BRM Reviews the 12/10/2021 Rampage

[Big Red Machine]

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Lucha Bros.(c) (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. FTR (w/Tully Blanchard)- 8.5/10
An awesome match that made excellent use of the finish of their previous match.

RUBY SOHO & THE DARK ORDER (Anna Jay & Tay Conti) vs. PENELOPE FORD, THE BUNNY, & NYLA ROSE (w/Vickie Guerrero)- 6/10
Good action. The finish saw The Bunny hit Anna Jay with the brass knuckles for about the 247th time in this feud. Nyla then hit a Beast Bomb for the win. I’m sure people will say this is a nit-pick, but I found it weird that Bunny would trust Vickie Guerrero with her brass knuckles instead of having The Blade on the outside with them.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- There was none… which made no sense! The whole purpose of this match for the heels was to injure Ruby Riott. Nyla wants her injured so that she has an easier time beating her in the TBS Title Tournament, and the other two want her injured because Nyla had promised them each title shots if she wins the TBS Title. In a company that loves to do post-match beat-downs to a comical degree, I am utterly flabbergasted that in a situation where not only would such an attack make perfect sense, but it actually wouldn’t make sense to not do one… they don’t do one!

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH DARBY ALLIN & STING IS INTERRUPTED BY FTR ATTACKING THEM- whatever
They attacked just Darby and Sting. They didn’t attack Tony. Just wanted to clarify that.
Anyway, they started to plug AEW running an old WCW building at the end of January, but I guess FTR didn’t like this because they attacked these guys. So we get an attack here, but not in the spot where the story you set up on Wednesday all but requires one? FTR held Sting so that Tully could kick him in balls. Tully then said “one more time, Sting.” So are Sting and Tully going to wrestle on that show? I’m sorry, but I just can’t imagine that seeing a then-sixty-eight-year-old Tully Blanchard wrestle is a draw to anyone. It’s not like the dude has drawn anything since 1990.

FUEGO DEL SOL vs. HOOK- 0.25/10
Hook was introduced as “He… is… Hook.” I thought that was a nice little reference to “THIS! IS! TAZ!”
Normally when they introduce a wrestler or team, they show us his/her/their record (or, as in the case of Hook, tell us that this is that wrestler or team’s debut). With Fuego, they didn’t show his record. Instead they just told us that he is “on a 3-match winning streak.” I am a huge believer that you can’t do this sort of thing. It’s the equivalent of showing the same categories of statists for every batter, but for one batter only putting him his numbers against lefties because they look better. You can put that up also (and, in fact, AEW usually does this sort of thing), but you can’t do it instead of because it makes it look like the promotion is favoring one of the competitors by trying to hide his/her/their failing from the fans.
Hook dominated this clown that AEW is trying to promote for some reason, with 80% of Fuego’s offense only coming because Hook was taking him too lightly and showboating, allowing him to recover and attack. Hook’s grappling looked good, but some of his crossface punches looked pretty bad.

MARK HENRY INTERVIEWS THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT AND THEIR FRIENDS- bad
Trent was a clown. Cole was fine. Everyone else was meh.

WHEELER YUTA (w/Best Friends & Rocky Romero) vs. ADAM COLE (w/Bobby Fish, the Young Bucks, & Brandon Cutler)- 6.5/10
I really could have done without Cole doing the stupid slow kicks to supposedly annoy Orange Cassidy. Cole won clean, as he should have, but AEW gives these underneath guys so much against top guys so often that it didn’t feel like this showing elevated YUTA at all.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
The heels attack the babyfaces. The Bucks are holding OC so Cole can hit Panama Sunrise, but instead of the Canadian Destroyer, he hops down and kicks OC in the nuts… which was the second time we had two heels hold a babyface up so that their friend could kick him in the groin ON THIS ONE-HOUR SHOW.


A very good episode of Rampage, but mostly on the strength of the opener.

[cero2k]

I would've gone full Squash rating on the Hook match, Fuego had nothing on him

[Big Red Machine]

I would've gone full Squash rating on the Hook match, Fuego had nothing on him

I probably would have if they had only done the "Fuego gets offense because Hook showboats" once. When they did it the second time it felt like they were trying to make the match longer and give Fuego more offense that we'd remember, at which point it ceases to become a squash, IMO.