AEW Rampage 12/27/2024

AEW Rampage 12/27/2024

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/aew-rampage-12202024.html

This is the final edition of Rampage for the time being.

We are in NYC at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Chris Jericho vs Anthony Bowens

CJ waves to the crowd and offers to scissor Bowens. Bowens hits chops, forearms and punches. Bowens pounds on CJ. Max gets in Bowens way when he goes to do his line and Bowens kind of pushes him away. CJ eye pokes Bowens then corner lariats him. CJ backdrops him and hits chops in the corner. CJ goes to bulldog him but is thrown crotch first into the buckles.

They trade chops. Bowens running knees him for 2. CJ takes a reverse magic screw on the ropes. CJ puts him in a crab. We go to PiP break and return. Bowens hits a fameasser from behind for 2. Bowens goes up top and gets hit. CJ falls outside. Bowens tries to dive on him but mostly nails Big Bill.

Bryan Keith distracts the ref then Max Caster slams CJ. Max helps Bowens hit the legdrop to the crotch off the buckles for 2. Keith grabs the ROH Title outside. Bowens superkicks CJ for 2. Keith gets in the ring with the title. Max grabs the title and ends up nailing Bowens when they tug of war over the title. CJ then gets the win.

Thoughts: It wasn't that good and had a lot of shenanigans. At least there was a reason for it though as they are pushing that The Acclaimed are having issues. CJ winning wasn't much of a surprise.

We get a Private Party vignette of them in the NYC subway with paparazzi following them. Zay says, "NYC, your champs are home".

Private Party vs Leo Sparrow and Alec Price

Price boots Zay. Zay dropkicks him. Price is held for a step up enzugiri. Zay jumps off Quen's back to attack Price in the corner. Quen tope con hilos out. Quen walks up the buckles and they hit gin n juice on Price to win.

Thoughts: It was a quick squash as expected. I thought they should have given Priven Party more time and a better opponent since this is their hometown.

Lio Rush and Action Andretti come out after. They fight with Private Party. Dante and Darius come out and ram AA and Lio into Private Party. Security then comes to break it up.

Powerhouse Hobbs does a promo. He says it's him vs Takeshita for the title at World's End. He says he thinks about all the times Don Callis never texted him. He says Don tried to replace him and failed. He says he will bust Takeshita's head until the white meat shows. He says it'll be a world's end for The Don Callis Family.

Thunder Rosa vs Leila Grey

Grey takes her down and goes for a pin. Grey snapmares her then chinlocks her. Rosa chinlocks her back. Rosa goes up and over her then hits armdrags. Rosa snapmares her then sliding lariats her for 2. Grey escapes a slam and rolls her up. Grey hits shots then basement dropkicks her.

Rosa dropkicks her. We go to PiP break then full break and return. Grey suplexes Rosa and gordbusters her. Rosa hits chops and bangs her head off the buckles. Rosa corner lariats her and pendulum double knees her in the corner. Rosa dropkicks Grey against the bottom rope for 2.

They trade forearms and Grey hits a side effect for 2. Rosa double stomps her back. Rosa gets on her back and does a cobra clutch. She submits Grey.

Thoughts: Grey had a decent showing here. She wasn't great or anything but she hit her stuff clean and was moving well. She has definitely improved. It was an extended squash.

Hook vs Nick Wayne

Hook has a cast on his arm. Nick rushes him and hits boots. Hook throws him in the corner and hits a bunch of shots to the gut. Nick boots him then Hook hits an exploder. Nick boots him out of the corner then suplexes him. Nick legdrops him for 2. Nick is back body dropped over the top.

Hook is sent into the rail. Kip Sabian bangs Hook's arm into the rail. The ref ejects The Patriarchy for doing it. We go to PiP break and return. Nick stomps on Hook's arm with the cast. Hook exploders him. Hook does a hip throw then corner lariats him. Hook does an overhead suplex. Hook fisherman suplexes him for 2.

Nick stands on Hook's arm on the 2nd rope connector. They fight on the apron. Nick armrbeakers hook over the shoulder. Nick tries to springboard but is caught with a suplex on the apron.

Nick bites Hook's hand and pulls his neck down over the top rope. Nick hits a top rope splash for 2. Nick exploders him. Hook no sells it and lariats him. Christian Cage and Kip Sabian come back out. Shibata chases them around with a giant 2x4 in an unintentionally funny spot. Nick rolls up Hook for 2 and hits a high kick. Nick goes for an os cutter. Hook puts him in redrum and submits him to win.

Thoughts: It got a ton of time. It was okay with Nick mostly working the arm before being put down. I didn't like Christian and Kip coming back down after being ejected. It just makes the ejection rule seem meaningless for little gain. 

We go to the back. The Death Riders have a 4v1 going on Darby. Mox says Darby left him no choice and hits him. Darby's neck gets pillmanized. Darby is then pushed down the stairs.

We go to break and return. Mox and The Death Riders are in the ring. Mox says he forgives you if you are showering him with hate. He says he had to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. He says they do things that have to get done. He says if anyone in this building ha a problem with him or his people, then come out and tell him.

Komander comes out. Claudio forearms him over. Dante and Darius Martin come out and get beaten up too. Orange Cassidy comes out. Willow Nightingale then comes out. Adam Page and Jay White then come out. Everyone fights. Lio Rush, Takeshita, Lance Archer, Toni Storm, Rosa, Daniel Garcia, Private Party and others come out. Christian Cage is in the stands with his contract watching. Pac grabs a stick and knocks out the lighting system, putting everyone in the dark. 

Marina Shafir grabs a camera man. The Death Riders go to the TV control room. Mox shoves someone. He asks who is responsible for the TV feeds. He says everyone is fighting for scraps. He says he will put an end to the chaos and bring peace to his people. He says he will put an end to Rampage and says to cut it. The show then goes off.

Thoughts: Komander coming out to be the first one to stand up to The Death Riders was a great example of why this angle has largely failed. He's a jobber who never wins, is no threat in any way and it was unintentional comedy. Others jobbers coming out furthered that. At least some of the bigger names eventually came out and gave this more credibility. Mox's rants were unhelpful here as usual. At first, we were willing to excuse them because we thought Shane McMahon was coming but that never happened.

The ending was a creative way to end the show. This is the last episode of Rampage and I suppose Mox cutting the show off air was a way to signify that. Credit to AEW for coming up with something creative on that front.

Overall thoughts: This was Rampage's final show. They didn't do anything special for it and I thought it was a great example of why the show failed. The show was filled with squashes matches and matches no one was going to care about. None of it was must see or that great. The ending was the only thing of note here. I'd give it the usual 5 out of 10 rating.

Overall thoughts on Rampage:  The timeslot was this show's biggest issue from the start. 10pm on a Friday was just not a good time. It not only had to follow Smackdown, but often had to compete against 205 Live and Level Up. The show often got pre-empted or had to change nights as well. During the first year or two, they did try to put some names on it and did put some effort into the cards. When Collision and ROH came around, Rampage quickly became the "C" show as expected. The show was also hurt by AEW losing a lot of popularity in 2024. The show was never must see with squashes, random people from other companies and people who just couldn't make the main show. Sometimes we got some hidden gems out of it which was nice and the show's 45 minute length (without commercials) was also night. While I didn't love it and did skip a lot of episodes when I wasn't doing as much blogging, I'll miss it. More wrestling is a good thing even if I don't always the company or the wrestlers involved. It's a shame it didn't work out.