5 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Rampage (Nov 4)
Katsuyori Shibata excels; Rampage delivers; Mike Tyson = AEW commentator.
Jim Ross opened this week's episode of Rampage by saying: "It's Friday night, and you know what that means. It's time for AEW Dynamite...well, we're on Rampage tonight". It's easy to rag on JR these days, but this writer fancies cutting him some slack - it's just pretty funny that the worst commentary line of the broadcast didn't come from guest Mike Tyson.
'Iron' Mike was actually a credit to the show.
One of the most irritating things about the way Tony Khan handles Rampage is that the weekly should be the easiest wrestling show around to digest. It's one hour long, acts as an extension of Dynamite (or should), and AEW's rich roster depth means you're guaranteed to see some cracking wrestling.
Sadly, TK has been getting it wrong more than right, but Friday was an exception. Everything flowed nicely, there were a few fun matches, and fan enjoyment was nourished by a couple of tasty promos that pushed different storylines along heading into Full Gear.
If only the promotion could serve up this kind of quality every week. Speaking of which...