BRM Reviews the 1/21/2022 Rampage

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 1/21/2022 Rampage

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 24th, '22, 15:20

ETHAN PAGE vs. JON MOXLEY- 6.5/10
Moxley wins a competitive match cleanly. I can see the argument that Mox should have dominated in his firs match back, but if he is staying a babyface then a competitive match was the right move, as the squashes (ad his overly violent attitude during them) were seen as a sign of an impending heel turn, and you want to move away from that.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Or maybe I’m wrong. Page offered a handshake, so Moxley attacked him.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT #2- As Moxley headed to the exit (not up the ramp ad through the tunnel, but to a totally different place), Bryan Danielson was there waiting for him. Danielson clapped for Moxley with a smile on his face. Taz described this as Danielson “staring a hole through” Moxley. Taz and I apparently have very different definitions of “stare.”

JUNGLE BOY PROMO ON GUNN CLUB- mixed
This was a great promo vowing revenge for Christian… other than the fact that he kept saying that Billy’s gets were “entitled” and acting like they didn’t deserve a title shot (and Christian had a similar take in the segment on Dynamite), but if we’re supposed to buy into AEW’s rankings, then it’s ridiculous to say that the #2 ranked team hasn’t earned a title shot. (Of course, it’s also ridiculous that they could leap from being unranked to the #2 spot with one non-televised win over a jobber team, but in kayfabe we’re clearly supposed to think these rankings aren’t bullsh*t.)

NICK JACKSON (w/Matt Jackson & Brandon Cutler) vs. TRENT BERETTA (w/Orange Cassidy)- 7/10
Why did everyone else in their group come out with Trent and then go to the back. We know the heels have no qualms interfering in matches, so you’d think they’d at least want the odds to be even, or maybe even have an extra person out there to keep an eye on Nick and stop him from grabbing a weapon if the referee and people on the outside all get tied up with each other.
Speaking of unanswered questions, the advertised match on Dynamite was the Young Bucks vs. Roppogi Vice. I go to wrestling news sites, I so I know that Rocky Romero had to quarantine (or “medical protocol,” as AEW’s official term now seems to be) but I’m willing to bet that the majority of viewers don’t, so you really should announce that there was a change so that people understand why the advertised match has been replaced with something lesser. And even if the majority of the viewers know what happened, you should still acknowledge a change so that it doesn’t feel like you’re flushing the originally announced match down the memory hole.
You don’t even have to tell the truth about it. If you want to say that the Bucks jumped Rocky backstage after Dynamite in order to let you both give us this match and make the originally announced match feel like more of a grudge match when it actually does happen, that’s more than fine! But don’t pretend that nothing happened while delivery a different match than advertised.

Both guys worked the neck. You could certainly argue that they kicked out of too much, but this will almost certainly be the only match on this show with of this style, so I’m fine with it. Trent got the win, which is fine because he’s more of a singles wrestler than Nick is.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ VS. THUDER ROSA VIDEO PACKAGE- This was great, but Mercedes debuted and attacked Thunder Rosa at the end of 2021. Then they brawled a week later, and that’s been it. The last time I have these feud in my notes was last week’s Rampage, where they did anther video package. It’s ridiculous that we haven’t even had a date for a match announced at this point. Why the hell can’t these two get booked, but we’ve seen some variation of Cole/Bucks/reDRagon vs. Goof Patrol forty-six times in the past few weeks? If Red Velvet and Leyla Hirsch can get a match booked for next week’s Dynamite off of something that happened on this week’s show, how the hell can these two not get anything booked?

HOOK vs. SERPENTICO- no rating, bad segment
This was another Hook squash, but this time he jumped the bell on his opponent in addition to holding his submission hold on WAY after his opponent had tapped. Q.T. Marshall came out after the match and pointed out that Hook is being a total heel. Q.T. demanded that Hook not ignore him and grabbed Hook. He started talked about Hook would never be able to take him by surprise this time, so of course Hook did just that. All of this would have been great except for the fact that Q.T. is 100% right about Hook being a heel. If MJF did any of this stuff, the announcers would be all “What a worthless piece of sh*t. I hope he falls out a window and then gets hit by a bus!” but when Hook does it we’re supposed to like it?
And the worst part is that it’s not like this adds anything to Hook’s character. He doesn’t seem like more of a rebel because he’s sucker-punching people and putting an unnecessarily amount of hurt on them after they’ve already given up. Is that defying the rules? Sure. But it’s the kind of defying the rules that makes you a villain. And don’t start citing Punisher. He only goes after criminals. What has had Serpentico done to anyone?

MARK HENRY INTERVIEWS THE PEOPLE IN THE MAIN EVENT- meh
Jade was decent, although she kind of just said the same things over and over again. Anna Jay had good words, but her delivery needs work. John Silver’s presence enraged me. If you want me to take the idea that the recent Street Fight brought a “dark side” out of Anna Jay, maybe don’t have some goofball’s big giant smiling clown-face right next to her while she’s saying it.
Also, maybe do something to show it off on TV before the title match. You know… give me a reason to think that Anna stands a chance against the undefeated monster, since her placement in the top five is clearly BS, as, like the Gunn kids, she managed to jump from unranked to #2 between last week and this week by virtue of beating one jobber on Dark.
And speaking of Anna vs the Gunn kids, why is Anna any more deserving of a title shot than they are? It’s basically the same situation (hell, both are even early on in their careers), and yet when the Gunns want a title shot, they’re “entitled,” but when Anna wants one it’s her just due? (Yes, I know that they had said Jade made an open challenge, but in that same segment Sterling said that Jade was accepting Anna’s challenge so I’m not sure which way it went).


AEW TBS TITLE MATCH: Jade Cargill(c) (w/Mark Sterling) vs. Anna Jay (w/John Silver)- 4.75/10
Here in this big moment for her, Anna Jay was accompanied to the ring by her best friend, Tay Conti. Just kidding. That would make sense. Instead she was accompanied by John Silver, because apparently we have to get John Silver on TV all the time because Tony Khan hates me.
Anna Jay got taken down completely fairly by Jade, and had to get the advantage back by taking advantage of her dumb friend distracting Jade. THAT’S WHAT HEELS DO.
Anna tried to lock in the Queenslayer, but Jade got out of it twice and got the win. Anna Jay’s new “dark side” looks and wrestles just like the old Anna Jay, and also lost. So much for that idea.

Someone in the crowd had a sign that said “Remaster Flimbo’s Quest.” I don’t know what that is, but I’m 98% sure it doesn’t have anything to do with AEW (could be a BTE thing, though), and if that’s the case, I hope it never happens, and that the person who brought the sign breaks down in tears. You are purchasing a ticket to be a fan at a televised wrestling show. You are not purchasing airtime from Tony Khan to get over your pet whatever-the-f*ck. If this were some sort of charity then I’d happily look the other way, but that’s clearly not what this is.

Anyway, this was a meh episode of Rampage. There was some good wrestling, but a lot of the usual AEW booking and character problems.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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