the likes of Orange Cassidy, or people wrestling in Halloween costumes, or Freddy mercury cosplay. Or people doing magic to teleport and control the lights, or just popping out of trunks or crane-game machines, or teleporting themselves into a coffin when it is clearly strategically idiotic? Or f*cking DANHAUSEN? If you want me to think that the JAS is some sort of existential threat to pro wrestling as I like it, you can’t be constantly featuring other people who are actually farther over the line than they are and not treat them as part of the problem. If you want to still feature the Orange Cassidys ad Danhausens of the world, you need to explain to us why they don’t fall into this category of evil “sports entertainment.”

AAA WORLD MIXED TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti(c) vs. Dante Martin & Skye Blue- 6/10
This was fine. I was happy to see that they had the heels cheat via intergender physical interaction first, rather than making the mistake that so many make nowadays where in their rush to show that the female babyface is a strong woman, they have her hit something on the male heel, ignoring the fact that such a thing is illegal, and thus it’s really hard to get heat later when you have the female heel slapping the male babyface and him feeling unable to retaliate, because the babyfaces did essentially the same thing earlier.
The belts did not change hands here (try not to be too surprised). I’m certain that this match would never have happened if this hadn’t been Dante Martin’s home market. People criticize WWE for babyfaces losing in their home markets, but AEW seems to do it quite a bit, too. There certainly seems to be a difference in the philosophy behind it (WWE does it for heat, AEW does it to give the fans the chance to see their hometown guy or gal in… which is why AEW does it a lot with heels as well… which just results in the fans cheering for the heel), but if the issue is fans beginning to think “every time I go to the show, my local hero loses, so why go?” then does the intention behind the booking really matter?

LUCHA BROS. VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- meh
They want gold, so they’re entering the AEW Trios Championship tournament with the returning Pac. Penta insists that it’s not over between them and LFI. Abrahantes called Pac the “All Elite Champion.” There was no excuse for not re-shooting this.

SONNY KISS vs. PARKER BOUDREAUX (w/Slim J)- squash
Excalibur called this match “compelling,” which was a laughable statement. He talked about some angle on Dark, but 1) SHOW IT (the clips they showed were not from the angle), and 2) even if they had shown it, none of the characters involved have gotten anywhere near enough time on TV for anyone to care about them.
Seemingly trying to outdo Excalibur for most ridiculous claim of the night, Tony Schiavone described Sonny Kiss as a “big athlete.” Sonny Kiss is 5’8” and weighs 187 pounds. Boudreaux used some chokeslams, so that was fun to see.
The thing that stood out to me the most here was actually whoever made the decision to have Sonny visibly struggle to try to get out of Boudreaux finisher but still get hit anyway. It’s the sort of thing that allows Sonny to keep a little more credibility in a match this sort (as opposed to be just playing dead even before the finisher is hit).

BACKSTAGE WITH LEXI NAIR, AFO ARGUES- Apparently Private Party are getting a tag title shot. Their last televised was in a ten-man tag at the end of last year. Their last televised two-on-two win was on the pre-show to All Out 2020/i]. That’s not a typo. This supposed tag-team specialists haven’t won a two-on-two match on TV in ALMOST TWO YEARS.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed, the people they’ve beaten on Dark aren’t exactly names, either, but what makes this even worse is the fact that they have had some matches on TV semi-recently, and against non-jobber teams… and they’ve lost every time. If these guys lose any time you put them against anyone better than Bear Country, how the f*ck are they getting a tag title shot?

ERIK REDBEARD & DANHAUSEN vs. GUNN CLUB (w/Billy Gunn)- 4.5/10
Gunn Club needed Billy’s help to win. The finish looked like it was going to look bad, but they cut away from it in time.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Billy yells at his kids. If he wants them to “prove” themselves, why did he interfere to help them win? He told them he has gotten them a match booked for Dynamite, but didn’t tell them against whom. Excalibur has run down the card for Dynamite at least once already tonight. Why was this match not mentioned?
Billy walked out. When Gunn Club went to leave, Stokely Hathaway appeared in the front row to offer them his business card but they turned him down.

LEXI NAIR INTERVIEWS SWERVE IN OUR GLORY- bad… but it’s also probably exactly what they were asked to do.
They pointed out all of the reasons why Private Party don’t deserve a title shot and would have no chance if they got one… but they’re going to give them one, anyway. Wasn’t the match already booked as a title match?
Anyway, tune in to see a total mismatch! That’s what they were selling us here.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS HOOK- bad
Taz wasn’t on commentary tonight, which disappointed me. Even more disappointing was no one taking advantage of this fact to respond to J.R.’s comment that Hook “has been a winner all his life” to reply that Hook even won Brooklyn’s “have the shortest father” contest.
Tony misused the word “debut.” He also said that the FTW Title is apparently defended only in open challenges. Is it? Because I’m pretty sure the Starks/Cage title change was booked well in advance. Hook said “YUP!”
Tony started to say something else, but was interrupted by someone named Zack Clayton, whose gimmick is that he’s from New Jersey. They tease doing the match right now, but then Clayton says he wans to wait for next week because he does things on his own time. Snore. Hook agrees non-verbally to face him next week… and the segment just ends. I guess Schiavone’s second question wasn’t that important.

Does anyone else keep hearing “Golden Boat” instead of “Golden Bolt” on these BattleBots commercials? Has someone told Bryan Alvarez about this?


MARK HENRY INTERVIEWS THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT- bad
Daivari was a clown. He’s basically Sonjay Dutt or a wrestling Mark Sterling. Orange Cassidy thought he was supposed to say Mark Henry’s line.

ARI DAIVARI (w/Trustbusters) vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (w/Best Friends)- 5.75/10
There is no way Jim Ross isn’t getting paid extra to pretend to love Orange Cassidy.
Daivari grabbed a microphone and tried to bride OC to lie down for him. One assumes that he will be fired once he gets to the back. The match was good when they weren’t doing dumb stuff. OC won.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
The heels started a brawl. The real purpose of this was 1) to put Boudreaux over, and 2) to set up for Sonny Kiss coming out and turning on OC. Sonny Kiss is not an addition that makes them seem like any more of a threat, but I did enjoy seeing Orange Cassidy get kicked on the nuts.
I don’t think this quite qualifies as a Russo-Swerve because I don’t think the Trustbusters were in on it. Sonny’s actions here were the acceptance of whatever the offer was that Daivari made on Dark. This was not a plan.


This was a bad episode of Rampage. It was the usual mix of matches not getting much times, stories not making sense, dumb comedy, and focus o people who are completely unimportant at the expense of who people who you should be focusing on (Undisputed Era had a major turn and have since completely disappeared, Punk didn’t say anything about Moxley, Samoa Joe is still MIA, etc.).
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests