BRM Reviews the 2/4/2022 Rampage

[Big Red Machine]

ADAM COLE vs. EVIL UNO- 3/10
Excalibur claimed that Cole “would have his work cut out for him” tonight against Evil Uno, LOL. Well… at least they kept this short and didn’t let the clown get too much in on Cole.

ADAM COLE PROMO- AWESOME!
He’s now a new, more ruthless Adam Cole. He says that last week’s loss doesn’t exist. Also, he vows to become the world champion. If Cole is going to be going after the title, why didn’t he beat Orange Cassidy? And don’t tell me that it’s to set up an Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy title match down the line, because y’all used that line with Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa, and Britt has been the champion for nine months now and that match still hasn’t happened.

JADE CARGILL & MARK STERLING PROMO- great, but…
They pointed out hat Jade is 27-0. Okay… so why the hell hasn’t she had an AEW Women’s World Title shot?

AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Sammy Guevara(c) vs. Isiah Kassidy (w/Marq Quen & Matt Hardy)- 6/10
Why is Sammy carrying two belts around if the titles have been unified? And if the AHFO want to win this title so badly, why don’t they have everyone at ringside?
The story of this match was that Sammy’s ribs are injured and all taped up from his Ladder match with Cody. Unfortunately, Sammy pretty much killed that story by doing a dive where the major point of impact with his ribs, which he proceeded to not only not sell at all, but to pose and do a kip-up after.
Basically, Sammy only sold his ribs when it was time for that to matter in their pre-planned story, rather than having any idea how to improvise for when something needs to change, and thus not come off as a fake injury for the sake of adding drama to his fictional performance.
Matt Hardy interfered to cut Sammy off. Jericho sat there at the commentary desk and did nothing. Sammy made his comeback but was cut off again when Andrade came out and distracted him. Jose was also there. Has Jose ever done anything? Why is he employed?
Sammy won a match that would have been better without Sammy’s selling issues that I described above.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- mostly good
Matt Hardy and Andrade both moved in on Sammy. Jericho had only stood up from the commentary desk (and hadn’t even take his headset off) by the time Darby Allin came out to stand with Andrade. It’s still five on two (including Jose and Private Party), but Jericho hasn’t moved. Andrade offers Darby money, but Darby turns it down.
Darby and Sammy had a stare-down, then Darby started patting Sammy’s titles, and we were left wondering whether Darby was indicating that he wanted a title shot or if he was just giving Sammy props. He pulled it off in such a way that either was readable. Darby’s body-language is great.
This segment was good, but it would have worked so much better without Jericho on commentary. You can argue that this will be used as evidence of Jericho not having the other members of the Inner Circle’s backs, but as I’ve pointed out time and again, there has been no rhyme or (more importantly) reason for why some members of the Inner Circle have or haven’t come out to help their friends in so many times over the two years of their existence that I find any accusation that one member doesn’t have another’s back to be hypocritical. But even with that, you’d think that Jericho would be smart enough to think that he should run to Sammy’s aid here, if for no other reason than to give him something to point to a claim that he does, in fac, have his pals’ backs.

Q.T. MARSHALL PROMO- great, but…
Q.T. will be sending a “prized student” who “no one has ever seen” after Hook next week. This was good stuff, but the problem with this whole angle is that Q.T. is right: Hook is a jerk, so I’m more interested in seeing Hook get his comeuppance than in seeing him beat Q.T.’s pupil.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH KRIS STATLANDER IS INTERRUPTED BY AN ATTACKING LEYLA HIRSCH– mixed
The physical stuff here was good, but the talking was… wow. Oh Lord, was Statlander awkward here. She should thank Layla for choosing that moment to run in and hit her from behind with that chair because it saved her a lot of embarrassment.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. THUNDER ROSA- 5/10, but great for what it was
This was a good brawl that ended with a DQ when Mercedes, in trouble on the outside, pulled a pipe out from under the ring and just cracked Thunder Rosa in the head with it for the DQ. I was worried when I saw this announced for a Rampage with four matches, so I’m happy that they took this route in order to escalate and hopefully delay the big match to spot where they will have more time.

SERENA DEEB VIDEO PACKAGE- She’s a wolf now, apparently. This was kind of cool, but it really feels like they’re flailing around, trying to find an identity for her. Everything in this video package (“it’s in my blood.” “Chase.” “Keep running. I’m faster”) felt completely in conflict with someone who has been calling themselves the professor. This was a cool video package, but it doesn’t fit Deeb at all. This felt like something that could have worked for Leyla Hirsch or Mercedes Martinez or maybe a heel Red Velvet.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH MERCEDES MARTINEZ IS INTERRUPTED BY DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD- meh
Britt’s posse is back, after having disappeared without explanation while Britt was involved in a storyline where she was Cole’s girlfriend rather than the women’s champion. Apparently she is the one who brought Mercedes Martinez in to take out Thunder Rosa. She’s upset that Mercedes did not pin or submit Thunder Rosa, because I guess bashing her head in with a pipe wasn’t good enough.
Jamie Hayter is upset that Britt brought someone else in to do her dirty work. “I’m upset because I wanted to be the one to unfairly stop your enemies from getting the title but you chose someone else to be your stooge” is not a good babyface turn.
Britt told Mercedes that she is not to lose to Thunder Rosa again, and noted that while Mark Sterling might have given Mercedes the check, Britt is the one who signed it. She warns that she can have Mercedes out of AEW if Mercedes fails her. They had a stare-down, with Hayter jumping in to stand in front of Britt.
There was some good stuff in here, but a lot of frustrating stuff as well. In addition to the issue with the teased Hayter turn, there is the whole “who is paying Mercedes” issue that they created here. Everything Britt said seems to imply that it’s Britt (presumably she would have her out of AEW by not paying her. Either that or Britt is in Tony Khan’s ear, which is its own can of worms, as it either makes Tony a heel for listening to someone who clearly has her own interests in mind instead of AEW’s, or he’s an idiot for not realizing what Britt is doing), but if Britt is paying her, then is she not an employee of AEW? If that was the case, you’d think that they would have hired security to keep her away from the ring after the first time she interfered, not be producing video packages for her.
Also, if the story is that Mercedes Martinez doesn’t work for AEW, that would have been a great explanation for why it took six weeks to get this match booked (because they had to work out contracts and stuff with Mercedes, instead of the only reason being that Tony just decided to put the (mostly cold) matches that led up to the Hirsch/Statlander break-up on TV instead of booking this hot grudge match that everyone wanted to see.

MARK HENRY INTERVIEWS THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT- mostly good (although Lethal kind of sputtered out at the end)

FTW TITLE MATCH: Ricky Starks(c) (w/Will Hobbs) vs. Jay Lethal- 7/10
Great athletic stuff, including one hell of a finish. Dante Martin came out to prevent Hobbs from interfering, keeping his feud with Team Taz going.

A fine episode of Rampage. I think it would be better for the show to switch back to the three-match format it had used up until the past month or so.