BRM Reviews the 11/25/2022 Rampage (underwhelming, but at least it was newsworthy)

[Big Red Machine]

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: FTR(c) vs. Top Flight- 6.75/10
Ian Riccaboni was on commentary for this match. No one got their entrance shown. FTR won cleanly in a match that did not in any way feel like a title match.
After the match, Gunn Club came out to do something that I guess vaguely resembled mocking FTR.

WILL HOBBS VIDEO PACKAGE- meh
He seems to have lived in a rough neighborhood.

COMMERCIAL FOR AEW FIGHT FOREVER- I find the lack of action shots suspicious. The graphics looks great, though.
Also… “coming soon?” Did they really not have their video game ready for Black Friday?

JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROMO/SEGMENT WITH CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI- terrible
The whole group is there, including Sammy Guevara, which the announcers draw attention to.
Jericho bragged until Claudio Castagnoli came out to interrupt him. Claudio says that he lost confidence in himself, but now he has it back, and he needs to beat Jericho. Jericho tells him to f*ck off because there is no reason Jericho should give him a title shot (Jericho just beat him cleanly for the title).
Matt Menard suggests that Jericho should give Claudio a title shot, but if Claudio loses, he must join the JAS. Why do they think this would be a good idea? If he is forced to join the group, he’s just going to subvert them.
The announcers are saying “don’t do it, Claudio” and treating this like some kid of heavy decision, but I don’t understand why. It’s not like there is some humiliating stipulation like Claudio has to be their butler. He’ll just be wrestling for a different group. Tony Khan books the matches, not Chris Jericho. Other than maybe getting pulled into some tag matches, this won’t affect him at all. It’s not like he won’t still be able to train and hang out with Wheeler YUTA and Bryan Danielson. Claudio himself even freely said that he had been a “great sports entertainer” in the past. What does he have to lose here? He’ll come out to Judas instead of the goofy remix of classical music that he’s using now? What a big loss.

RENEE PAQUETTE INTERVIEWS TONI STORM- good
Toni Storm becomes the first person to note that she got screwed out of her title. And unlike most people in AEW who get screwed, she wants her title back right away.

DARBY ALLIN (w/Sting) vs. ANTHONY HENRY (w/J.D. Drake)- 6.5/10
Darby won cleanly. J.D. Drake tried to interfere, so Sting took him out. The wasting of J.D. Drake in AEW is absolutely criminal.

LEXI NAIR INTERVIEWS ATHENA- terrible
Lexi notes that this is Athena’s return from a suspension. HUH? What did she do to get suspended? Athena herself even complained that they couldn’t even show footage of what she did (despite having a “big-ass screen” and a “billionaire boss”) so that she could explain herself.
Lexi replied that Athena was supposed to issue a “public apology” to Aubrey Edwards. Remember when Jericho assaulted Bobby Cruise? And then tried to assault Ian Riccaboni multiple times, one of which resulted in an injury to Jerry Lynn, who tried to save Ian? Why was there no suspension or public apology for any of that? Or all of the time that Anna Jay assaulted backstage workers? Or when Jericho BURNED ONE’S FACE OFF FOR WEARING A SHIRT HE DIDN’T LIKE.
Athena gave a clearly insincere apology. Then she told Lexi to scram, and cut a promo on Mercedes Martinez, saying she wants a shot at the ROH Women’s Championship.

HIKARU SHIDA vs. QUEEN AMINATA- squash
Penelope Ford and The Bunny came out to distract Shida at the beginning. Shida recovered from being blindsided very quickly and got the win.

MARK HENRY INTERVIEWS THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT- bad
10 is missing. Everyone hear was a clown. Mark Henry happily declared that “IT’S TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT!” even though one of the competitors was missing.

LEXI NAIR INTERVIEWS FTR- Dax shoos her away and cuts a promo about how great 2022 has been for him and Cash, but he says that there is one thing he still needs to do before the year is up, so he has a challenge he wants to make for Dynamite: they’re going after the AEW World Tag Team Titles!
JUST KIDDING! He challenges Bryan Danielson to a singles match.



DARK ORDER (10, John Silver, & Alex Reynolds) vs. AFO (Rush & The Butcher & The Blade) (w/Jose the Assistant & The Bunny)- no rating, meh segment
10 didn’t come out with the Dark Order. Stuff happened. Eventually Evil Uno and Brodie Lee’s kid came out onto the stage and they waved to the back and 10 came out and had a big stare-down with Rush… and as you’ve probably already guessed, he turned on Silver and Reynolds.
After the match, The Butcher & The Blade through Uno into the steps as lightly as I have ever seen anyone throw someone into the steps. Rush and 10 kept beating people up. That dastardly 10 dared to use the Discus Lariat, the signature move of Brodie Lee, who mentored the Dark Order. And based on what we saw on 10, “mentor” means “yell at and abuse.” Remember when Brodie let Moxley break 10’s arm rather than give back a stolen title belt?
Remember when Joe, Hobbs, and Wardlow were fighting outside the confines of the match a few weeks ago and security and the whole locker room came out stop them? I guess we’re not doing that anymore.
They ripped Uno’s mask off, then went to get a table, which they put Reynolds through. The referees stood around and watched. So did Negative One, for pathos. 10 went up to Negative 1 and through his Dark Order mask down at his feet, because we’re definitely not exploiting Brodie’s Lee’s death. Not at all.

I’m sure for the fifteen people on Twitter who care about the Dark Order, this was heartbreaking, but for the rest of us, it was a bunch of losers getting beaten up by an undercard heel stable when one of the losers turned on them and joined the undercard heels. All of the people involved here (including Rush) are people whose semi-regular presence on TV adds nothing to the show, and just takes away time that should be spent on the likes of Daniel Garcia, Wheeler YUTA, Ricky Starks, Will Hobbs, Mercedes Martinez, and Leyla Hirsch TV time on a more regular basis.

Another underwhelming episode of Rampage, but at least there was something slightly newsworthy at the end.