JLowe Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 17 hours ago, Just Dave said: If I were Starks I’d be looking for reasons not to jump. Unless he just really wants to leave… I think he sees the grass as greener and is going to end up making a huge mistake. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLowe Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Dustin-Butcher started really rough, came together fine but I was hoping for a little more clubberin’ and bouef. Having Deonna wrestle a local named Rose was a nice touch that the announcers missed. Nasty arm work, but a little too giving to the enhancement. Similarly, Mariah was too giving to her local opponent. Still, nasty shotgun dropkick and she also punched her opponent square in the jaw. Don’t look now, but Mariah is about to be ranked as the #1 contender for the women’s title... The main was pretty old school in a fun way, up until the end almost every move was something you could’ve seen in the 70s and 80s. Papa Magie woke the locals up for a few minutes, anyway. Overall, it was a very average Rampage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryArchieGus Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) Not a great show, but a little fun was had. The Dustin v Butcher opener was a nice little battle. I really long for the day that Butch takes a NJPW excursion and (maybe) becomes ready for the big poosh. Ass Boys/Jay home invasion was a bit underwhelming. At least give us something to laugh about. Purrazzo v Rose was a fine little showcase. Deonna would benefit from always getting a little mic time around her bouts. Mariah May v Nikita was a fair showcase for the Marvellous Miss May. Toni would've been better utilized on commentary. Zak Knight/Harley Cameron/Ange/Ruby Soho skit - the word cringe is grossly overused these days, but seems pretty appropriate for what Ruby's been bringing to this bullshit. Just book the Knight/Ange mid-show Rampage match already. Roddy v Papi Magie would've benefitted from the classic Mark Henry split screen promo of yesteryear. Hot crowd made for an exciting start. Goddamn Matt Taven seemed to be intent on being the focus on the outside. Way to get yourself over at the expense of the match. I'm not a Taven hater, but shit like this reminds why he's so reviled. This was a big shiny example of AEW's idiotic use of heel cornermen. I wish it provided the good kind of heel heat. It seems wrong at this point to even complain about the obvious reasons why Taven/Bennett should've been kicked out. That said, I can't help but wish Creative would clean up this fucking nonsense. The match itself was a bit rough. Menard's timing and comebacks were pretty awful. Roddy did what he could to make something out of this, but the lack of success was on Menard. I say that as a fan. Clearly he's better off sticking to his strongsuit - on the mic and headset. Post match stuff was fine for the OC/Trent v Bucks build, which I'm very much looking forward to. This show feels incredibly dull without Renee popping up all over it. She should be the MC and star every week. That ends the run of quietly rockin' Rampages. EDIT: Roddy's backdrop to Papi Magie on the apron was awesomely brutal! The highlight of the show. Edited March 30 by HarryArchieGus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colonial Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 The Bang Bang home invasion was unintentionally funny -- from Jay White arriving in a minivan to Billy Gunn leaving the TV and lights on in his house, as well as apparently only watching his own matches and storylines on his own TV. Once Jay mentioned "no pictures of Caster and Bowens," part of me wanted me to hear " ... but lots of pictures of Chuck Palumbo for some reason or another." Toni Storm now being introduced as being "from Stage 7 of the Warner Bros. lot" (I think) demands an Animaniacs cameo now if not sooner. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 On 3/29/2024 at 5:43 AM, SovietShooter said: That's the one thing this heel turn from the Bucks is missing - blatant abuse of power to win matches. I'm definitely not saying they should be heel authority figures and making matches and such, but they should be leveraging their position to their benefit a lot more. They should have a crooked referee calling their matches calling thing right down the middle Fonzie style. Yes Knox doing instant DQ for close fists or choke slams Also no one can seem to agree is it Money or Monet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 2 hours ago, colonial said: The Bang Bang home invasion was unintentionally funny -- from Jay White arriving in a minivan to Billy Gunn leaving the TV and lights on in his house, as well as apparently only watching his own matches and storylines on his own TV. Once Jay mentioned "no pictures of Caster and Bowens," part of me wanted me to hear " ... but lots of pictures of Chuck Palumbo for some reason or another." Toni Storm now being introduced as being "from Stage 7 of the Warner Bros. lot" (I think) demands an Animaniacs cameo now if not sooner. Don't forget three men, carrying a weapon (bat), turning and running out of the house when Billy came home. "We're the Bang Bang Gan- oh shit! One person! Run!" 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 19 hours ago, Technico Support said: Why do we need Dustin Rhodes, whose only storyline is to pop up every 7-10 weeks and say “I’m old but I still love rasslin,” getting 12 meaningless minutes on TV? They’re never doing anything else with him. Maybe let one of your younger, more talented JTTS guys like Kommander or Bryan Keith get a TV win and invest in your future a bit. Jesus fuck. What does Dustin on TV do for anyone? BOO THIS MAN. BOOOOOOOOOOO 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 The way he’s been tweeting during the Rock/Cody stuff, you’d think he was a suprise component at Mania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 9 hours ago, JLowe said: I think he sees the grass as greener and is going to end up making a huge mistake. He left their developmental in disgust. Hopefully he wont make that mistake again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 There is no one in either WWE or AEW who needs to jump to the other more than Starks. He's heated up multiple times in AEW to show that he is that guy and they just always lose interest in him through no fault of his own. All he needs is to be on tv consistently and I think he can manage the rest and even Vince's WWE could have probably managed that thanks to Raw being 3 hours long. I can see those who mainly watch AEW or think ill of WWE wanting him to stay but it has become clear that the company is just never gonna be consistently behind him, he was ready to be a star two years ago now. Right behind him is Hobbs BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technico Support Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Type 1 diabetes vs type 2 diabetes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Matt Cardona got his dream match tonight, good for him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) So uh, a couple of botches in an otherwise very entertaining show.... Top Flight definitely was not supposed to win that match. Wonder how bad Starks is injured. And Dasha announced the winner of the main event via submission (actually was a pin). Also, from now on I'm totally calling Rosa Lightning Daffodil and will always refer to her a such! Edited March 31 by The Green Meanie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoeCristyV.1.6 Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 The finish in the Big Bill/Starks vs Top Flight match was all kinds of awful. First no kickout at all, then a not so great finisher and then Starks music plays... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Cardona coming out was a surprise, then I remembered he was one of Edge's former stooges. For something with no hype it was a damn fine match and I'm sure both guys got a kick out of working with eachother on that sort of stage. Black/Edge is a program I can get behind. The Top Flight/Big Starks match was awkward. Starks clearly didn't kick out of the first pin attempt even though he was clearly supposed to, and then it looks like an audible was called for the awkward finish. Starks is claiming to be OK on twitter. Infantry/FTR was a great tv bout with The Infantry getting in enough to make it look like they just might pull it off. There was an awkward leapfrog spot near the end but otherwise everything was solid. That was one of the funnier backstage segments from Storm and company. The main event was fine with Shibata being a better fit than Moxley in the group, though Claudio was really the standout in here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 7 minutes ago, HumanChessgame said: The main event was fine with Shibata being a better fit than Moxley in the group My mother is demanding they trade Yuta for Shibata. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 3 hours ago, The Green Meanie said: Top Flight definitely was not supposed to win that match. Wonder how bad Starks is injured. Starks said on Instagram that he’s fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 My only issue with HOB vs. Cope is that Malakai really shouldn’t be dropping falls ever and I’m not sure I see Cope losing the title yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 When the time comes, Adam Copeland should drop the TNT Championship to Konosuke Takeshita. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 13 minutes ago, The Natural said: When the time comes, Adam Copeland should drop the TNT Championship to Konosuke Takeshita. He’s on my list of “next four guys to hold this belt.” I’d go Malakai/Briscoe/Takeshita. But that belt is in Takeshita’s future… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) I wish Cash was more interested in doing some singles matches. It was a fun tag since it felt fresh relative to a lot of recent FTR matches. I laughed at them doing Silver/Reynolds’s finishing sequence in slow motion. Edited March 31 by Matt D 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryArchieGus Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 14 hours ago, username said: There is no one in either WWE or AEW who needs to jump to the other more than Starks. He's heated up multiple times in AEW to show that he is that guy and they just always lose interest in him through no fault of his own. All he needs is to be on tv consistently and I think he can manage the rest and even Vince's WWE could have probably managed that thanks to Raw being 3 hours long. I can see those who mainly watch AEW or think ill of WWE wanting him to stay but it has become clear that the company is just never gonna be consistently behind him, he was ready to be a star two years ago now. I totally agree with the first statement, but I don't think it's because Ricky's lit the world on fire in AEW. I don't quite see how he's shown himself to be 'the guy' outside of being a solid opponent for a couple top guys. He's been very inconsistent. His Tag Title run with Bill was one of the, if not thee, worst in the 5 year history. I think he needs the sink or swim motivation of WWE along with writers providing him better words. The whole 'Absolute' thing has long felt like a try hard fail. Ricky's promos are not great for what he says, but he does have cadence in spades. Give a guy like that a writer, and I suspect better results. I also think his in ring style would be more at home on the WWE side. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 So, I finally got to watch Cardona/Cope. I remember saying for years on this site that Zack Ryder had been in wwe for upwards of a decade and I still had no idea if he was a good worker or not. Idk if Cardona is a guy who’s just figured out what he is, but I didn’t think him capable of working a structured tv match like that. I’m very impressed. I hope this leads to him making more AEW appearances, as several folks (hawkins, jtg) have said in interviews that triple h just isn’t a fan and Cardona in this incarnation should be on tv regularly. As for Starks… I’m kind of over him. I still like him and want what’s best for his career, but at some point he has to, too. The same people that left him disgusted with his last pc tryout are running the whole company now, so if he really thinks it’s gonna go better bc his buddy Cody is there, maybe he needs to find out. House of Black rules ass. Put the tnt title on the Dark Father and belts on the other two. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 I got a weird opinion of Starks. He feels like he could (or could have) been a top guy in AEW, but would be forced into midcard in WWE. But then I like Ethan Page despite his deficiencies and wanted Miro to be champ even though he's completely undependable so maybe you should take my tastes with a grain of salt. Goddamn hopper went out in my room so DVR'd AEW is out for today, hopefully play catch-up tomorrow when the replacement arrives and drop some reviews, opinions, complaints, dirty limericks about Lard Lad and Lady Frost, etc. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryArchieGus Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: I got a weird opinion of Starks. He feels like he could (or could have) been a top guy in AEW, but would be forced into midcard in WWE. But then I like Ethan Page despite his deficiencies and wanted Miro to be champ even though he's completely undependable so maybe you should take my tastes with a grain of salt. I think it'd be interesting to see how Starks would do in WWE for the reasons I mentioned, but I don't disagree. I have little doubt that if McMahon were in charge he'd be either in catering or doing jobs in under 2 minutes. Even with the current regime, if his motivation doesn't ascend a couple notches and stay there consistently he'd be midcard fodder. I also think Ethan Page would have a better shot of moving up the card with writers and less freedom. Have you seen his babyface ROH run? Hilariously bad promos galore. Tho, Ethan's clearly only meant to ever be a heel, which he is excellent at. Miro's run with the TNT title suggested (without the creative issues that followed) that you're probably right. Can I wish for a second that these two companies could complete a couple trades - Ricky Starks for Chad Gable, Dragunov for Black and Buddy, Bronson Reed for Miro. Edited March 31 by HarryArchieGus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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