AEW 3/1-3/3 - Open The Golden Gate

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4 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Like, I don't even mind Parker that much, he's obviously green but could progress, but somehow Mogul Affiliates is LAMER than Hit Row, in terms of being a group. Shame Rick Ross can't be a full time heel manager, because Swerve/Ross is where the money is at.

NXT wise was one of those releases that was a correct assessment of a talent.

Unable to pass further than this. And believe me people tried.

[Blehschmidt]

I feel like Strickland would absolutely be fine on his own. But if they insist on him having lackeys, aren't those Bear Country guys still on the roster? They are big and can at least kind of work. 

[RocknWrestling]

Got an email first thing in the morning saying that our seats had been changed for Rampage, which looked like a slight improvement at least. Wow, it was actually a MAJOR improvement! We were now a level up from floor seats on the other side of the arena facing the ring and the stage. I think we got there during the first set of Dark tapings and missed the first couple matches. Dark is spoiler tagged for the nobody who cares with winners in bold:

Spoiler

Skye Blue vs. Mylo.
Brian Cage vs. Bad Dude Tito.
Lance Archer vs. Cody Chun & Guillermo Rosas. I think we got to our seats during this match.
Kanosuke Takeshita vs. Jack Cartwheel.
Big Bill vs. Julius Coleman. 
Willow Nightingale vs. Zoe DuBois. Athena tried to run in after the match, but Willow ran her off in a continuation from the previous taping.
A.R. Fox vs. Ryan Nemeth.

I don't actually remember anything in particular about these matches except that they seemed to go on for longer than the previous Dark taping on Wednesday. Nice to see Willow wrestle at least.

Nobody cares about Rampage either, but it looked like the live attendance was about equal to Dynamite. Not sure how many people jumped on the deal for tickets to both shows like we did though. Between the three of us, our tickets were less than $40 each! Tony Khan came out before Rampage started to welcome us back to the historical Cow Palace and to wish us a good time. He was maybe a little bit less coked out this time, but still excited. They improved the audio quality this time and we could actually hear what everyone was saying over the microphone.

Can't stand these Dork Order guys, so we were pissed when they ran out to attack Claudio & Wheeler before the four-way tag. Dante Martin is amazing. He flies through the air in such a way that he almost looks suspended in motion, if that makes sense. Wheeler proved his worth by stealing the finish, but of course the Dork Order has to be sore losers and attack them after the bell.

Got pissed when Riho's music hit and walked out to grab a bite to eat. Cow Palace hot dogs are maybe a half step up from Arco dogs, in case you were wondering. Pretty sure I managed to "miss" Riho's entire match.

Of course we gave Powerhouse Hobbs the hero's welcome that he deserved before his quick annihilation of Serpentico. Nice to hear him on the mic too. He deserves a good push.

Rampage flies by FAST. Quicker than the actual TV broadcast does, actually. I felt like I'd blinked and suddenly there was Mark Henry up on the video screen yelling "IT'S TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT!" Goddamn, didn't we just get here to the Cow Palace a minute ago? I kept making cracks about Nazis at Parker Boudreaux's expense throughout the tag team main event; I could hear some of the frat guys sitting in front of us mumble "holy shit, dude..." under their breaths more than once, heh. Well, I was saying things like "Hey Parker, where were you on January 6th, you fascist fuck? Nazi piece of shit!" so I guess I don't blame them, heh. Parker looked lost in the ring too. Although I like Swerve's shitbird heel persona and enjoy watching him on TV, his offense doesn't look that great in person. Holy shit, did Swerve go up in the air for that spinebuster from Keith Lee though! He also scored points using Lee as a springboard for that moonsault to the outside; that was pretty sweet. We popped for Keith Lee scoring the pinfall with that Death Valley Driver/powerslam finish he does; it looked pretty devastating. We also popped for Ricky Starks jumping Chris Jericho at the announcers' table to end Rampage; we were cheering for him to kick Jericho's ass and for the referees to let them fight instead of breaking it up.

Once they got Starks and Jericho backstage, I think that is when Tony Khan came back out to thank us for showing up and asked who was planning on going to Revolution as well. He was not particularly subtle in hinting that tickets were still available, heh. Tony also let us know that the night was not over yet, that there were actually more matches to come. That's good, for it was still early and we weren't ready to leave yet. More Dark matches in the spoilers...

Spoiler

Mark Briscoe & the Lucha Brothers vs. Matt Hardy, Lee Moriarty & Isaiah Cassidy. This was probably the best bout of the whole night, a rather entertaining spotfest spectacle. We weren't expecting to see Mark Briscoe at the show, so we were STOKED to see him come out. 

Daniel Garcia vs. Aaron Solo. Sammy Guevara was in Garcia's corner and kept jawjacking with these girls who were sitting ringside.

Hook vs. Peter Avalon. Avalon came out talking shit and offered an open challenge to anyone in the back. SEND HOOK! Quick squash.

We were leaving the Cow Palace and going through the parking lot when we noticed a group of guys with rolling suitcases leaving from a side lot that was fenced off and surrounded by security guards. Figuring that was where wrestlers and staff were exiting, we walked over and stood around nearby for a bit to see if anyone would come out. Just when we were about to give up and walk away, one of us turns around and sees none other than good ol' JR in the passenger seat of an SUV leaving! We start cheering and yelling at JR's car; I'm yelling at him to follow us so we can smoke a joint. One of my friends starts following the car on foot, jogging trying to keep up. We're yelling at my friend making fun of him and then notice that the car is stopped in traffic leaving the Cow Palace. My buddy catches up to JR's car and is asking if he can just shake hands with his favorite wrestling announcer. We see the passenger's side window roll down and no shit, good ol' Jim Ross gives my friend a motherfuckin' FIST BUMP!

Hell yeah! That was the highlight of the night right there. Apparently JR had a cigarette going in the car and everything when my friend caught up and asked for a handshake. "Thank you, sir. It's truly an honor" said my friend after getting the fist bump. JR grunted something in response like a thank-you and then rolled the window back up. Good times. Jim Ross has been my friend Sean's favorite announcer since he started watching wrestling during the Attitude Era and even more so after being able to go back and watch earlier footage from Mid-South and WCW. Meeting JR was literally one of his wacky unrealistic dreams like "wouldn't it be cool if this happened..." type of shit. Totally stoked for him!

Not exactly the greatest event we've ever attended or anything, but we had a good time and loved our improved seats. Our expectations were low and the nights out at the Cow Palace were fun. Looking forward to Revolution on Sunday!