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AEW Rampage: The First Dance - 8/20/21


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Just now, Hector said:

I liked the main fine enough, but the crowd seemed to have no clue who Daniel Garcia was or why that match was happening. Might have been a good time to break out a gimmick brawl there.

I stand by the assertion I made a few weeks ago that the way 2.0/Daniel Garcia are being used is a very public overture to the Adam Coles of the world and any other small/30+ NXT guy with a deal up soon. A way of demonstrably saying "We'll treat you well and put you in with top guys"

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Just now, Zakk_Sabbath said:

I stand by the assertion I made a few weeks ago that the way 2.0/Daniel Garcia are being used is a very public overture to the Adam Coles of the world and any other small/30+ NXT guy with a deal up soon. A way of demonstrably saying "We'll treat you well and put you in with top guys"

On the topic of Garcia - Khan said he and AEW "have an agreement", so at the very least he's on some sort of contract.

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Fantasy Booking: All Out ends with a countdown clock to AEW Grand Slam and when it runs out, it's the Final Countdown as the song plays as Bryan Danielson debuts in AEW  Yeah, it's Chris Jericho Millennium Clock all over again but it hasn't been done since.

Edited by The Natural
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Just now, The Natural said:

Fantasy Booking: All Out ends with a countdown clock to AEW Grand Slam and when it runs out, it's the Final Countdown as the song plays and Bryan Danielson debuts in AEW  Yeah, it's Chris Jericho Millennium Clock all over again but it hasn't been done since.

History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.

I like your idea a lot.

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I'm not going to forget today in a hurry. I woke up at 3:30AM UK time, saw an email confirming I tested positive for Covid (I'm fine, I'm double vaxxed and already feeling better than a couple of days ago), so thought I might as well stick on Fite TV and see Rampage almost live. That whole thing was like an out of body experience, the crowd noise, the promo, CM Punk could actually start a cult and I wouldn't be surprised, I might even join. 

As comically shitty as the MITB 2011 followup was, with the Nash and the Del Rio and the HHH, nothing could actually have lived up to the pipe bomb promo short of giving CM Punk significant creative control over the company. He made such a convincing case that the whole enterprise was rotten, and the last ten years have mainly been a whole lot of proving him right.

AEW, more than most of us could ever have dreamed, is the closest thing possible to a wrestling company run on the principles of that promo. Young talent gets built up, the wrestlers get to organically convey character through their words and actions rather than someone else's hack job sitcom script, titles are treated with importance, the fans aren't held in complete contempt.

Whoever dropped the line about leaving out cookies and Pepsi on CM Punk Eve and wasn't sure who to credit it to, I'm going to do the same and recycle it here, because it makes me grin every time, and this whole morning, from the insanely early start to the wrestling, minus the Covid, has been like a surreal portal back to the sort of excitement I felt as a five year old at Christmas.

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Not much to say that hasn't been said.  What a moment.  I'm not even much of a Punk guy but I got a little choked up.  Having his first words be to put over Baker was straight class.  Whoever does Darby's makeup and wardrobe really stepped it up this week, too.  Kudos to AEW for just going for it and then giving the moment the time to breathe that it deserved.  Dang.

Everything else was rushed, but that's fine considering.  The destroyer off the shoulders was a ridiculous spot, but JB took the bump pretty safely.  Matt Hardy is a really good sleazy manager, that's a good role for him.  I really liked Garcia/Moxley, just wish they'd had five more minutes.  Two guys hitting hard and yanking on each other's limbs is my kind of wrestling.  People were talking about Mox doing Stone Cold in the discussion thread but there's at least as much Mick Foley in his pastiche.

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No surprise, but - after only 3 (almost 4) hours, CM Punk's first AEW shirt is the top seller for the month of August.

Malakai Black holds three of the top five positions, and the Double or Nothing DVD is the other top seller.

EDIT: Jesus christ, it's #35 if you sort by Yearly.

Edited by Casey
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Just now, AaronMLuke said:

Clearly Darby is an AFI fan and obviously disappointed by the use of Cult of Personality.

Bro I never listened to AFI on purpose in my life but this is how I feel about this, and I feel it deeply. Miseria Cantare had a special thing you could clap to. Wrestling songs that have a special thing you can clap to are always better.

I also liked the ribcage shirt and the Killswitch Engage song. I cannot tell a lie.

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That was a hell of a promo. Punk's promo did certainly do a lot in easing a lot my doubts, but now the real work begins. We'll see where they go from here. 

For a comparison, I was really lukewarm on Sting in AEW at first, now I think he's kind of settled nicely into his role as Darby's Jiraiya/Vesemir/Kenobi what have you.  I think it took a while before Sting started clicking in this role.

In contrast, Punk really came out swinging, and I'm especially glad there were no dumb interruptions this time.

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13 minutes ago, John E. Dynamite said:

Bro I never listened to AFI on purpose in my life but this is how I feel about this, and I feel it deeply. Miseria Cantare had a special thing you could clap to. Wrestling songs that have a special thing you can clap to are always better.

I also liked the ribcage shirt and the Killswitch Engage song. I cannot tell a lie.

I agree with you completely on what you said, but literally Darby's tree face paint was an homage to AFI's December Underground album. He should have went with a Sing The Sorrow motif.

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