This is way better than it seemed it would be on paper. Action really giving it his all.

ZSJ doing what ZSJ does best.

Rampage Recap!

I have been informed that I am going to love this show. The first match strips away a lot of my optimism.

It's a three way for the AAA Mega Championship. In the first minute of the match all three guys are doing this ridiculous spot where they are dropping down on their chest and leaping over each other. It's literally a circus routine. I'd expect to see this in a Charlie Chaplin movie more than a wrestling ring. Of course the fans lap it up because they love silly choreographed nonsense.

SKIP. What's next?

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Action Andretti makes his entrance. I hear Justin Roberts announcing this is for the NJPW World TV Championship. That means his opponent is...from the United Kingdom. All hail.

ZACK SABRE JR.

At first this looks like a walk in the park for ZSJ. Andretti gets a little bit of offense at the start but mostly it's Zack in control, mercilessly targeting the left arm. However, once Andretti got going, Zack was kept off balance. Normally Zack is pretty adept at dealing with high flyers who flip at him, but Andretti's twists and turns and kicks confused the champion. Andretti perched Zack on the turnbuckle and attempted a high impact move, but Zack fought him off. Zack then made a big mistake in taunting while perched on the turnbuckle, allowing Andretti to catch him with a kick, and then he hit his intended frankensteiner. Everything was moving in the right direction for the challenger, but he went for one diving attack too many. ZSJ caught a springboard attack into a fujiwara armbar. He managed to grab the weakened left arm and stretch it back in a horrendous position. Andretti was forced to submit.

Very good match, and I wouldn't be surprised if Zack has already racked more title defenses in his 6 month reign than Roman Reigns has in his 1,000 days.

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Willow Nightingale vs Emi Sakura. Interesting! Nice strong style fight. Sakura has very hard chops! I like Willow's Doctor Bomb finisher.

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A short video package to hype the main event. No more pre-match interviews it seems, but we do see Mark Henry earning his paycheck by saying his AEW catchphrase, although he doesn't have as much conviction as he did in the early days of Rampage.

Lee Moriarty is "Tiger Style" and wears a black tiger mask. I may have seen him once or twice before but don't remember much. What does he do, wrestle like Tiger Mask? Let's see how Tiger he really is.

When Shibata defeated Wheeler Yuta to capture the ROH Pure Championship it was a walkover, and his first(?) title defense is no different. Moriarty had some brief offense, wearing down Shibata with some interesting leg holds, but these didn't seem to phase the champion. At the first opportunity Shibata countered another leg hold into a Figure Four Leg Lock, and we immediately see the difference in effectiveness between Shibata's holds and Moriarty's holds. A few minutes later Shibata forced his opponent to use all of his rope breaks, then won the match with his rear naked choke/penalty kick combo. Shibata gets the three count, having used zero rope breaks and barely breaking a sweat.

I'm salivating for a Shibata vs ZSJ match, even more than ZSJ vs Danielson.

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Verdict: Better than Double or Nothing.

That ZSJ vs DB match has to be coming this time at Forbidden Door. Be cool if under the 15 minute title defense rules as they can just go all out with submissions.

Shibata vs ZSJ will likely be a RoH match under pure title rules at some point. Not be a bad match for All in 2 since ZSJ will likely be used. Looks like Garcia vs Shibata is being booked for Death Before Disorder, which is a pity as that would be a great for it.

Jun 3, 2023 15:22:43 GMT c said:

That ZSJ vs DB match has to be coming this time at Forbidden Door. Be cool if under the 15 minute title defense rules as they can just go all out with submissions.

Shibata vs ZSJ will likely be a RoH match under pure title rules at some point. Not be a bad match for All in 2 since ZSJ will likely be used. Looks like Garcia vs Shibata is being booked for Death Before Disorder, which is a pity as that would be a great for it.

It’s the perfect way to have Danielson fight ZSJ and keep the title on him if NJPW don’t want him to drop it. They go balls to the wall for 15 mins and it’s a time limit draw. Then if they want another match Danielson just has to use the 15 min excuse.

They face each other I see ZSJ tapping DB. Be DB passing the torch.

The Jeff Jarrett-est of all Jeff Jarrett matches is booked for Rampage tomorrow Baker

Thanks for the tip RT. I'll try watching as it happens. May not make it though. Things to do.

Another travesty of justice! One day that stupid Aubrey Edwards will get what she has coming and I will be so here for it.

This week's episode of Rampage was pretty good stuff... for the most part. I enjoyed the opening trios match between CHAOS and United Empire, and that main event match, between Bandido and Konosuke Takeshita was entertaining.

Jun 17, 2023 2:40:55 GMT Baker said:

Another travesty of justice! One day that stupid Aubrey Edwards will get what she has coming and I will be so here for it.

Aubrey Edwards is the worst, Jarrett and crew got screwed over.

I wanna see a Britt/Anna Jay match in the tournament. I'm looking to Jay vs Bule tonight.

Main event tonight was Jack Perry vs DOUKI. Perry won but was booed out of the building by the end of the match. Fans are not having any of Jungle Boy.

SANADA entered and nobody knew who he was. Got a few cheers but mainly it was quiet. Show closed with SANADA and Perry staring one another down to zero crowd reaction.

Can I just say, who the fuck thought this was gonna work? And don’t say TK because we all know Gedo was pushing for SANADA to have a big title defence and definitely had some say in this.

Holly Cameron comes out with to masked men to confront The Acclaimed. I don't know who Holly Cameron is but I like her style. Pretty good rapper too. Not sure why the crowd hate her. That whole segment led to the exciting return of John "Whatever-He's-Calling-Himself-Now" Morrison into QT's faction Sorry for using his WWE name but he changes so much that I can't keep up. Johnny superkicks Billy Gunn.

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The women's Owen Hart tournament lineup makes a lot more sense than the men's. The only entrant I have a slight issue is with Nyla Rose because she's a jobber now. But I understand the desire to have a hossfest with Willow Nightingale. Actually, Anna Jay is a jobber too, but she has a little credibility left which Skye Blue gladly takes.

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It's good that Just Five Guys vetoed their "You Already Die!" slogan in their USA appearances.

I wasn't expecting that match from DOUKI and Jack Perry. Great stuff. I've been indifferent to DOUKI for a long time but started coming around to him in 2023. He had a high profile singles defeat against Naito that put him on the map in my eyes. This match was another example of what he can do. He completely won the crowd over. RT to your point I'd say that the fans where strongly in favour of DOUKI rather than specifically against Jungle Boy, but either way it's not a good look.

I spoke too soon - "You Already Die!" front and centre on SANADA's entrance video. Aren't there any proof readers or English speakers in the building? Or am I making too big a deal of this? :lol:

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Sorry RT but SANADA's reaction was a lot more than mild. Big cheers when he came out, SANADA chants for a few moments, and a pop for the staredown. More than I expected to be honest. SANADA presents himself much better than "tacky white t-shirt" Okada.

Johnny TV? God, that's a shitty name, they couldn't go with Johnny Elite?

Jun 24, 2023 10:50:56 GMT Emperor said:

Holly Cameron comes out with to masked men to confront The Acclaimed. I don't know who Holly Cameron is but I like her style. Pretty good rapper too. Not sure why the crowd hate her. That whole segment led to the exciting return of John "Whatever-He's-Calling-Himself-Now" Morrison into QT's faction Sorry for using his WWE name but he changes so much that I can't keep up. Johnny superkicks Billy Gunn.

She's a singer turned wrestling personality.

She did The Iisiperation's (The Iiconics) theme when they were in Impact Wrestling, also has a song with Shotzi Blackheart and Scarlet Bordeaux.

Emperor possibly because I was watching on my laptop with the world’s shittiest speakers. Usually the audio is ok but it didn’t sound like much of anything happened when SANADA came out.

She is the wife of NXT flop Daniel Vidot/Xyon Quinn.

She's been bouncing around the scene for a few years, releasing a gloriously bad song with Scarlett and Shotzi a while back too.

Watch Rampage tonight. Not only were iron maiden and myself there, it was actually a good show and the crowd stayed hot for the whole thing even after Dynamite.

Shida/Shafir is good, Hung Bucks vs Dark Order is excellent. And Baker has to hear the Double J chants in Edmonton. Oh and Matt Sydal was a treat. IM loved every second. 40 years old and hasn’t lost a step. Let’s goooooo

I'll definitely check it out RT, if for nothing else than because it's the 100th episode of Rampage.

Aw man the PIP cut out the Johnny Hungee chants.

I want everyone to know that I cheered when Dark Order won even though they pinned my favie

RT did you start the double J chant for Baker? :lol:

Jul 8, 2023 2:27:48 GMT System said:

RT did you start the double J chant for Baker ?

I would like to take the credit but honestly it was probably the dudes in our row that were leading chants all night. They were great. Got the Scissor Me Daddy chants going, the Johnny Hungee chants going, etc. Thank goodness they were near us because they canceled out the fucking douchebag smark contrarian that was sitting right behind us. iron maiden can tell you about him.

It took all my power to not turn around and backhand him after the show. He went by himself. No idea why. :hmm:

People like that are why I do not attend larger show anymore. A few at each show I went to, and just pissed me off so much that I did not have fun.

Thanks for the tip RT. I'll look for Jarrett's Rampage match in a little while. Need to hear these Double J chants.

Whoops. Thought this was Jarrett vs. Matt. Matt teaming with Best Jeff also works. Two of my Top 20 all time favorites. Did not expect to hear Matt enter to the proper Hardy Boys theme. Sammy Guevara looks like a high schooler. So this is a Lethal Lottery deal?

"We Want Jarrett" chants. You love to hear it. Garcia's douchey dance is a good heel move. I liked Jericho on commentary last time I watched one of these.

Guevara & Garcia love taking the Bret Hart chest to turnbuckle bump. They've already done it thrice. Sadly Matt is moving around like a guy nearing 50.

Meh. How does JJ have a 12-10 record? He loses every time I watch lol.

Hardys vs. Planet Jarrett, huh? I'll watch. No idea who Matt's buddies were though. Where was Jeff?

Jul 10, 2023 0:35:00 GMT Baker said:

Hardys vs. Planet Jarrett, huh? I'll watch. No idea who Matt's buddies were though. Where was Jeff?

Apparently most of us didn't know either as was apparent by the silence, especially the last guy. 

Jeff was written off TV because there's no way he would have gotten into Canadia.