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AEW Rampage Road Report 1/21/2022 - Washington DC
Early morning airport trips.
It is definitely a different time in the age of COVID and I still haven’t gotten used to it. So many things to worrry about like “do I have my mask”, “how full is the flight going to be”, “did I get enough hand sanitizer”. I remember when the most I had to worry about was making sure that Rocky Mountain High didn’t play before before my flight was set to take off.
Nevertheless, I am boarded at 9:45 AM and set for Washington, DC. The first leg of the loop is going to be Rampage, ICW NHB, and GCW before venturing back to Denver and seeing a Rocky Mountain Pro show and then starting the second leg next Saturday with the Royal Rumble in St. Louis and BOLA Night 2 in LA. Before we even begin the argument of BOLA Night 1 versus Royal Rumble, I am really excited for Brock/Lashley, it is one of the few dream matches left for Brock right now.
This is a bit of a different trip for me though. The plane ride doesn’t consist of the usual work throughout the flight and making sure all of my job duties are in order but this is the start to an honest to God 4 day weekend and I plan on most of it being about wrestling. So needless to say, the flight was filled with re-watching old Royal Rumble matches, the first being 1997. As an aside, was there ever a Latin Lover versus Owen Hart match? I need to look into that, the two were great for their few second skirmish during the Rumble and Latin Lover throws a mean superkick.
The flight was 3 hours full of enjoyment with wrestling and an empty row to myself. Off the flight at Regan and directly into the rental car with Mean Mark and out first stop is a visit to Arlington Cemetary. In order to drive into the cemetary you need a family pass so we park and go through the metal detectors and walk the 3/4 of a mile to visit the grave of Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Yes, some people go here to see JFK, others might visit Joe Louis, but we were here to pay respects to the Strangler.
After a quick dinner at Red Lobster (Where we ate steak and lobster with plastic utensils, guess nobody was washing dishes on this night), we drove to the Entertainment & Sports Arena. Definitely one of the smaller arenas I’ve been to for an AEW and one of the smallest queues. They had one merchandise booth which had a line stretching the long corridor. The first two hours of the show was AEW Dark and the crowd slowly filed in over the next two hours. The attendance was smaller than Dynamite but the building was so small that you couldn’t really tell.
The Bunny beat Erica Leigh.
The Bunny came out with the Butcher and Erica Leigh was announced in passing. This was a very quick match with Leigh not getting much in the way of offense.
Aaron Solo beat Sonny Kiss.
This was the first competitive match of the night. The group behind me showed up because a friend worked in production and had no idea who any of the wrestlers were but became huge fans of Solo based on him being from San Francisco. Outside of that, the crowd wasn’t overly into this although the match had a good back and forth.
Daniel Garcia and 2.0 beat 3 locals.
Justin Roberts said the 3 locals names way too quickly so I didn’t get them. This is a complete squash. There was a scary moment where one of the locals caught their neck on the rope but seemed to be okay. Garcia locks in a sharpshooter while 2.0 poses on the ropes.
Abadon beat Gia Scott.
Another squash. Honestly the standalone Dark shows make me feel like this is what the marathon Superstars tapings used to be like. See a bunch of talent squashing locals. I’m not complaining about it but a bunch of squashes in a row can feel kind of repetitive. Abadon always is fun to see in person. Match doesn’t go too long before Abadon hits what I’ll describe as a Rocker Dropper DDT for the win.
Lance Archer beat Joe Keys.
Joe Keys reminds me of a 96 Jericho in terms of looks. This match is basically an extended squash for Archer. One thing Archer does to get the crowd to respond is act like he is going to do something to get the crowd to cheer (Like a dive or a chop) and then blow it off. I guess it is one way to get heat. Keys has a great little exchange with Archer with some chops but it ends with Archer with the Inverted Crucifix Powerbomb.
Powerhouse Hobbs beat Big Shotty Lee Johnson.
The first big reaction of the night is for Hobbs and Starks. Starks has on glasses and a beanie with normal clothes and almost makes it feel like he is wearing a disguise compared to how he normally dresses. Johnson brings out Brock Anderson with him. They actually have some pretty good back and forth and Hobbs beats down Johnson until just the right time for Johnson to make a quick comeback and suplex Hobbs to get a great reaction from everyone. Its short lived though as Hobbs nails a spinebuster right in front of an Anderson in training before throwing Johnson up in a torture rack to finish him off.
Leyla Hirsch beat Janai Kai.
This was a match I was hoping would get time but sadly didn’t. Kai squared off with Hirsch and moved around the ring in a stance where I thought we were going to get an interesting striker versus grappler contest. But just as my vanilla ice cream and Pepsi arrived I looked up to see Hirsch lock in a cross armbreaker for the win. Quick squash to build Hirsch for Beach Break.
Ass Bo-Erm-Gunn Club and The Acclaimed beat 10, Alex Reynolds, Alan Angels and Evil Uno.
Max Castor did his usual great rap out to the ring and Bowen did his usual line. Billy Gunn wanted to show them how to do it like they “did back in the day” and started the “if you’re not down with that” before Colton cuts him off to loud boos and an “ASS BOYS” chant. Decent back and forth between the two teams. Austin Gunn seems like he has fun in the ring and plays his character up well. He has no problem making a fool of himself to get a face over which you don’t see often anymore but works so well. Finish comes with 10 crotch chopping at Big Daddy Billy and Billy interfering to help his team get the win.
Dante Martin, Lee Moriarty, and Matt Sydal beat Private Party and The Butcher.
Matt Hardy comes out with his team. Big “Delete” chants towards Hardy until he gives a quick “Delete” chop to the delight of the crowd and to get them to stop. Dante Martin is an absolute star everywhere AEW travels and here is no different. This was a very athletic match and all of the exchanges were great with great energy from the crowd. They kept a high pace and everything Dante, Moriarty, and Sydal did had the fans cheering. The finish saw Martin hit an assisted springboard dive onto Private Party and the Butcher on the ramp before doing a double springboard moonsault onto The Butcher for the pin. A great match and another great showing for Martin especially.
Penta El Cero Meido beat Wheeler Yuta.
I don’t think I’m the only one who feels like there are some times that Penta will rely on his mannerisms and certain spots to put together some of his matches. This was absolutely not one of those times. I would say that this was one of the best matches of the night. Penta went into this match looking to trade technical submissions with Yuta and reminded me of the time I lost my mind watching him take turns with Zack Sabre Jr contorting each others bodies at BOLA that one time. These two traded holds and had people cheering for the weird positions they were getting the other into before they got up and started trading moves. Penta did his normal “cero miedo” stuff and Yuta would just go with it and grab holds. The fans got really into this match and only turned away for one second to yell at Chucky T for wearing a Sixers jersey. Finish came with a Package Piledriver and afterwards the two men showed respect for each other as the fans cheered loudly. Seriously, this would have been the best match of the night had Nick Jackson not pulled a Nick Jackson later on in the night. Go out of your way to see this.
Jungle Boy beat Nick Comoroto.
This would be the Dark main event and Jungle Boy illicted one of the biggest reactions of the night. Everybody loved him and stood up and swayed to Tarzan Boy. Nick Comoroto reminds me so much of a guy plucked straight from the 80s and I would love to see him just go out and hoss battle people. A trip to Japan to train in that style would probably do him well. Decent match but the crowd reacted to everything that Jungle Boy did. He locked in his STF to finish the match and get a reaction from the crowd before the ten minute intermission.
Justin Roberts lets us know that Rampage will be going live soon and the ring crew work to transform the area from Dark to Rampage. We get our cast of commentators coming out with Ricky Starks joining and then Jericho coming out to Judas so the crowd can sing along which they happily oblige to.
Jon Moxley beat Ethan Page.
They start out hot with the Mox return. Mox looks so much healthier and even his physique appears to have changed as he is looking leaner. The crowd instantly react for him and he and Page have a back and forth match. Mox incorporates a lot of suplexes but allows Page to throw hits and strikes at him. I think at one point though Mox tries to light a fire in Page as a lot of the strikes and chops seem a little weak and Mox slaps him hard to get a response which sees Page start to lay it in a bit more. A boot puts Page right back into his softer rhythm though which may look great on television but live doesn’t do much for the crowd. Mox finishes him off shortly after.
After the match as Mox is walking back through the crowd the staredown with Danielson happens which has the crowd chanting “yes” at Danielson. Really wasn’t expecting him here but it was fun to see his quick cameo. One disappointing thing about the merch at the show was no American Dragon shirts.
Trent? beat Nick Jackson.
This was originally scheduled as Roppongi Vice versus The Young Bucks but Rocky was pulled off the show. Instead we get Trent against Nick Jackson and honestly, it might have been better than what the tag match would have been. Nick Jackson in singles matches don’t happen as often as they probably should (or do happen as often as they should because he is an absolute maniac and might need to be slowed down by Matt). They started the match out relatively slow and then built into a hot finish. Nick did his flip from the apron to the outside of the ring landing on his feet and then later did it again flipping from the top rope onto the ramp landing on his feet. He then followed up with a swanton bomb onto Trent on the ramp outside. This match got good time for the hour Rampage and was hands down the best match of the night. Nick Jackson in these singles matches goes absolutely crazy and does everything he can to provide the best match possible and I’m here for it. Trent eventually hits the Dudebuster to pin Nick for the win.
Hook beat Serpentico.
The second the previous match ended the crowd were chanting for Hook. Hook was the most over person at a show that included the returning Mox. Serpentico is introduced during the break but all through the crowd were still hyped for Hook. The second his entrance music hit the crowd were on their feet and cheering. Quick match but the highlight had to have been Hook’s head and arm suplex where Serpentico’s streamers were stuck to his foot and made the overhead trip with him. It made the move look that much crazier. The crowd ate up everything Hook did before he locked on the kata-haja-me (I messed that up right? Lets go with the Tazmission) to beat Serpentico.
Afterwards with QT coming out to say Hook disrespected him see Hook disrespect him again with a suplex and then walk over his body to the back.
TBS Title Match: Jade Cargill beat Anna Jay.
Main event time. Dueling chants from the crowd who were still into the show nearly three hours later. Not much to say about the match but finish saw Cargill get the win.
Afterwards Tony Khan comes back out and thanks the crowd. Says he has a special guest and brings out CM Punk. Punk talks about Bryce Harper (to boos) and Ovechkin (to massive cheers). He then says they’d send Hook back but he is in the back probably eating chips and smoking weed. He then looks at Tony and goes “Oh, wait, no, probably not smoking weed” which gets a laugh. Someone then says “we legalized it!” and Punk is just like “Oh, hell yeah, well good then!” and goes on to say “I know, weird right, a straight edge guy advocating de-criminalization of marijuana but here I am!” which the crowd loves and ends the night.
Overall a fun show. I’m still not sure a standalone Rampage works with the few hours of Dark squashes before it but the last three matches of Dark were good with Penta and Wheeler Yuta being espcially amazing. Getting out of the arena wasn’t too bad and we parked a few blocks away to quickly get to the car and make a nice trip over to see Honest Abe’s memorial in the middle of the night somehow next to a drunken wedding party before getting a picture in front of the reflection pool and then driving home without being propositioned by any disgraced Netflix actors.
Saturday is on to ICW NHB with a quick detour to Tony Luke’s and the Murphy Rec Center. Talk more then!
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