AEW Rampage - December 10, 2021

[El-P]

IMPACT got more out of working with AEW than anyone else. Omega drew bigger key-demo audience while he was on their show and the PPV match with Rich Swann, which *was* the big money match made them their biggest PPV numbers in years. The Moose match was on IMPACT + special and really what's wrong about having it at Daily's place ? It made the match look more special and you got the cool Sami Callihan cameo at the end which was even cooler because it was in enemy territory. Which then led to the other big match at Slammiversary, Omega vs Callihan, which happened in your regular IMPACT setting on PPV. IMPACT got nothing but positives from working with AEW. Unsurprisingly though, it basically ended when Omega left.

As far as AAA goes, they had their big feel-good moment at Triplemania : Vikingo winning the main title. FTR are gonna go back in AAA and play the dastardly US heels and have a blast doing it and everything is fine, really. 

58 minutes ago, kas said:

Hookamania is running wild brother

I was so gonna do that one ! Damn !

Seriously though, WHAT THE FUCK was that ? Like I mentioned before, I did not expect anything specific out of Hook because why should I, and the guy looked great. And for some reasons (because he's the son of Taz and looks like Vegeta ?) it seems the crowd was really into him from the get-go. It's been a long time since I've seen a debut match (I guess he has worked a bit before though) that good. Seriously, it's Kurt Angle/AKINO level of "holy shit" to me. If everything goes fine, this guy could be a legit star. 

8 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

Did Hook just win Rookie of the Year with 3 weeks to go?

Yes. 

8 hours ago, MoS said:

That 6-woman tag was so much more fun than it had any right to be 

Bunny was so holding things together when she was in there. She's the unsung glue to these matches with green people. Soho, as usual, is more over than her actual in-ring work to me, but hey, that's cool. Nyla was really good too. Penelope did really cool shit. Anna Jay is really tentative, I dunno if she lost confidence after such a long layoff, but she surely needs more work. Ditto Tay, but she's more advanced. She does have that MMA-style gunshy thing about her where it seems she's afraid to hurt her opponent with her kicks and elbows. But yeah, overall, quite fun.

The big multi-men matches between Best Friends & Superklik match incoming will be insanity and you all know it. 

[strobogo]

Hook absolutely looks like a guy having his first match. 

[Timbo Slice]

Hook was polished and looked like he went through the right paces, which is a lot better than what can be said for most folks in their first match. On the sliding scale of debuts, definitely on the higher end, but not like, Angle/Akiyama. His natural athleticism is apparent, though, and he gets the little things. 

[strobogo]

He's about the same level as Jade Cargill.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Give me HOOK vs Dante ASAP.

[Coffey]

44 minutes ago, strobogo said:

He's about the same level as Jade Cargill.

I can genuinely never tell when you're trolling or not. It can go either way.

[Timbo Slice]

I do think we like to get ahead of ourselves a bit in regards to wanting to be right about hype lest we have to eat crow (this is an internet message board after all).

[Coffey]

I think calling him the next Angle is putting the carriage before the horse, for sure... but he didn't go out there & fall on his face. I noticed little things, like him getting lost a few times & relying on posing due to it, which I can see the comparison to Jade there because she's done that too. But I think Jade is a lot more green after the time she's put in. This was the first I - or I think any of us - have seen of Hook & he didn't look like David Flair out there. I thought he did really well & he'll only improve.

[sek69]

I mean he is at the same level as Jade in the sense it's not like he should be doing 45 minute main events anytime soon, but as a debut match it went as well as anyone could have hoped and then some. Fuego made him look like a million bucks and he came off as someone who is a badass fighter who while new at this seems to be adept at it.

[El-P]

29 minutes ago, Coffey said:

I think calling him the next Angle is putting the carriage before the horse, for sure... 

Ok, I never said he was the next Angle though (good luck for that). I said that as far as "debut" (I put it under quotation because I don't know how many matches he has worked before) matches, it was up there with Angle and AKINO (Arsion worker, for those who don't know) in term of looking terrific. Of course there's no way to know what will happen in the future. But he sure looks like he could be someone. Considering how many people on the roster still look green as grass, I was pretty damn impressed.

[sek69]

AFAIK that was his actual first ever match, and I learned he also was big into Judo before which makes sense since his match was giving me Ronda vibes in terms of "new to pro wrestling but obviously has had training in other disciplines". 

[strobogo]

1 hour ago, Coffey said:

I can genuinely never tell when you're trolling or not. It can go either way.

If I'm trolling, it's blatant trolling jokes. Hook looked like a guy with no experience other than drilling what will be his main spots. He has a presence, he has a look, he has athleticsm. He also looked like he'd never sold, those crossfaces looked terrible, his other strikes were pretty dodgy, his moving from spot to spot looked like a guy trying to remember what he was supposed to do, and the few times he had to sell looked weird. He looked like a rookie. A rookie with potential, to be sure, but absolutely looked like a rookie. I know he somehow became a meme for whatever reason over the past year, but come on. I'm not sure he looked as polished as Brock Anderson, who also is definitely a rookie and needs a year or two working mostly on Dark to get seasoning.

[Coffey]

28 minutes ago, El-P said:

Ok, I never said he was the next Angle though. I said that as far as "debut" matches, it was up there with Angle in term of looking terrific. 

This is fair. You're right, I apologize. 

[C.S.]

Imagine if Hook was in the WWE system...

"Tyler Senerchia has been at the PC for two years now. His new NXT name will be Ty Devil, which is a play on both the Tasmanian Devil and his father Taz."

 

[Matt D]

What he did, for the most part, was good and interesting and different. Some of his reactions and just feeling the crowd definitely worked. He had presence, some of which was due to the mystique of his build. He entry point into moves with Fuego with a good collaborative effort. What he represents, being the overall package, has a lot of promise. Going from one move to another did feel like a rookie. Some of the "wrestling on TV stuff" needs work. But remember, Angle, on his "first match," had been in Memphis and working dark matches forever. Hook may have been very well trained and drilling and working simulation matches, but Angle had a page and a half on cagematch before Survivor Series. I think the big takeaway is that Hook has a ton of promise and they should protect him well and give him matches carefully so that he can improve.

If you really want to compare, here's Angle's second match. I haven't seen it, but feel free to take a look:

 

[El-P]

10 minutes ago, Coffey said:

This is fair. You're right, I apologize. 

Don't worry, none taken. 

6 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Imagine if Hook was in the WWE system...

"Tyler Senerchia has been at the PC for two years now. His new NXT name will be Ty Devil, which is a play on both the Tasmanian Devil and his father Taz."

Actually, they would call him Senechal Wild, have him wear a orange & black singlet and do a ton of "hidden" Taz references and never actually say he's his father. 

[NintendoLogic]

Hook right now reminds me of Tay Conti when she was in NXT: definitely a work in progress, but the potential is clearly there. The difference is that he's training at a school where they actually teach pro wrestling and don't just do forward rolls all day, so it shouldn't take years for him to reach his potential.

[Laz]

Hook, at the very least, has the idea behind "big badass in a small frame" down. His complete blowing off of Fuego during the introductions, his body language during the bout, and his sneer all scream "little shit that can't wait to prove you wrong." Fuego made him look incredible, true, but Hook more than carried his end of the match and made things count. I can't wait to see him with more seasoning.

One thing that irked me, and it is a personal thing, is that he wasn't wearing knee pads. I know his dad didn't, either, but I think Taz is one of the only workers after the Thesz era that didn't wear knee pads and it didn't bother me. And maybe scrap the white boots. Keep the fight shorts, though, because that's an immediate way to differentiate him.

[Coffey]

Interestingly, speaking about Angle & Taz, I remember how angry I was when they did Taz's WWF debut after leaving ECW... where they had him beat Angle in MSG with the Katahajime but then the story going forward, and sold on commentary, was that it was an illegal choke & therefore the win shouldn't count. They killed off Taz from the jump. 

[Laz]

2 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Interestingly, speaking about Angle & Taz, I remember how angry I was when they did Taz's WWF debut after leaving ECW... where they had him beat Angle in MSG with the Katahajime but then the story going forward, and sold on commentary, was that it was an illegal choke & therefore the win shouldn't count. They killed off Taz from the jump. 

Aye to this, but it kinda made sense, in a roundabout way. Joey Styles would often clarify that the katahajime was "illegal in judo, but legal in ECW." 

[Matt D]

7 minutes ago, Coffey said:

Interestingly, speaking about Angle & Taz, I remember how angry I was when they did Taz's WWF debut after leaving ECW... where they had him beat Angle in MSG with the Katahajime but then the story going forward, and sold on commentary, was that it was an illegal choke & therefore the win shouldn't count. They killed off Taz from the jump. 

Taz talks about that, how he was too over on the way in that first night and knew he’d be buried for not being a WWE project and then Angle went up too big on a suplex and he had to readjust and was labeled as dangerous. He said when he got back to gorilla after his debut, no one was there and that was that.

[strobogo]

I remember KURT ANGLE saying it was an illegal choke, so the win shouldn't count, and therefore he still went around saying he was undefeated like the delusional heel he was. I do not recall the announcers ever agreeing with that. Not really much different than wearing the hair piece after getting his head shaved. What killed Taz was the Radicalz coming in shortly after. Benoit in particular. Also he was very short and Vince treated all the ECW dudes with even more disdain than WCW guys.

[SirEdger]

According to Fightful Select, Hook has spent a lot of time training at Create-A-Pro and QT Marshall recently prior to his debut. Fightful Select also reports that MJF helped out Hook a lot in the early moments of his training (MJF is a graduate of the Create-A-Pro wrestling school)

[Makai Club #1]

2 hours ago, strobogo said:

I remember KURT ANGLE saying it was an illegal choke, so the win shouldn't count, and therefore he still went around saying he was undefeated like the delusional heel he was. I do not recall the announcers ever agreeing with that. Not really much different than wearing the hair piece after getting his head shaved. What killed Taz was the Radicalz coming in shortly after. Benoit in particular. Also he was very short and Vince treated all the ECW dudes with even more disdain than WCW guys.

In typical commentary fashion, Lawler agreed with Angle and JR didn't. 

[strobogo]

17 minutes ago, Makai Club #1 said:

In typical commentary fashion, Lawler agreed with Angle and JR didn't. 

The heel color guy agreed with the heel wrestler saying obvious bullshit? Berried.