Arena: Gas South Arena
City: Duluth, GA

Crazy news today, huh?  Hell of a heel, both on and off screen.  Good riddance.

And now…

It’s Saturday morning, and you know what that means…  it’s time for our Rampage Review!

Hangin’ with the Meatman vs Butcher & Blade

Backstory: B&B attacked the Dark Order on Dynamite & Hangman made the save

Yes I made up that name.

Silver flew at Butcher the second the bell rang but quickly found himself double teamed with quick tags in and out.  Huge chop from the Butcher knocked Silver to his knees, Blade followed up with stomps in the corner.

Excalibur referred to B&B as ‘one of the most destructive tag teams in the company’.  To what?  The ratings?  An announcer’s currency is their credibility.

Blade then took too long with a suplex, Silver reversed it and Hangman got the pretty lukewarm tag, dispatching both guys with ease via his fallaway, vaulting cross body, tope suicida flurry, culminating with a diving forearm from the top for 2.  A flurry which woke the crowd and got them firmly behind the former champ.  Hell of a sequence.  B&B then took a couple of cheap shots and had Page down as the break beckoned.

Notable that the Rock was all over one of the ads promoting Shark Week.

Silver was exploding as we returned, firing up himself and the crowd with quick strikes and suplexes until the Butcher stopped the count at 2.  Giving the heels the advantage with Hangman down on the outside.  Blade struck with a Dr Bomb for another 2.  Silver then slipped out of Butcher’s suplex and tagged Page again who came in with forearms, a big boot, then backdropped Blade to the outside.

Page and Butcher then collided mid-ring with clotheslines and neither budged.  Hangman flipped out of a suplex onto his feet, knocked Butcher down and positioned for the Buckshot but aimed for a moonsault to the outside instead after Blade tried to grab his legs.  Missing, Silver picked up the slack, landing a German suplex, setting up Hangman to blast Butcher with the Buckshot for the victory.

Hangman looked great.  Otherwise, not much to this.

WINNER: Hangman & John Silver

Video package for Yuta vs Daniel Garcia.  Garcia vowed to make Yuta tap.

Claudio came out, again to a pretty tough crowd.  Acknowledged that he’s never won a world title but vowed to on Saturday.  Promised to be ‘your world champion’ to the AEW fans re: another company’s belt.

Wardlow promo.  Said ‘sh**’ about 90 times; vowed to ‘beat the sh**’ out of anyone in any company if they want his title.  Probably frustrated that after a two year build the company had prepared nothing to follow-up on his split with MJF.

Lee Moriarty vs Dante Martin

Backstory: Matt Sydal wanted a clean contest so made this match after Moriarty was approached by Stokely Hathaway last week.

This one started slowly with arm wringers, neither guy getting the advantage until Moriarty set-in a cravat and followed with a hammerlock.  Lee trying to contain Martin and keep him grounded.  Dante floated out and wrapped Moriarty in the magistral for 2.

A very sloppy tejeiras barely connected but Lee took the bump anyway.  Moriarty struck with knees to the mug, went for a pancake but Martin turned it into a dropkick to the face as the ads arrived.

We returned to Dante leaping to the top rope and hurracanrana-ing Moriarty from his perch.  Stokely Hathaway came out just as Martin got a close count with a diving cross body, then was walloped with a back elbow, leading to the Border City Stretch but Dante eventually got to the ropes as Moriarty took a while to break the hold, then attacked viciously with leaping stomps.

An awesome half-and-half bomb into a close 2 from Martin again briefly threw water on the crowd.

On top, Dante went up for the Nose Dive, which Moriarty avoided, then countered an O’Connor Role, grabbing the ropes for leverage and the win.

Nowhere near as good or spectacular as anticipated.

Immediately, Matt Sydal cut an incredibly corny promo, as always, chastising Moriarty for cheating and challenging him for next Friday as if he’s supposed to be someone to be feared.  There’s no-one lamer in wrestling.  He makes QT seem like Stone Cold.

Obviously this loss was part of a story, but Dante really needs to start winning.  Not sure I can remember when he last did.  But Moriarty’s potential link-up with Hathaway should give him the out-of-ring boost his in-ring deserves.

WINNER: Lee Moriarty

Jamie Hayter & Britt Baker vs Ashley D’Amboise & Skye Blue

Backstory: None

Oh you didn’t know!?  Rampage gonna SQUUASSSH SOMEBODDDDDYYY!

A cool twisting-neck-breaker off the apron by Britt was about the only highlight before she won with the Lockjaw.  Saying ‘DMD’ was over but the crowd otherwise continued their slumber.

WINNER: You know

Ari Daivari’s ‘coming soon.’  Because we need more people.  There are never enough apparently.

Max Caster & Austin Gunn’s rap battle was next.  The late 00s dropped-off Lil Scrappy to judge the affair.  Unfortunately we did not get crunk.  Nor did they ask him to perform Money in the Bank.

Austin made fun of Caster’s relationship with Statlander, compared his dad favourably vs Caster’s, then made a gay joke about Bowens.  Cool.

Gunn’s second flurry was woeful, rhyming the same word twice and making John Cena jokes.

It continued.

After Caster’s victory, they all brawled and Austin belted Max with a trash can.

This sucked.  Dragged on far too long.  ‘It’s been ugly, just turning more ugly.’  When JR says something like that, you know it was rotten.

Christopher Daniels vs Jay Lethal

Backstory: Daniels cut a promo on Samoa Joe’s behalf last week; Joe faces lethal @ PPV

Seriously?  Seriously?  This is our main event?  Isn’t Fyter Fest supposed to be special?  Honestly, Hangman’s the biggest – and only – star on this show by so many galaxies that his tag should’ve taken precedence.

These two are neither current stars, or young enough to be ones in the making.

And then Caprice joined JR, Schiavone and Excalibur on comms.

This one started quickly with a lot of brawling, Daniels getting a Dodo-rare one-count with a slingshot legdrop.  And was on top until Lethal raked the eyes but caught a leg lariat and bailed to the outside, where he avoided a Daniels dive and hit a tope suicida to leave the vet reeling as the final break came.

And still was upon our return, Lethal looking for a muscle buster with Daniels propped up-top.  Daniels fought him off but missed with a dropkick and ate a superkick from Jay.  Striking back, Daniels nailed Jay with a knee to the head, ran him over with clotheslines and went to the corner for 10 punches, following up with an STO and a blue thunder bomb for a close count.

Lethal countered with the Lethal Combination, went topside for the diving elbow, CD got the leg up but Lethal countered into a roll-up for 2.  Daniels looked out-on-his-feet but countered a Lethal Injection attempt into Angel’s Wings, which Jay then countered back out of, landing the Lethal Injection for the third obvious outcome in four matches.

Afterward, poor Daniels, the respected, skilled, accomplished veteran, had to take a bodyslam out of a gorilla press on the outside mats from wrestling’s latest experiment with teaching an unskilled giant to become just competent enough that they aren’t a complete laughing stock.

Solid main event.

WINNER: Jay Lethal

Next Dynamite:

• Thunder Rosa vs Miyu Yamashita, AEW Women’s Title
• Ricky Starks vs Danhausen, FTW Title (is Hook next?)

Next Rampage:

• Matt Sydal vs Lee Moriarty

Overall impressions

Didn’t watch Dynamite this week.  Barbed wire matches aren’t my thing and there was nothing else that grabbed me.  From what I hear, I didn’t miss much.  Tonight, if you missed it, you didn’t miss much.

Check Out…

• Nothing

Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend!  Enjoy the PPV if you’re watching.