Rampage - 9/18/2021

[Jiji]

You all are joking right? I'm starting to hyperventilate. Why can't we have nice wrestling things? 

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Steen & Hardy being carny with young wrestlers salary could provide a lot of entertainment.

[Matt D]

1 minute ago, Jiji said:

You all are joking right? I'm starting to hyperventilate. Why can't we have nice wrestling things? 

Look, it’s called “risk management,” ok?

[Jiji]

1 minute ago, HarryArchieGus said:

I've only seen a handful of Gargano matches, but what I've seen has been exceptional.  He'd obviously be a great addition.  The snobbery that leads to ppl groaning over him is as ridiculous as the trolling hate for Omega, the Bucks, etc. etc.  Go watch some Raw and find yourself a better reason to complain.

No it fucking is not the same. He holds hands in the middle of a blood feud and does overly dramatic concussion selling because everything must be about him at all times. He is the end game of bad Shawn Michaels drama class wrestling. Please don't compare that to Omega. 

[HarryArchieGus]

Just now, Jiji said:

No it fucking is not the same. He holds hands in the middle of a blood feud and does overly dramatic concussion selling because everything must be about him at all times. He is the end game of bad Shawn Michaels drama class wrestling. Please don't compare that to Omega. 

Grade A quality performer shit on because of things he's asked or 'scripted' to do  by bad creative.  Well, you're right not exactly the same as the mindless Omega trolling, but equally as ridiculous.    

[Jiji]

Blocked. 

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Chip damage

[HarryArchieGus]

Parroting WWE's perception of any talent or anything on their television is at least 20 plus years out of touch.  It's like calling released talent 'WWE rejects' and assuming AEW will handle said talent like TNA did years ago.  Mind you that argument seems to have been mostly silenced by the likes of Miro, Malakai Black, Andrade, 2 point fuckin 0, Tay Conti, etc. etc. etc.       

[Jiji]

Please don't do the "debate me bro" rhetoric. It's lame. I have certainly watched more than a handful of Gargano matches. I was a regular nxt watcher up to Gargano's super push and stopped watching because of his bullshit. They took his worst tendencies and emphasized them to the Nth degree. Of all the "Shawn Michaels is the GOAT" boys of his generation he is the greatest offender of the overly dramatic, exposition bullshit. I think you can do emotional, inner conflict stuff fine in wrestling but it's an incredibly thin line. Think Omega and the Bucks straddled the line sometimes in NJPW and AEW, but Gargano wipes his ass with the line and makes a mockery of it. From "I'm sorry. I love you" gave way to Gargano staring at his hands, acting concussed, trying to hold hands with Ciampa, etc. I can't stand him or his style and I do not think removing him from HBK's agenting is remotely sufficient because that is so infused in Gargano's identity at this point. I don't enjoy everybody on the AEW roster but there aren't any I actively hate. This would be the first. I do not think I dislike any wrestler purely based on their style like I do Gargano. 

[Casey]

What was Gargano like pre-WWE? Genuine question, as I’ve never seen anything of his before he became a thing in NXT.

I’m not a huge fan of Adam Cole but the one match he had in AEW so far I didn’t hate, like his stuff in NXT that I did. But it’s hard to not watch Cole, since he’s so damn charismatic. I do wish he’d stop saying the story time line every time he gets a mic, tho.

[HarryArchieGus]

1 minute ago, Jiji said:

Please don't do the "debate me bro" rhetoric. It's lame. I have certainly watched more than a handful of Gargano matches. I was a regular nxt watcher up to Gargano's super push and stopped watching because of his bullshit. They took his worst tendencies and emphasized them to the Nth degree. Of all the "Shawn Michaels is the GOAT" boys of his generation he is the greatest offender of the overly dramatic, exposition bullshit. I think you can do emotional, inner conflict stuff fine in wrestling but it's an incredibly thin line. Think Omega and the Bucks straddled the line sometimes in NJPW and AEW, but Gargano wipes his ass with the line and makes a mockery of it. From "I'm sorry. I love you" gave way to Gargano staring at his hands, acting concussed, trying to hold hands with Ciampa, etc. I can't stand him or his style and I do not think removing him from HBK's agenting is remotely sufficient because that is so infused in Gargano's identity at this point. I don't enjoy everybody on the AEW roster but there aren't any I actively hate. This would be the first. I do not think I dislike any wrestler purely based on their style like I do Gargano. 

'Debate me bro'?  Is that a joke?  

I suggested you're rating him entirely on what 'they' have asked him to do.  Which you are.  Which is incredibly closeminded.  I'm certainly glad AEW doesn't adhere to your typecasting.  

[Jiji]

1 minute ago, Casey said:

What was Gargano like pre-WWE? Genuine question, as I’ve never seen anything of his before he became a thing in NXT.

I’m not a huge fan of Adam Cole but the one match he had in AEW so far I didn’t hate, like his stuff in NXT that I did. But it’s hard to not watch Cole, since he’s so damn charismatic. I do wish he’d stop saying the story time line every time he gets a mic, tho.

Gargano wasn't mechanically a different beast on the indies just with a tenth of the high school drama routine for better or worse. I always saw him as bland but then saw some of his heel work and he was actually pretty good. 

I do wonder how long you can run on your gimmick being the guy that says "baybay" and "story time with Adam Cole". He's charismatic enough to come up with something new hopefully. 

[Casey]

It’s entirely possible that Gargano is just doing what “they” want him to, and his worst tendencies would be gone if he made the jump to AEW. But there’s always the possibility that it’s a learned behavior now and it might only get worse in promotion like AEW.

Either way I rather see Candice LeRae in AEW over Gargano.

[Jiji]

What does Gargano bring that they don't already have that is a positive?

[A_K]

Cole understands effective communication. Long winded comically-intellectualised wrestling promos are pointless if they don’t stick in the mind. Rock became a mega star with the “Finally, the Rock has come back ..” line week in week out for years. Austin not dissimilar. Cole is completely fine. Super hot start from him.

[Jiji]

Also, we know he worships the ground HBK walks on. He, Chuck Taylor, and that group are all on the record as big Michaels guys. What makes you think he's going to drop the HBK routine and lessons learned from his idol should he do the unthinkable and walk away from working with him? 

[HarryArchieGus]

1 minute ago, Jiji said:

What does Gargano bring that they don't already have that is a positive?

I like picturing the comedy of a meeting of the AEW decision makers discussing Gargano with the end result being 'Well, he's really talented in all areas, but uhhh, we already have a few guys who are really talented in all areas.  Pass!'  

 

[Matt D]

30 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Chip Damage

Stop trying to name second generation NXT 2.0 guys. This is the Rampage thread.

[AxB]

16 minutes ago, Casey said:

What was Gargano like pre-WWE?

Alex Shelley. He was exactly like Alex Shelley.

[A_K]

On the Cole point — that pop he gets pointing to the ground then rising up on his entrance is legitimately one of the biggest repeatable week-to-week pops in 20 years. He and Baker have it absolutely nailed on how to move crowds. 

[John from Cincinnati]

9 minutes ago, Jiji said:

He, Chuck Taylor, and that group are all on the record as big Michaels guys. 

I knew I was right about him.

[COLETTI]

Maybe I'm too kind but I'm willing to give anybody jumping to AEW a fair chance. It's a vastly different environment and we've already seen a few folks thrive there versus their previous place of employment. 

Plus nobody's ever going to force anybody to watch matches they don't wanna watch. Free will, baby. 

[Jiji]

 Not for completionists. 

And why would TK want to fill his show with talent from a roster they just spent a year smacking around. He said Cole was the one guy he feared, and I'm sure there may be some tire pumping hyperbowl there, but is Johnny Gargano a draw? He'll get some nice novelty pops at the start and then what? Ring of Honor seems to pay well these days. 

[Greggulator]

Britt 

5 minutes ago, A_K said:

On the Cole point — that pop he gets pointing to the ground then rising up on his entrance is legitimately one of the biggest repeatable week-to-week pops in 20 years. He and Baker have it absolutely nailed on how to move crowds. 

Britt knows how to be enough of a condescending jerk though to get her crowd pop and DMD thing over and still get some level of heel heat.
 

Adam Cole is just bad at being a heel. He says the right things and he does heeling things in the ring, but he does not do anything to actively make the crowd hate him.

I did not like the never ending Gargano saga in NXT either. But he has been a revelation as a comedy heel. That is the role he was born to play. He and some flunkies against the Best Friends crew would be really great (especially since I am pretty sure he is IRL best friends with all of them.)

[HarryArchieGus]

12 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

Adam Cole is just bad at being a heel. He says the right things and he does heeling things in the ring, but he does not do anything to actively make the crowd hate him.

"Get out of the ring 'nerd'!"