BRM Reviews the 10/28/2022 Rampage

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 10/28/2022 Rampage

Post by Big Red Machine » Oct 30th, '22, 13:16

WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR: Jon Moxley (AEW World Heavyweight Champion) vs. Matt Menard (w/Angelo Parker)- 5.75/10
They y immediately went to the outside and stayed there for a while without getting counted out. Then Moxley started to rake Menard’s back. Why are we supposed to be so upset at MJF when he inevitably cheats when Moxley cheats all the time, too?
Moxley overcame interference and won.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Stokely Hathaway and Lee Moriarty came out. Stokely cut a promo on Moxley and offered him a match against Lee Moriarty. To entice Moxley, they showed everyone a video package about Moriarty. Moxley accepted the challenge and said he’d kick Moriarty’s ass next week.
They announced that Mike Tyson will do commentary on next week’s Rampage. There is no way this will help things. Even if there is some sort of angle leading up to a match, does anyone really want to see Mike Tyson do pro wrestling in 2022?

THE FIRST ENTRANT IN THE WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR TOURNAMENT IS DANTE MARTIN- They note that Dante was “screwed” out of winning the Casino Ladder match at All Out. I will note that it doesn’t seem to have bothered him one bit, as I don’t think he’s even been on TV since then.
Also, does it somehow not occur to Tony that he is using “World Title Eliminator” to mean two different things in BACK-TO-BACK SEGMENTS?! Or does Tony think the word “eliminator” means “if you win this you get a shot at?”

JADE CARGILL PROMO- mostly good
Jade’s delivery was good, although she seems to have forgotten that Nyla stole her car as well.

KEITH LEE vs. SERPENTICO- squash
Lee won in twelve seconds, although the fact that they were doing a “blink and you’ll miss it” squash and not what AEW usually does was spoiled by JR telling us not to blink before the match.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS KEITH LEE- hated it
This was interrupted by the Acclaimed before Lee could even begin speaking. Billy Gunn is missing, and they think Shane Strickland did it, so they demand to know where Billy is. Lee correctly notes he is not Swerve. Do the Acclaimed just not pay attention to anything that goes on in their division? Everyone knows that Swerve does questionable things that Lee disapproves of. Why would they think Swerve would tell Lee where- or even if- he was holding Billy hostage?
Making the Acclaimed look even worse, Tony Schiavone knows that Billy Gunn “had a family emergency and had to leave earlier today.” Max Caster grabbed the mic and said “what family emergency? We’re his family!” That didn’t come off well.
Then Shane Strickland took over the KhanTron. It turns out he’s got Billy Gunn tied up somewhere. He talks about loving horror movies, then tells Billy that Billy won’t be able to interfere in the tag title match at Full Gear, because he’s going to break Billy’s fingers. Then he got some pliers and did just that. The Acclaimed ran off to go save Billy, while we got a shot of Lee looking sickened by what his tag team partner had done.

Just to get this out of the way first, I thought the “horror movie” line was a terrible idea, because if you do something like this on October 28th, it will always come across like a gimmick you’re doing because Halloween is approaching, and calling attention to the fact that you’re imitating horror movies only makes it worse.
More importantly, though, I thought this pushed Strickland too far over the moral event horizon for Lee to be able to keep teaming with him after the Pay-Per-View, and I think that’s a mistake, because based on the way this story has been built up, the big moment should be Lee catching Strickland in the act of cheating, which should lead to their break-up, with Swerve attacking Lee for “not being willing to do what is necessary.” Doing this here robs the story of that, and as a result, it makes the story feel less about the both of them, and more like it’s Swerve’s story, with Lee merely as a passenger.
Doing this here also robs us of much more interesting interactions between those two leading into the PPV by taking things from a 3 all the way up to a 10. This is especially disappointing coming off of the finish of the #1 contendership match on Dynamite, where Lee unknowingly benefitted from Swerve’s low blow on Dax to win them the title shot. Lee discovering that and confronting Swerve over it seems minor now that Swerve has gone as far as he did here.
To be fair, the argument I was anticipating Swerve making to Lee in that confrontation- that cheating against FTR was fair because the titles were wrongfully stolen from them due to Billy Gunn’s interference, and thus he fells justified in cheating until they get the titles back- does work here as well. After all, Swerve’s justification for his actions here were to prevent Billy Gunn from being able to interfere in their upcoming tag title match so he couldn’t cost them the titles again. The problem with this, however, is that it once again shows AEW management not really giving a sh*t if someone cheats- even in a title match- as they themselves made no effort to prevent Billy from being able to so in the future. They could have announced that the match would take place in a cage, or that Billy would be barred from ringside or locked in a cage at ringside or whatever, but they didn’t. And that happens WAY too often. (Lee can- and should- respond that Strickland should have appealed to AEW management for a stipulation before Swerve resorted to such means, but the evidence of them not caring is certainly on Swerve’s side here).

JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROMO FROM AFTER DYNAMITE- terrible
This was the usual cartoon bullsh*t, with them being over the top and being hypocrites about cheating. Jericho clarified that he is going after “every” former ROH Champion now, not just world champions. Tay Conti got a few seconds to plug her match with Madison Rayne tonight. She says they have “unfinished business,” but I have no idea what she’s talking about. This felt like it was taped because either Tony screwed up and forgot that the person booked to answer Jericho’s open challenge on Dynamite wasn’t ever actually ROH World Champion, or (more likely, IMO) Jericho screwed up and specified World Champion when he wasn’t supposed to in the live promo on Dynamite, so he is correcting that here.
Every part of this faction remains terrible, from the over-the-top cartoony crap, to the kayfabe incomprehensible “pro wrestler vs. sports entertainer” distinction, to Jericho’s out-of-nowhere and completely unexplained vendetta against all aspects of a company he never worked for, partnered with once for a cruise, and which I can’t remember him ever even having said a negative word about in the past. I mean really! I don’t think your average TNAMecca poster had this level of hatred for ROH.

MADISON RAYNE vs. TAY MELO (w/Sammy Guevara)- 5.5/10
Excalibur eventually told us that the “unfinished business” Tays spoke of was from a completely forgettable tag match earlier this month with Tay-Jay vs. Madison Rayne & Skye Blue. And no, it’s not my fault that I forgot a match on the B-show from several weeks ago involving undercard wrestlers. If there was something consequential that happened in that match for the purpose of setting up a rematch, it is the booker’s job to highlight that for us ON THE WAY TO THE REMATCH.
Tay won cleanly.

LEXI NAIR INTERVIEWS ETHAN PAGE- great
He explains the Firm turning on MJF as MJF thinking he could win the title by himself when he couldn’t even win #1 contendership by himself. He says he is in the #1 contendership tournament and says he will win it, and that he will be the one to dethrone Moxley, not MJF.
He and Lexi both got the name of the tournament wrong, and both in different ways. Not good.

MARK HENRY INTERVIEWS THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT- very bad
Taven’s promo was absolutely crap, and Wardlow once again came across like a total asshole.

Among other things, Dynamite will feature Jade Cargill defending the title that was stolen from her against the person who stole the belt.
JUST KIDDING! She’s defending the belt that she still doesn’t have physical possession of again against the thief’s buddy.
This match makes so little sense it’s almost impressive. Did AEW management book this match, and they’re rewarding someone who helped steal a title belt? If Nyla was demanding that Jade put the belt on the line in exchange for returning it, you’d think she would demand the title shot herself, not for Marina, right? How did this happen?

Next week on Rampage, they’re letting the All-Atlantic Champion defend against an opponent of his choosing because… the show is in Atlantic City. That’s really stupid.

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Wardlow(c) vs. Matt Taven (w/the Kingdom)- 6/10
Taven worked the knee, but Wardlow overcame that and interference to get the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Bennett took out Wardlow’s knee. Samoa Joe came out to make the save. Then Will Hobbs came out to serve as a distraction while the Embassy came out of the crowd to attack Joe and Wardlow. Hobbs posed with Wardlow’s belt while Brian Cage posed with Joe’s. Hobbs is a fine addition to the Embassy, with the caveat that if they don’t really push him, it will feel like a step down.


I can’t say this episode of Rampage was any better than usual dreck, but at least it was a little more interesting.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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