{"id":130688,"date":"2022-01-04T20:10:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T02:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/recovery\/?p=130688"},"modified":"2022-01-04T20:10:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T02:10:22","slug":"aew-rampage-hits-misses-12-31-a-violent-womens-tag-technique-by-taz-a-hit-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/01\/04\/aew-rampage-hits-misses-12-31-a-violent-womens-tag-technique-by-taz-a-hit-more\/","title":{"rendered":"AEW RAMPAGE HITS &#038; MISSES 12\/31: A violent women&#8217;s tag, Technique by Taz a hit, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1324246145\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><strong>Darby Allin defeated Anthony Bowens: HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Really good match. Anthony Bowens is a star on the rise and Darby Allin is underrated in terms of his ability to work a slower, grittier pace. Nice way to open the show.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Post-Match Angle: MISS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After the match, Andrade El Idolo came out and applauded Darby\u2019s performance. This distracted Darby long enough for the Acclaimed to ambush him and Sting. I\u2019m not sure what Andrade\u2019s beef with Sting and Darby Allin is, why the feud with the Acclaimed must continue, and why they have moved on so quickly from the FTR beat down and Tully Blanchard\u2019s challenge to Sting, but there\u2019s AEW\u2019s scattershot storytelling for you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTechnique by Taz\u201d on Hook: HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was an excellent minute or so. It was a pre-recorded breakdown of some of Hook\u2019s special moves in the ring, which can work to get us to pay attention to them more. I really like this, especially considering how difficult it is to retain match information on any AEW show, where nothing really gets time to breathe. Taz\u2019s delivery was just smarmy enough to remind us that he is definitely embellishing, but not so full of it that we can just laugh and ignore him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tay Conti and Anna Jay defeated Penelope Ford and the Bunny in a Street Fight: HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was a brutal, bloody street fight that probably isn\u2019t going to be everyone\u2019s cup of tea. All four women worked hard, but an argument can be made that the feud and positioning on the card didn\u2019t warrant this level of violence. It didn\u2019t have the opportunity to take us on an emotional journey (especially with the commercial), but it was good for the circumstances they were in. A crowd-pleasing conclusion to a feud that has largely played out on Rampage, and now it\u2019s onto fresher waters for both teams.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3745510978\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Main Event Interview: MISS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lambert was unremarkable, and Anderson talked mostly about himself before implying that Cody can simply just get disqualified and still retain the title. Not sure how that is supposed to help us get behind him.<\/p>\n<p>Like last week, Cody didn\u2019t say a word. He was wearing a shirt with a checklist saying \u201cHeel, Babyface, Winner,\u201d which was just horrible. It reminded me of the worst of Roman Reigns when he would say \u201cI\u2019m not a bad guy, I\u2019m not good guy, I\u2019m THE guy.\u201d I came to AEW to get away from that, not be reminded of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cody Rhodes defeated Ethan Page to retain the TNT Championship: MISS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At WrestleMania 2015, John Cena was the \u201cAmerican hero\u201d who came out to defeat the \u201cevil foreign heel,\u201d Rusev, and bring the United States Championship \u201cback home.\u201d This still didn\u2019t help him overcome the mixed crowd reactions had plagued him since 2005.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout that summer, Cena would host \u201copen challenges\u201d every week on Raw, and have competitive matches with various challengers, including a wrestler by the name of Stardust. He won some of the crowd back after he kept putting on good matches on television week after week at such a late stage of his career. During this time, Seth Rollins was a young WWE champion who needed all the help he could get to achieve megastardom. However, Cena was still the focal point of most shows, and positioned much stronger than Seth Rollins.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s too early to tell if Cody will go down the same path with his current TNT title run. AEW is such an ensemble show that several mid-card storylines can end up being a lengthy topic of conversation. However, given how much attention wrestling analysts and fans have devoted to Cody lately, it\u2019s fair to be worried. I thought his match with Ethan Page tonight was good, but it didn\u2019t seem like people were interested in the match as much as just letting us know what they think of Cody. The focus was indeed largely on Cody and my first thought from the main event interview onwards was \u201cwill this be a 60-40 crowd, or a 90-10?\u201d They chanted \u201cLets Go Cody; Cody Sucks\u201d and it almost didn\u2019t even matter who he was in the ring with. There was very little heat for Ethan Page; he was just a body in the ring to put against Cody. How invested is the average AEW viewer in the basic psychology of his feud with Men of the Year? It\u2019s definitely a question worth asking.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, it\u2019s early days. While I don\u2019t see many promising signs right now, we can probably trust Cody to deliver better television than Cena or Reigns at their worst. Being closer to John Cena of 2015 is better than the John Cena any of the 10 years prior.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2771172515\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Commentary: UNREMARKABLE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Schiavone was here in place of Taz tonight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overall Show: MILD HIT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you can ignore the embarrassing way in which this show was promoted on social media, it wasn\u2019t a bad show. A good first two-thirds, and a final third that is entertaining enough to satisfy morbid curiosity. The only segment worth going out of your way to see is Technique by Taz.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CATCH-UP:<\/strong> 1\/1 AEW RAMPAGE RESULTS: Keller\u2019s report on Cody\u2019s TNT Title defense against Ethan Page, Darby vs. Anthony Bowens, bloody street fight with Bunny &amp; Penelope vs. Conti &amp; Jay<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2119722309\"><div id=\"pwtor-731094899\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Darby Allin defeated Anthony Bowens: HIT Really good match. Anthony Bowens is a star on the rise and Darby Allin is underrated in terms of his ability to work a slower, grittier pace. Nice way <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/01\/04\/aew-rampage-hits-misses-12-31-a-violent-womens-tag-technique-by-taz-a-hit-more\/\" title=\"AEW RAMPAGE HITS &#038; MISSES 12\/31: A violent women&#8217;s tag, Technique by Taz a hit, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":100790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[6121,6558,6120],"class_list":["post-130688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-aew","tag-aew-rampage","tag-all-elite-wrestling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-17-at-2.27.00-AM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130689,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130688\/revisions\/130689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}