Author: dtm666

Only saw the last hour-ish of Dynamite, but I got the important bits. There was a really great exchange between MJF and William Regal, there was a pretty good match between Chris Jericho and Dalton Castle that saw Mr. Wizard retain his ROH title – this Dalton fellow seems a bit out there, but he’s certainly a unique cat and I certainly appreciated the video package telling me what this guy was all about. I hope to see more of him in the future.

And then we have the main event match between AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and Hangman Adam Page that ended abruptly when Mox hit Page with a lariat and Page somehow landed on his head, prompting the ref and doctors to check on him and call the match off. Page was stretchered out and diagnosed with a concussion. A bit of good news is that he was discharged from the trauma center that he was taken to, but still under protocol. All I can say is “Get well, Hangman.”

With time to spare, Mox calls out MJF, who teases cashing in his chip – basically a Money In The Bank type deal – but decides he’s going to actually earn his keep and cashes in for a title match at the upcoming Full Gear PPV. Nice to see that they’re going along with the people cheering MJF by having him do this babyface thing of “earning his keep.” It’s going to make it difficult to get people to hate him now, but you knew this was going to happen sooner or later, so you may as well just go with it.

Okay, so we’ve actually got a main event World title bout for the PPV to look forward to… and all it took was an impromptu segment after a guy got concussed to do it. At the very least, they’re trying to fix their issues, but it’s a process.

Show was alright… somewhat tainted by the Hangman spot. Hope he pulls through.

Well, they did a separate Rampage taping in Toronto and much to my surprise, TSN actually decided to air this on their actual network rather than relegate it to their shitty, shitty app. And what did AEW give the wider Canadian audience who would rather watch their wrestling on TV than on a shitty app?

They gave them Ring Of Honor… or rather, the husk of a promotion that was once Ring Of Honor before it shutdown, got bought by Tony Khan, and now “kinda, sorta” exists for some reason.

They brought in another ROH alumnus in Dalton Castle to challenge Chris Jericho for the ROH World Title, as if I’m supposed to care about this. On top of that, FTR, after disposing of another ROH stable act, gets a challenge for their ROH tag titles from something called the Kingdom, which comprises Mike Bennett, Maria Kanellis, and some other dude whose name I don’t recall, but they did this act in ROH. All well and good for those who still care about ROH, but I sure as hell don’t and I’m still struggling to find a reason to care.

I get why they keep ROH on the air; to give the impression that it’s still alive despite not having a TV show to call their own. Honestly, the brand would’ve been better off if it were put on ice for the foreseeable future and when the stars align and you secure a TV slot for that product, you could bring it back then. All this is doing right now is souring me on the AEW product, which is the thing that I tune in to watch. And maybe if you focused on the AEW guys you already have – talented people that once had big runs but are now sitting on the sidelines because you’re too busy bringing in new guys and not doing a sufficient job of making people care about them – maybe the ship would be run a little better.

It’s a shame, too, because the show opened with a great tag match that saw Mox and Claudio beat the Butcher and Blade in a great match, Nyla Rose is actually starting to grow on me, and it was nice to see Shawn Spears get a feelgood win on TV in the main event tag, even if it’s involving some ROH guys that I care little about. And this is not a knock on the talent, but rather on the booking, which has been pretty spotty as of late. I’m sorry, but one little thing that has persisted ruined the whole show for me and ended up pulling a Leafs or Jays… I honestly don’t know which is worse.

Not even the Bunny could save this Rampage show.

Well, AEW finally held a show in Canada. And of course, they pick Toronto to make their big debut. And what better way to kick off your Toronto show than having Renee Paquette come out to a huge pop as she is now #AllElite. She then brings out Christian Cage who immediately goes for a Leafs diss, which draws the boos. But is the crowd booing because Christian is going to the cheap heat or are they booing because, well, he’s not wrong?

This leads us to Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus beating the crap out of each other in a pretty fun opener that ends with JB getting distracted by Christian, allowing the dinoasat to burning hammer his former partner for the win. Fun stuff, this match was… and then we get Wardlow and Samoa Joe teaming up to beat up the Factory people, which brings out some ROH guys, which brings out FTR (hey, they finally got booked!), which brings out the Ten guy, Shawn Spears, to a big pop. Wardlow powerbomsba a guy and he and Spears make up. Yay.

Swerve and Billy Gunn has a match… it’s fine, Swerve wins via pinfall while holding onto the ropes like a dastardly heel. Then the lawyer guy comes out and claims to own the rights to Scissor Me… why the fuck would you take away your hot act’s big thing? It’d be like telling Steve Austin he can’t give people the bird, for fuck’s sake.

Jon Moxley and Hangman Page trade barbs with each other. Mox is his usual brilliant promo self and even Hangman shows some fire with his words while also busting himself open for good measure. Sadly, the Toronto folks would rather chant for MJF, who’s in the crowd. One of these days, people in AEW need to realize that having MJF in the rafters takes attention away from the thing in question. And yes, they did this sort of thing in WWE. And yes, I hated it there too.

ROH World Champion Chris Jericho defeated Bryan Danielson when Daniel Garcia, playing the role of Ric Flair, turned on Danielson, playing the role of Sting. By the way, Jericho got a pop for being Jericho and Canadian, but Garcia turning on Danielson (after weeks of Danielson trying to court Garcia because he shares the same last name as his wife) also got a huge pop. Sadly, who is not popping are the people at Warner, who are sad that they’re not getting their Total Daniels reality show any time soon.

And then Orange Cassidy beats THAT TWO-TIMING MOTHERFUCKING GODDAMNED BASTARD PAC to win the All Atlantic International World Global Big Gold Western States Heritage 24/7 Ironman Championship. It was fine.

Good show, this Toronto show. Probably the only thing in Toronto that was a winner this year… because I have no hopes for the fucking Raptors.