This event came from the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, MO. I read that Tony Khan came out to the event earlier and apologized for not having Full Gear, citing certain business decisions for influencing his decision. It was an interesting move on his part for being this transparent but I think that his sincerity is building a lot of trust with the fans compared to the WWE, which has become too corporate and unwatchable.
Bryan Danielson vs. Anthony Bowens w/ Max Caster
Max Caster came out second to do his spiel and shot on the WWE a bit, I think with regards to their layoffs that same day. Very strange pairing but I think the agenda with Bryan Danielson wrestling the entire AEW roster is to not simply showcase him but also help train all the young talent. This match was almost one sided but Max Caster would get involved here and there to help his partner turn the tide. Not surprisingly, Bryan Danielson won but we can chalk part of that up to Anthony Bowens not being a singles competitor.
CM Punk and Eddie Kingston In Ring Confrontation
Punk came out first with his usual Cult of Personality music and had the fans initially behind him. He taunted Eddie to come out where Eddie’s music started to play but he needed that extra taunting to bring him out. The second time, Eddie came out to no music, grabbed a mic rather rudely and got in the ring with Punk.
This was a very weird promo but logical too in trying to piece together an issue. Punk was trying to put Kingston over in saying “judging him to a higher standard” back in the day while Kingston came off as being the working class man. Kingston was pretty over here and Punk started to get some boos in this arena. Punk still called out the arena and would ask “his friends” about having an upcoming match at Full Gear since the crowd wants to see this match.
When Punk tried to leave, Kingston insulted him again and Punk headbutted Kingston. That caused the referees to come out to try to break them apart, followed up by more officials. Basically, it was exactly how Jim Cornette laid out a pull apart in his podcast. But this segment was well done. The hard thing to pinpoint is who the heel is going to be in this coming match. Logically speaking Kingston should be that way, but I think Kingston is Dusty Rhodes 2.0 in terms of the whole “working man charisma.” When Kingston calls himself “fat and likes to eat a bit much,” you immediately start relating to him. Kingston is America and with the pandemic increasing a lot of mental issues like depression, it’s hard not to get behind him.
I don’t know if Kingston should be the person to wrestle CM Punk on the PPV. It really should have been MJF because this could turn CM Punk heel and it’s not something I think AEW is ready for at this stage. However, Kingston is in a very weird spot because, and this is just my gut instinct talking, I feel he’s on the verge of becoming huge for all the wrong reasons in a company like AEW. AEW is more of a company about workrate but they do their booking wrong because they don’t seem to quite understand how to really get a guy over. So in all likeliness, Kingston will lose but that might make him an even bigger star and bigger babyface because he is the absolute underdog type. And it has nothing to do with his style but it’s his look, the way he talks, the way he carries himself, his openness and the authenticity about everything. Barebones-wise, I haven’t seen someone as natural as this in pro-wrestling in a long time in terms of what pro-wrestling has made its big bucks off of, which is a representative of the people.
The Bunny vs. Red Velvet
This was the last of the first round TBS women’s title match tournament. Red Velvet didn’t hesitate to attack the Bunny in waiting for the bell. The match was short enough to not be offensive since the Bunny sucks. The main thing here was that Jade Cargill was at ringside so Red Velvet would get in her face occasionally to taunt her back. Red Velvet won with her finisher, which I hate btw.
John Silver vs. Adam Cole
They had a small segment before the match with Mark Henry. John Silver is a goof but at least Adam Cole knows to take things serious enough. People are starting to chant with Mark on the “It’s time for the main event!” catchphrase and he’s delivering it a lot better. BTW, I like listening to Mark Henry with Paul Wight on Dark Elevation because he’s getting a lot more comfortable speaking.
This match had a small angle going in with Adam being in pain from the conchairto received from Christian Cage. So there was some work against the back of his neck/head done by John Silver. John Silver wants to goof around and tried by doing his version of the Budge rather than “Adam Cole Bay-bay” mockery. However, Adam Cole gave him a stiff kick to show he was serious.
Adam Cole’s purpose here was to make John Silver look far better than he was. So Silver got in a ton of offense and a good looking spinning Liger Bomb that got a “holy shit!” chant. Cole sold his neck and hit a series of knees before finishing John Silver with his “Boom” knee.
My main beef with this match was that John Silver goofs around too much and flexes a lot. Anytime he flexes I can’t help but think that he’s trying to figure out what to do as well as attempting to get a quick pop from the crowd. It’s really night and day in terms of the difference between a pro like Adam Cole and John Silver in terms of ability. Also, I hated the fact that the Bucks were at ringside which caused the Dark Order to come out to chase them away. It’s just visual noise to me and distracts from what’s going on in the ring. Lastly, having those goofs (all of them) at the ringside pretty much nullifies the attention from the people in the ring, meaning that they seem to have less of a sense of individuality. Maybe I would buy John Silver if people like himself or Alan Angels distanced themselves away from the Dark Order.
Final Thoughts
Weird Rampage. None of these matches were marquee matches by any means except in Tony Khan’s head. I read the other Dark matches and they had less indy people and more internal wrestlers to make the show looked beefier than usual as “part of his apology to the people in St Louis.” But this didn’t feel competitive in terms of star power since the matches were mostly glorified squashes, even the main event.
Also, I wanted to mention that they added a 6 man no DQ match for Full Gear between the Elite vs Christian Cage/Lucha Express. They did have an interview with Cage and Lucha Express where Jungle Boy proposed the no DQ stipulation. I am sad that we aren’t seeing Adam Cole vs Christian Cage in singles but I think this is just going to be a lead up towards that match. Jungle Boy has absolutely no oomph in his promos and Luchasaurus reminds me of a bad combination of the Ultimate Warrior and the Missing Link in terms of the snarling.
Next week they’re also going to have the signing between Adam Page and Kenny Omega on Dynamite. I really hope they don’t have a stupid weigh in. That just never has worked for this company. Also, I still wonder if Adam Page will win. There’s three title matches at Full Gear so far and one finals match (maybe a second for the TBS women’s title tournament). So we have:
- Bryan Danielson vs Miro (pretty sure Bryan will win this one)
- Tay Conti vs Britt Baker (Britt will win this one but Tay will finally get her title shot even though she sucks still)
- The finalist in the TBS women’s title tournament (I’m guessing Ruby Soho vs Jade Cargill, although I’d prefer Thunder Rosa here; I think Ruby should win but they might go with “well, Jade needs the title to look good” philosophy, which in this case is totally wrong because Jade is way too green)
- FTR vs the Lucha Bros for the tag titles (FTR will probably win the tag titles)
- Adam Page vs Kenny Omega (I can’t see two titles change hands on a single night so I’m picking Omega to win it)
The only way Adam Page wins here is if Kenny Omega decides to get some time off. He doesn’t really wrestle enough to justify PTO imo but that’s the only situation I can see where Page moves forward. But then you’ll have an awkward situation if Bryan wins his match and instantly goes after Page. Page vs Bryan might be good but it’s another weird face vs face match. And I don’t want to see a three way between Bryan, Miro and Page. Miro is credible enough to beat Bryan because he already did on a bigger platform. But Bryan might have the better contract in AEW. So who knows?
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