AEW Rampage - 5/5/2023

[The Natural]

The Firm Deletion cinematic match, one of my least favourite wrestlers in Pentagon and Mark Briscoe in action.

[JLowe]

I won’t be watching until Sunday probably (will be in San Antonio for wife’s birthday) but it dawned on me that we’ll be seeing the DEAN sign again.

[Peck]

Brand split:

Collision: Stokely and the Hardy Children. 

Dynamite: Everyone else

AEW RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD~!

Edited May 5, 2023 by Peck

[VSG]

The Deletion match was what it was but "Tony Khan will pay for his crimes" got a laugh from me.

[matt925]

Stokely was hilarious. 

[John E. Dynamite]

5 hours ago, JLowe said:

I won’t be watching until Sunday probably (will be in San Antonio for wife’s birthday) but it dawned on me that we’ll be seeing the DEAN sign again.

it dawned on me the second the bell rung for QTV vs. Death Vikings that the sign might have a different, terrible meaning come Friday

i am glad i am surrounded by whiskey whenever i choose to watch it back

[Nineteen]

The Hardy Compound matches are usually a good place to just go crazy so felt pretty lacking. Stokely felt like the only one really trying to engage with the gimmick. I'm glad Broken Matt isn't a regular thing since it'd make one offs like this be something to look forward to but, they just didn't nail it last time. 

Feels weird that Anna is trying to come off as a little righteous with telling Julia's been brainwashed while I sort of remember that being a clever ruse and she willingly went dark. And also that Anna is a part of the stable of the biggest shit bags in the company right now doesn't really give her much moral high ground. Team Spooky B-.... Team Julia here.

Trios match was fun, wasn't really into Briscoe/Vance but Mark and Lethal's crew is weirdly entertaining.

Middling praise for tonight's episode, AEW does still rule the motherfucking world.

[zendragon]

I love how Viking dude looks like he’s wrestling wearing a leather bomber jacket 

Jerichos promo really made me realize how much I enjoy his aging washed up spinal tap like rock star gimmick 

Preston Vance had his best match yet against mark Brisco , loved Tony and JR acting disgusted with Vance and JR was particularly good on commentary here, and I loved them getting the kids involved. If I was a pro wrestler I would do nothing but play to the children 

Hardy Compound was fun. Toga Style showing up in the game of death jump suit, Stokley as coming to America, Zay looking like someone out of a blaxploitation flick, and they get the kids involved (was this bring your children to work day) And young Max’s swanton A MILLION BILLION ️ 

[Matt D]

https://bleacherreport.com/videos/442196-firm-deletion--directors-cut

Extended cut there. For free. It's all I've seen so far of the show but I have a gut feeling it was a good deal better than what aired. It was weird when Tony and Excalibur were on commentary (and Lexie to start) though I do like that Tony got to do some of the goofy bits.

There were a lot of little shots I loved actually:

• Big Bill in the back seat of the car.
• Cham Pain getting a moment to proclaim himself and Caprice being the other ref.
• Hook not realizing things began as he was just sitting by a tree eating chips.
• Jeff and Bill going into trees repeatedly.
• Some of the shots from Page sounded nasty due to the acoustics and production and they made a mere suplex look super painful because it was on the cold hard ground.
• Some of the little comments during the action like Jeff going on about how he'd get the big guy and Bill asking how he liked choking. I forgot Bill could do the Undertaker eye roll. The little comments and muttering were Popeye or Sam Raimi like.
• Literally everything Stoke did, but especially the Bebe's kids line and complaining about the snacks.
• Bill just shrugging and going along with the violence, including that he'd just set people on fire.
• The 20 seconds we got of Lee going full Taigastyle with Hook like they were in a kung fu movie.
• Page taking everyone's finisher (including shots from Coleman and Gartner) like it was a post show WWE Dark Match.
• and yeah, even Jeff getting a moment of fire and rebirth at the end.

I could have used a little more goofiness, a few more cameos (though it's hard to complain when the big one was Cham Pain). But I had fun.

Edited May 6, 2023 by Matt D

[Casey]

I knew you’d come took on a whole new meaning with this match.

Wasn’t the best Hardy Compound match, I’d even say the WWE one was better than this, but they’re all still fun as hell and that’s what matters.

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, John E. Dynamite said:

it dawned on me the second the bell rung for QTV vs. Death Vikings that the sign might have a different, terrible meaning come Friday

Shit yeah that sign hit different today, but I was like 4-5 beers in, feeling fine, sometimes thinking of Dean, having seen GotG3 today, just a bittersweet day.

[DreamBroken]

A little lacking in comparison to the original Hardy Compound classics, but still fun and had it's moments. I was a huge fan of all things Broken Matt so I loved seeing all the classic staples again and Jeff's big fire ending visual was cool.

Other matches were solid and Jade looked great in her 45 second squash. Next week's Dynamite looks epic, with Tony calling it a PPV on TBS. 

[JLowe]

4 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

it dawned on me the second the bell rung for QTV vs. Death Vikings that the sign might have a different, terrible meaning come Friday

i am glad i am surrounded by whiskey whenever i choose to watch it back

 Nah, it’s a sad thing but a good thing. The big guy being honored on multiple shows is a fitting tribute (and probably the first of many). 

[Dirty J.]

Orgasmic Isiah has finally come! 

Second half of the deletion match was great. Call me crazy, but I want a Big Bill push. 

[AxB]

We went a whole Rampage without hearing the word Jezebel! It's unprecedented!

[The Green Meanie]

One thing that confused me was during the Anny Jay/Julia Hart package. Anna mentioned Julia was her first (and best) friend. Are we supposed to forget TayJay? Or are they retroconning it?

[Technico Support]

“Orgasmic Isaiah, I knew you’d come!”

 

Dirtiest thing I’ve heard on TV since “Ward, I think you were a little hard on the beaver last night.”

[Matt D]

Watched cartoons with the kids this morning so I'm running behind.

I did catch Death Vikings vs QTV though and I have some thoughts. There are a lot of different possible structures and narratives in pro wrestling. It doesn't have to be shine/heat/comeback. As long as there's a narrative throughline and things have weight and matter, that they have some semblance of build and payoff, you can do a lot of different things. Some stories are easier to tell than others. Some are more natural. Some require less work on the viewer. And, it's valid to occasionally just do a your move/my move fireworks spotfest. To me, however, that last bit is limiting. It's limiting because if you pull back just a little on that, you can still hit a lot of those spots but underpin it with a more compelling narrative. Doing that will only make the spots feel more impressive and compelling because there'll be something providing them with actual substance. It's almost always additive if done well and smartly. The best wrestling is when people combine working smart and working hard, when you have both "workrate" and narrative, when one is the means and the other is the end.

So often with the Lucha Bros, I see a heck of a lot of means and not a lot of end. That's most especially true when they're up against similar opponents with similar mindsets. They try to go over the top and in doing so end up completely untethered. It pops the crowd in the moment but you end up remembering spots and moments, not the match as a whole.

One of the great things about AEW is the WAR-like nature of the potential pairings. You'll see Lucha Bros and Vikingo against the most logical guys in the world (let's say Rush and Dralistico) but you'll also see them here against QT, Hobbs, and Solo, three guys with wildly different skillsets. After a bit of posturing, QT took all of Vikingo's flashy stuff. I'll admit I had mixed feelings about his basing. In general, we applaud wrestlers for getting into positions on dives and saving the spot and their opponent. That's outisde of the ring; when it happens in the ring, however, it always feels a little dodgier. That was the case with the implosion 'rana. QT rushing to position made it feel more impactful but also poked at the suspension of disbelief just a tad. Still, it felt novel for him to be taking all the offense instead of someone like Kommander or Gringo Loco. Then Hobbs came in and just shut everything down. Solo is a 14 year vet 34 year old still trying to find his way but he can hit stuff clean and is pretty punchable, so it's not like he's a bad hand to have in there and to follow up Hobbs' stuff with a bunch of annoying offense. The built through the commercial break to the comeback and went into a finishing stretch. That's where we got the dives and the real bombs and because of the anticipation everything felt bigger than it would have if they were just escalating and escalating through spot after spot after spot. Speaking of escalating, I'm glad we didn't get the 630 through the table here. That shouldn't be an every match move, even if it's teased every match. It's one of the biggest spots in the promotion and they should only use it when it really matters, not against QT on a Rampage with a weird time spot. It was ok to do it a couple of times early to establish it but now keep it in the pocket so that when it happens, it means as much as humanly possible and that it also doesn't devalue other big dives and spots people do across the promotion. The finish felt a little abrupt to me but ultimately worked; Hobbs was distracted. Why was Hobbs distracted? Because he was choking Abrahantes and that's the best reason to lose a match imaginable.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

5 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

One thing that confused me was during the Anny Jay/Julia Hart package. Anna mentioned Julia was her first (and best) friend. Are we supposed to forget TayJay? Or are they retroconning it?

I think they were probably shoot friends seeing as how they were both trained at QT & Cody's school at the same time. On air Tay Jay are bffs. But in the context of training and off air it's probably true.

My only complain with the compound match (and this is like the tiniest complaint of all time) is how in the world did Lexy Nair travel from Jericho's locker room in Baltimore to North Carolina in the matter of minutes? Just a small continuity thing that makes my OCD tick lol. Just have someone else interview Jericho.

Edited May 6, 2023 by NoFistsJustFlips

[HarryArchieGus]

Okay, let's see. Lucha Bros/Vikingo v QTV was fucking terrific. Pretty slick stuff. Nice to see Fenix back. QT rules! Binaca era Solo is clean and fresh. Let's get the Lucha Bros Plus a shot at the gold, yeah? Nice Jade squash followed. The JJJ gang and Briscoe continue to knock it out of the park. Vance vs Briscoe was easily Perro Peligrosso's best match yet. Mark is unreal. Man, they need to slow him down with some of those bumps. Just brutal. At least he didn't drop the apron elbow. Glad they included a little of the family fun after. I'm generally good with less entrances, but Vance really could have used a bit more shine considering what they accomplished here. Dustin promo was going alright, the attack was fine, then Lee saunters in with the goofy. I like everyone involved here, and look forward to the actual matches, but this feud is a fucking drag. Nice to see a little OC-Garcia package. Julia-Anna package was alright. The Hardy compound was, uh, *fart sound*, not for me. Really enjoyed the Baltimore portion of this episode. 

[Matt D]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Vance vs Briscoe was easily Perro Peligrosso's best match yet.

Just made it through it. I agree. He never lost the plot. His offense was both impactful and unique to play to his strengths. I don't know if Mark insisted he lay it in but the forearms looked really good. He had presence and size and it played off Briscoe's relative toughness. And he made sure to stay with his gimmick and terrorize Mark's kids. This is the first time (even more than the Moxley interaction) where I saw that he might just have it if he keeps down this path. Mark's bump into the chair was insane. The Jade squash was fine, and I'm not going back to see the TV edit of the Deletion (though I liked the extended one obviously) but this might have been the best Rampage in a long time.

[zendragon]

13 hours ago, Dirty J. said:

Orgasmic Isiah has finally come! 

Second half of the deletion match was great. Call me crazy, but I want a Big Bill push. 

If Collision ends up being a Saturday morning/late afternoon show that serves to get AEWs midcard something tv time I would be sooo down for a 2 minute Big Bill goozel every other week

[SturmCRF]

4 hours ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

I think they were probably shoot friends seeing as how they were both trained at QT & Cody's school at the same time. On air Tay Jay are bffs. But in the context of training and off air it's probably true.

My only complain with the compound match (and this is like the tiniest complaint of all time) is how in the world did Lexy Nair travel from Jericho's locker room in Baltimore to North Carolina in the matter of minutes? Just a small continuity thing that makes my OCD tick lol. Just have someone else interview Jericho.

She wasn't there at the beginning, when it was daylight, was she? So maybe she drove from Baltimore to North Carolina while The Firm were trapped in the space/time continuum, and arrived at night when they all returned to this layer of temporal reality.

Or, thanks to her Fallen Goddess powers, Athena contemptuously referring to the ROH interviewer as Lexy on that show on Thursday caused multiple other Lexy Nairs to spawn throughout the Eastern United States, and one of these newly corporealised Lexys Nair blindly followed her journalistic instincts to seek out the Hardy Compound, knowing that a great happening was about to occur.

Ignore all that if she was already there at the start though, then there's no plausible explanation.

Edited May 6, 2023 by SturmCRF

[AxB]

The Table from the Vikingo match, which didn't break, was transported to the Hardy compound too. Chekov's table.

[writeradam84]

Trios match was fun although I think the QTV thing is pretty much dead now since Hobbs lost the title. Vikingo is really fun to watch. I like him a lot more than Komander actually. Jade squash was typical. Gia Scott's (almost typed Gia Miller) screams of terror were great. I always dig me some Mark Briscoe but the match felt very bland. Preston Vance isn't much but that's because I think they've done exactly nothing with him since they unmasked him and split him from Dark Order. But I agree with @HarryArchieGus in that is was Vance's best match. Briscoe landing on that chair was nuts. Firm deletion was fun, wish it hadn't been all hacked up to make TV. The continuity felt a bit off with it because of that. Seeing Caprice Coleman and Cham Pain as the refs were a blast and a nice little throwback to them as members of OMEGA. And Hook eating chips behind a tree before shooting off fireworks! Will probably watch the extended cut tomorrow.

Edited May 6, 2023 by writeradam84