‘You Marshmellow You, Yum, Yum, Yum‘
Thus quoth the Lord on Rampage. Regal, that is. As he watched his man Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa*
*aaaaaaaarksleyyyyyyyyy fighting Mance Warner. Yes, that’s right, ole Mancer. Good to see him again? Is he All Elite? AEW don’t have many who like a fight in a Death Match way. And we know Maaaaaaarksl – you get the idea – likes a fight.
This was 2 things. Knock Down. And Drag Out. Even leading JR to tell Tony S to use the word slobberknocker; ‘Tony, run with it, use it!’
There was wrestling breaking out among the fighting; a Figure 4 from Mox, one from Mance, a Mox Dragon Screw, Mance DDT…on the steel steps, mind you.
Eventually, both bloodied, Mox of course prevailed after double digits with a rather fine chain of Double Wristlock, Stomps, Piledriver, immediately back to Stomps and standing back as Mance apparently passed out.
A good way to start Rampage.
And A Good Way To Finish Rampage
Second guest this week? Josh ‘The Goods’ Woods!
Is the great wrestling former ROH Pure Champ All Elite?
Blimey, I hope so. Hang on, though…
On Rampage, he’s with Tony Nese. And managed by ‘Smart Mark’ Sterling. That really is something to overcome early in your AEW career.
This Rampage match, though, was rather good. Facing the appallingly named Swerve In Our Glory, there were some lovely moments including Woods’ frightened face as Keith Lee loomed over him, Nese throwing protein powder into the big man’s eyes – a bit like that Dimes has been doing in Ohio Valley Wrestling…for ages – and Swerve breaking up a double DDT and cover with a 450.
And then the moment of the match. And it was provided by Sterling. Yes, I said Sterling. After a wrench to the back of Swerve’s head, he found himself with no other wrestlers in the ring and with a table set up – he realisation was great. And when Keith Lee launched him off the top onto the empty table, but not just that – he turned and almost delivered an elbow to the wood…
Swerve got the win with a Stomp off the top, but not before Woods had suplexed Lee off the apron through a table. That’s some success.
Yep, ‘the newcomer’ as JR described him, did well, for a debutant. He has been in other places too, you know…
Other Bits Of Rampage…
Madison Rayne, another newcomer! To AEW. Fighting OVW women’s champion Leila Grey here, they tried to raise some excitement. Oh, how they tried. And the crowd just didn’t seem to care. Quiet, they were. Very quiet. At one point, when no commentary was taking place, we could hear every grunt in the ring, so quiet, was it.
Which was a shame, as even though Madison missed an arm to effect a backslide and Leila sorta gave it to her, but she tried to push the pace with a throw into the guardrail and choke on the ropes and Madison won with a fine twisting Neckbreaker, but it just didn’t seem exciting.
And Jade Cargill couldn’t even raise the crowd’s temperature. Funny, that…
Bless you, Rampage, you’re akin to a cold case team. Ryan Nemeth still works in AEW! And by his side? Peter Avalon! And here’s rising AEW star Takeshita! And there’s a squash.
What was the point?
Well, he was in the main event of…
Battle Of The Belts 3 – This Time It’s Ordinary…
I thought so, anyway. Why have this event at this time? Why not move it for a couple of months?
You see, you have 3 matches. The whole idea is that the belts might change hands. And yet 2 of those champs are fairly new.
Warbrobe wasn’t going to lost the TNT strap to Jay Lethal. And it went fairly as expected, with the most exciting part?
Satnam Singh, who’s filled out a bit, choke slamming Warbrobe through a table and looking good doing it. And to think, I thought he might become an El Gigante figure…
Castagnoli and Takeshita had a match which warmed up well, full of near falls and a Takeshita high kick and Blue Thunder Bomb after 8 Swings, plus a nasty-looking Turnbuckle DDT; he put up a fine showing.
But after all the uproar taking the belt from Jonathan Gresham, Claudio Castagnoli wasn’t losing that belt, was he? And despite the fine work and near falls, it never felt as though he was.
Thunder Rosa held onto her Women’s belt too, but Jamie Hayter looked so good in losing, that she almost won. Her work is so good to watch, both in action and character.
And here might have been a chance at a title change. Ah, but she’s part of the Britt Baker brouhaha, a woman highly prized in AEW and not likely to use that impetus; Hayter needs to get out of that shadow.
Patchy…
Rampage remains up and down, as it has been recently; bookended by good work, with a soggy middle.
And a Battle For The Belts that wasn’t a surprise. And wrestling entertainment, we need a bit of that…