This was the first taped episode of Rampage coming from the same arena that Dynamite this past Wednesday was broadcast from in UWM Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That gave the episode a little less dynamic of a feeling but AEW is starting to ramp up their PPV for All Out on September 5th.
Jurassic Express vs Lucha Bros
This was the tag team finals before All Out for the tag team titles in a steel cage. One of the big things they hyped before the show was NBA Finals MVP “The Greek Freak” Giannis Ugo Antetokounmpo, whom they frequently panned towards, especially this match to get his reactions. Apparently, Tony Khan had made the announcement beforehand and many people doubted him, but when he brought out Giannis out, the entire arena erupted especially since he received a special title from Tony as a reward and made his way down to the ring with someone else that I did not recognize and got his pop in. Pretty intelligent move there as now you’re getting some big sports stars outside of wrestling coming in to create yet even more hype for the casual fan. This is pretty much out of the play back from McMahon.
Match was high energy and had a few interesting spots. But things like the hurricanrana off the top rope to the outside didn’t look great because of the setup with Jungle Boy waiting until Rey Fenix could walk towards him on the ropes then eventually launch himself into the others, which meant they had to wait the entire duration. It did get a holy shit moment from the crowd but the slight delay in Rey Fenix’s execution caused one to see Jungle Boy flipping himself over into the others.
Lucha Bros won with a slight entanglement with the Bucks to setup some heat between both teams going into All Out. Jurassic Express maintained their babyface personas by sharing their concern after the brief beatdown. It was noted that next week on Dynamite, there will be a 4v4 match between Jurassic Express/Lucha Bros vs the Bucks/the Good Brothers.With the Lucha Bros winning this match and getting the steel cage at All Out, I’m putting my bets on the Lucha Bros for winning. Not because they are the better tag team but that I can’t see any other titles changing hands on that PPV at the moment. Also, at this point the Bucks aren’t doing much favors keeping the belts and they need to freshen up that division quite a bit.
Miro Interview
He was bullying (kicking) Fuego Del Sol to the ring. Schiavone was inside but got no words in and stood back with his hands raised wanting no part of the situation. Miro actually unmasked Fuego Del Sol after “forgiving him”, leading Eddie Kingston to come out. Kingston had a mic but said fuck it and ran into the ring where a brawl occurred and later referees shot out to break it apart.
So the setup here was Miro vs Eddie Kingston. Again, I don’t see a title change here but I do anticipate a good brawl at least. The closest person I think that will beat Miro for the title is Sammy Guevara because he mentioned in the past that he’s been eyeing that title and AEW might reward him for sticking around this long and being loyal. But hopefully that won’t come for a while so that Miro has a longer reign.
The Bunny vs Tay Conti
The Bunny didn’t even receive an entrance (nor did the Lucha Bros for that matter) but she ended up beating Tay after Penelope Ford helped distract the referee while The Blade handed The Bunny brass knuckles. I did not mind that result. I dislike giving people lossless track records unless they appear truly dominant and there’s very few people that this should happen to. Tay isn’t one of them.
The other thing is that The Bunny needed a TV win just because there’s just too many women on the roster who aren’t getting any wins and could use them. I think she looked good, not exactly fancy but her offense was old school heelish. But the main thing is that she did not fuck up. Tay has gotten better, she’s a good baby face so her losing makes her vulnerable, which more wrestlers need, so that they can sell better.
Penelope Ford associating herself with The Bunny is good because she was anchored into nowhere after Kip disappeared off the face of the earth. Separately, they just look like nothing but I think as a tag team, they could be much better, compensating for their lack of size with a good look and attitude.
Kenny Omega & Brandon Cutler vs Christian Cage & Frankie Kazarian
Yeesh. What did Cutler do to get this spot? Oh yeah, he’s best friends with the Bucks. Even Chris Jericho pointed that out (since eventually Jim Cornette would) and practically decimated Cutler the entire time. They had a backstage segment with Mark Henry and even Callis destroyed Cutler. What’s the purpose of giving him a spot like this when it’s clear he’s absolutely worthless? They didn’t even hide the fact but pronounced it the entire time.
Horrible match, marred by Cutler just being in the ring. He’s a goof with a bad gimmick, he looks like an idiot, wrestles like an idiot, probably should be repackaged, no one takes him seriously, many people hated it, this had no place being on a Rampage main event and Omega could have gotten a far more useful partner outside of The Elite. Like why not have someone like Matt Hardy? Sure, he has a busted nose or whatever, but the point here is that Cutler belongs on a place like Elevation where he can goof off and practice being a wrestler rather than taking a key spot away from a bigger talent.
Even when I looked at the match on paper, I knew who was going to win. So that shows just how bad the booking was here. Now, if Cutler won with a surprise finish, a decent move or severe cheating and got big time heat, I would have been more receptive to this booking because then it would have led to something. Anything just not being a total waste of time. If they want Cutler wrestling comedy matches, have him face JD Drake, Luther, Joey Janela or Chuck Taylor on Dark endlessly until he either gets serious and/or good. This type of match just devalues AEW especially with CM Punk drawing more eyes in.
Final Thoughts
People on Reddit appropriately described this episode being analogous to WCW Thunder back in the day. To a degree, it was like that. The tag match wasn’t terrible and I thought they did something with The Bunny rather than having Tay squash her, which was good. Miro vs Kingston has good potential and rewards Kingston for the work he has been doing.
But that main event just killed anything they were attempting to build to and made the show feel third rate. I felt bad for Christian and Frankie Kazarian wasting their time with Cutler. Now, call me sadistic, but I want something to legitimately smash that face mask he’s wearing because it has no business being in the ring. It doesn’t look safe and the only way management is going to figure out that it sucks is by having a terrible “accident.” Maybe it’ll give a ton of sympathy for Cutler and he’ll smarten up and get serious. If not, keep him off TV!
The other thing to mention was that Jericho was back. He wasn’t as offensive and I liked him being a sneering jerk especially towards The Elite and Cutler. More importantly, Mark Henry got to say a lot more this time around and his comebacks have been getting better. The jury is still out for him but I do think he’s improving. After all, this is his 3rd show.
At this point, I’m dead sure Jericho is going to lose to MJF because it’s clear Jim Ross isn’t going to be doing two shows every week unless there’s something special like CM Punk’s debut, which was great for him and really helped sell Punk’s arrival. Jericho works well as a color commentator as long as he doesn’t run over everyone, especially Mark Henry. I like Taz because he’s built up chemistry with Excalibur but Taz and Jericho feel redundant. Four people announcing just is too much and you have two color commentators who are overlapping. My guess is that eventually when Mark Henry is comfortable getting his rhythm and eliminating the freezes or his “oh my goodness” moments that Taz will eventually just be doing Dark. Personally, I wish Excalibur would be the one that’s kept off but I’m certain that Jim Ross is mentoring Excalibur to have him eventually take his place in the long run. Either that or when Jericho feels like wrestling again, he’ll get off the booth and have a few special matches (maybe against Punk or Bryan which would be a novelty)
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