AEW Rampage: Beach Break Review - July 5, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rush def. Komander

We saw Will Ospreay officially inform Don Callis of his departure from The Don Callis Family on Wednesday's Dynamite. Callis immediately turned to Rush and it looks like he'll soon be added to the group to replace him. Ospreay vs. Rush is inevitable if I had to take a guess. Thus, it makes sense to keep building up Rush in the meantime. This was a decent little sprint and it gave Rush a rebound win after losing to MJF last month.

The Don Callis Family (Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita) def. Private Party

Private Party are pretty much treading water at this point. It's a bummer because they have untapped potential, but they've settled into an enhancement role at this point and I have zero faith they'll ever be utilized as anything more than that in this company. This match was all about giving Fletcher and Takeshita a dominant win. The match was well wrestled but not much more to it than that.

Kyle O'Reilly def. GPA

O'Reilly's been having a ton of squash matches since returning to the ring, but they don't mean much when he can't win when it matters most. There was nothing wrong with this, but it feels like a waste of time when it doesn't actually amount to anything. Speaking of which, can we please get some progression with O'Reilly and The Undisputed Kingdom? They were on commentary again, but there was no development.

Mariah May def. Hikaru Shida in a Women's Owen Hart Cup Semifinal Match

There was zero doubt that May was advancing to the finals (where she'll hopefully win and go on to challenge Toni Storm for the AEW Women's World Championship at All In), but I was looking forward to this match and they delivered. It was a quality contest in the time they were allotted and it was another nice win for May. She will face Willow Nightingale in the finals on Wednesday's Dynamite.

Overall Show

Rampage was once again a show that existed this week. The first three matches were nothing noteworthy and in the grand scheme of things in AEW, nothing would've changed had they not happened. At least the main event between May and Shida had stakes and was enjoyable. I'm also glad Rampage didn't follow the stupid five-match format this week. Even four is excessive when only three would work, but five is overkill.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews