BRM Reviews the 2/3/2023 Rampage (frustrating)

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

BRM Reviews the 2/3/2023 Rampage (frustrating)

Post by Big Red Machine » Feb 5th, '23, 20:48

AEW WORLD TRIOS TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) (w/Brandon Cutler & Michael Nakazawa) vs. Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy, & Ethan Page (w/Stokely Hathaway)- 7/10
Don Callis joined Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Jim Ross on commentary for this match. I don’t know if it was more ridiculous for Tony Schiavone to claim that Ethan Page was “one of the greats” or for Jim Ross to say that people “would drive many, many miles to see” Matt Hardy vs. Kenny Omega.
They did moves. Page and Hardy didn’t get along. Page being a glory-hound doesn’t make the story make any more sense, but it does at least allow the matches to make more sense, as Matt and Isiah going along with him can be seen as just making peace and not causing an issue in the middle of a match that they are also in (and thus have a financial and professional stake in) as opposed to them being “forced” to help Page cheat (because, as I’ve explained several times, this whole “I own your contract, therefore you are my slave” thing makes no sense. And it also makes no sense that their contracts were their own in the first place rather than controlled by Tony Khan).

LEXI NAIR INTERVIEWS RICKY STARKS- good
He gave a decent explanation for why he was agreeing to this silly gauntlet in order to get a shot at Jericho. Basically, he just wants to be done with Jericho, so he will go through this to face Jericho again and beat him again to prove that his win wasn’t a fluke.

TEAM TNA & SATNAM SINGH PROMO- stupid bullsh*t
The Golden Globes people and AEW are showing their disapproval of them stealing Paul WALTER Hauser’s Golden Globe by blurring it on the TV. Okay… how about DEMANDING THE RETURN OF THE STOLEN PROMO, AND THEN GETTING THE AUTHORITIES INVOLVED?
Even wackier, to show us that it was being distorted, in the middle of this promo, AEW cut to a short from behind some random couple on a couch, watching some previous episode of AEW TV, with the Golden Globe distorted. Why not just HAVE SONJAY TAKE IT OUT AND HAVE IT BE DISTORTED ON OUR SCREEN?
This was then interrupted by Danhausen cutting a promo and being a clown.

BRIAN PILLMAN JR. vs. SHANE STRICKLAND (w/Mogul Affiliates)- 5.75/10
Are the Varsity Blonds not a thing anymore? Pullman isn’t wearing his jacket, and Griff Garrison is nowhere to be found. Excalibur tells us that Pillman Jr. has now been teaming with Brock Anderson on Dark, managed by Arn. Okay. So why aren’t theyat ringside, especially seeing as how Swerve has his pals at ringside, and we know his pals have no qualms about interfering?
Pillman Jr. is supposed to be a babyface, yet they did a spot where he outsmarted Swerve in a minor way (when Swerve went for a drop-down, Pillman stepped on his back instead of jumping over him), then turned to the crowd to go celebrate this victory, turning his back on Swerve, and so Swerve attacked him from behind. He looked like an asshole who wound up getting what he deserved.
Strickland needed help from his goons to beat a guy who isn’t good enough to make it onto TV. That’s not how you book a heel you’re trying to push as a serious threat to someone like Keith Lee.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- ggrrrrr
The heels beat up on young Brian Pillman Jr. after the match, but someone has come to save him! Is it his tag team partner Brock Anderson and his new mentor Arn Anderson? Nope. It’s Dustin Rhodes, the guy Swerve randomly decided to start a feud with last week and then inexplicably wasn’t booked against.
And, of course, for the cherry on top, Dustin came out from backstage armed with… a turnbuckle. Why is there a turnbuckle lying around backstage? You’d think that they’d keep the spares close to the ring so any delay in fixing the ring can be made as short as possible. Why couldn’t Dustin just come out with a chair or something normal?
This is the sort of thing that absolutely drives me nuts. Swerve decides he doesn’t like Dustin, so he interrupts his interview and gets in his face? Fine. This is pro wrestling. That happens all the time. They don’t get booked against each other right away? In some other promotions, I could accept that, but one wrestler or team interrupting another’s interview and them exchanging heated words is how 80% of the televised matches in this company come about. But not this time.
With this match not booked, Strickland’s dislike of the Rhodes family suddenly transforms itself into a dislike of second-generation wrestlers instead (remember, in that confrontation with Dustin, it was insulting Dusty that really set Dustin off). He mentions Brian Pillman Jr. in a promo, and all of a sudden is booked against Pillman Jr., despite their being less heat between him and Pillman than between him and Dustin, and Dustin being a much bigger star.
Then we come to this match, where Swerve brings out his friends, but Pillman does not, despite it being obvious to the small children in the crowd that the heels were going to interfere, so you’d think that master strategist Arn Anderson would have been able to see it coming and maybe take some preventative measures, like being at ringside. And, of course, Swerve wins by interference, and after the match, he has his guys attack Pillman because he hates second-generation wrestler so much, and it’s not Pillman’s tag team partner second-generation wrestler Brock Anderson and Brocks’s famous wrestler father who is also Pillman’s mentor coming out to make the save; it’s Dustin Rhodes. Yes, Dustin making the save here makes perfect sense. My point is that in order to get to this situation where Dustin making the save makes sense, they did about four things that make little-to-no sense unless you’re trying to engineer this specific situation.
As for how I would do it… well… the specifics would depend on whether the angle is supposed to be that Strickland doesn’t like Rhodeses or if the angle is supposed to be the Strickland doesn’t like second-generation wrestlers. If the issue is that Strickland doesn’t like second-generation wrestlers, I’d start it off with a more minor confrontation. Dustin cuts his promo, and then after Dustin is done (during Lexi’s pitch back to the announcers), we hear Strickland snicker something like “entitled” in the background, which draws a glare from Dustin (and the camera panning over to see who Dustin is glaring at, and a stare-down before Dustin walks off, at which point Strickland can cut his own promo about how he is earning his name on his own merits, as opposed to all of these guys running around AEW getting contracts and TV time on someone else’s merits.
Then, on the next show, you give Pillman & Anderson a squash win, then have them cut a promo saying that they heard what Swerve said, and they want to show him- and any other doubters that might be out there- that they deserve to be here. Swerve can cut a promo later in the show calling this an excellent example of the “entitlement” of second-generation wrestlers. They haven’t earned a match against a star like him. But his pals are not like that. They know that they have to start at the bottom, and so if Pillman and Anderson want to prove themselves, they’ll have to take on someone more on their level of stardom- Parker Boudreaux and *insert name of tattoo-face guy here*… but while they are on their level of stardom, Anderson and Pillman are certainly not on his henchmen’s level in terms of ability, so this match will be quick, and you make sure to find somewhere for Swerve to disparage Dustin as well. Then you do the match here and have Anderson and Pillman last, but get beaten cleanly. Then you do the post-match attack and have Dustin make the save.
If the issue is that Strickland doesn’t like Rhodeses, I’d have stronger initial confrontation, and I would already have an opponent announced for Dustin and have him talk about that match a bit, so that we have an explanation of why Dustin vs. Swerve doesn’t get booked after such a heated confrontation. On the next show, before Dustin’s match, I would have Brock Anderson and Brian Pillman Jr. win a squash and then they and Arn cut a promo on Strickland for saying such mean things about the Rhodeses. You then tape some footage to show on the next show (though you can put it up on YoutTube beforehand, if you want) of the Dustin thanking the youngsters as they came back through the curtain but saying that he doesn’t need them to fight his battles for him. Young Brock would pipe up and remind us all that Cody helped him stand up for his dad once, so he is going to stand up for Cody, as well as for Dustin and Dusty. Swerve cuts his promo rejecting singles matches and instead setting up the same tag match, and you get the same scenario as above, with the post-match attack and Dustin coming out to make the save.

HOUSE OF BLACK PROMO/VIDEO- dumb
Malakai Black says that the House of Black doesn’t want Eddie Kingston. He said that “the House did what it always does, and what its mission has been since the beginning: prove that every human being on this planet- no matter how pure of heart- is corruptible.” If that’s your mission, why are you pro wrestlers? Shouldn’t you be evil underground social media influencers or something like that? At least with the Age of the Fall social media was in its infancy, and also winning matches and titles would give them more money to spread their message as well as the capability to demand promo time to do so.
And now that I think of that, now that these guys have said their mission is to make random people be more evil, why would Tony Khan give them any promo time ever again?
So yeah, I didn’t like this. I don’t understand why these people are here, especially when it seems like if their goal is to make people more evil, all of the time they spend training for matches and having matches is time they could be spending convincing people to be evil. And that goes triply so for Malakai, who seems to have mind-controlling mist. That was how Julia turned evil, remember. He didn’t do anything else to induce any chance in her behavior. He didn’t manipulate her in any way. He just split mist in her eyes and she slowly became meaner, and then became fully evil about five months later.
Also, how did these guys get all of that footage of Eddie Kingston sitting contemplatively in a corner to put into their video package? Or did AEW say “hey, Eddie!” The House of Black say that they are putting a video together, but they need footage of you sitting in a corner and reflecting on things. Can you do that so we can tape it and send it to them?” and Kingston said “SURE?”

TONI STORM & SARAYA vs. THE RENEGADES- no rating, dull segment
Heel Saraya who hates the “home-grown” AEW talent got a big babyface pop. The jobbers got no introduction. Justin Roberts said “introducing first” for Toni Storm, then he introduced Saraya, and that was it.

On commentary, Excalibur told us that “all four AEW world championships will be at stake” on Dynamite, “including the AEW Women’s World Championship in an Eliminator match with The Bunny.” Aren’t Eliminator matches the ones where if you win, you earn a title shot? How could the title be on the line in one of those?

This was another squash that went on too long. The heels spay-painted a “L” on each of the jobber’s chests.

ADAM COLE VIDEO PACKAGE- fine
It’s the same babyface stuff as before. He “returned” a month ago, but still hasn’t actually returned.

MARK HENRY PITCHES TO A VIDEO PACKAGE WITH PROMOS FROM THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT- fine

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. RUSH (w/Preston Vance & Jose the Assistant)- 6.75/10
Rush wins dirty. Daniels is barely on TV while Rush is supposed to be a major roadblock for the babyface potential world title challenger… and Rush can’t win cleanly.

Another skippable and also frustrating episode of Rampage.
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 11 guests