Seems simple, doesn’t it? AEW is a wrestling promotion, might be good to do some wrestling, eh?
I don’t think that Rampage will ever rediscover its freewheeling sense of fun, but the warm-up show for Battle Of The Belts at least didn’t hold itself up with angles.
Oh, and Rampage gave us some rather good matches too.
Start Strong
Does Excalibur resemble a caramel seed cake? Wonderful Lord Regal thinks so, and I think he’s a highlight reel.
Another highlight (seamless segue that, seamless…) was the Blackpool Combat Club v Rush and Private Party.
No Matt Hardy to ask PP to rush into his arms today, a cursory mention that Andrade has reminded them he still owned their contact (erm…) and they seemed to be happy to work with Rush.
What is happening here? Where is the Private Party turn? Will it be resurrected on Rampage next week? Will they get a chance to fly?
Well, they did plenty of that here on Rampage, Quen changing direction in mid-air for a dropkick, Kassidy hitting a wheelbarrow arm drag and his partner landing a 450 into the ramp.
This was really good action, the Blackpool Combat Club are no slouches either and in the move of the match, Claudio Castagnoli swung one PP with another PP on his shoulders, then blocked their Silly String by hitting a Pop-Up Uppercut.
Yuta was given the pin with an arm capture I couldn’t recognise and didn’t hear when Regal announced it, but I did hear him mention venerable UK wrestling star Zoltan Boscik! Nice one.
Create Some High Points
That would be Tay Jay, Tay Melo and Anna Jay facing off against Madison Rayne and Skye Blue. No ad break in the middle of the Rampage match this week – Hallelujah! But the crowd were still a little quiet.
Jay hit a nice Black Hole Slam, Tay a Package Piledriver, Rayne answered with a sweet Bridging Suplex, and Blue a lovely Crucifix Bomb.
And the ending was a Quesadora, big Knee, and Jay Queen Slayer pin for the pin.
It was pretty fabulous. Hopefully, that will be remembered.
Poorest Rampage Moment?
The Varsity Blondes jobbed out in quick time for the team of Josh Woods and Tony Nese – sucks to be Brian and Garrison.
And then ‘Smart’ Mark Sterling compounded the issue by telling the Varsity Blondes that he had copyrighted the word ‘Varsity’ and they couldn’t use it – sucks to be Brian and Garrison.
He then said he was naming his team – the Varsity Athletes…….the what? You copyrighted the name ‘Varsity’ and coupled it with that? I know not much rhymes with varsity but athletes? 2 syllables don’t work, you need one. Surely you understand that? Nope…
The segment didn’t work at all. Sucks to be Josh and Tony? Maybe…
The Main Event
We didn’t really think that DEATH triangle would lose the Trios belt on Rampage, did we?
That name – DEATH! triangle doesn’t work for me. It’s like a frightening musical instrument – Tympani of Terror – see? Doesn’t work.
But this match, with opponents Jonathan Silver, Alex Reynolds and Ten, did.
How can you argue with a Ten Delayed Vertical Suplex to the count of his name, the massive Reynolds Superkick, Penta being thrown into the buckle face first and a super smooth Suplex from PAC?
Ooh; right on the coccyx! It must have hurt Reynolds when he received that Missile Dropkick. He looked in trouble when PAC went at him, but then he bounced off the ropes, stopped on a dime and leapt into a double stomp – seems simple, so hard to do.
Silver then popped up from a PAC Suplex- not many do that – and hit a Deadlift Brainbuster – not many can do that either.
A question; is the Dark Order finisher called the Pencil Bomb? Sounded like it. And when that didn’t work, they went to a Clothesline/Suplex/Discus Lariat sequence which deserved a pin.
But a José distraction allowed Rush to slip PAC the ringbell hammer who had no question about using it on Reynolds (he suffered greatly in this match) who was out even before the Brutaliser was applied.
A Rampage Result
Sometimes good, sometimes, you know; this episode of Rampage was one of the best of recent weeks.
And here comes the familiar refrain: when wrestling happens, things are better, when angles happen, things are worse.
At the moment on AEW though, it seems as though it happens by accident. When it happens by design, that’s when things will really be cooking.
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