AEW Rampage: Fyter Fest Review - August 25, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy def. Aaron Solo

I'm still stunned that AEW is having their first overseas show since this weekend and the AEW International Championship isn't being defended. Instead, Cassidy will be involved in a random 10-man Stadium Stampede match. At any rate, this was a perfectly solid match. They tried hard to make people think Solo had a chance of taking the title, but it was never going to happen. Even on Rampage, I had sub-zero interest in Solo. He’s as bland as can be and the QTV nonsense hasn’t helped.

AAA Latin American Champion QT Marshall def. Gravity

The sit-down interview Marshall did with Jim Ross beforehand was actually really well done and gave this match more meaning. I’ve never given a single crap about the guy, but he’s definitely not a bad talker. The problem is that there’s plenty of other people who could use the television time right now over him. He had a solid showing here and beat someone we’ve seen a lot of on AEW TV lately, but I don’t know what purpose this served in the long run.

AEW TNT Champion Luchasaurus def. Ren Jones (Non-Title)

Christian Cage has been the focal point of his act with Luchasaurus despite Luchasaurus being the actual TNT champ, so I’m all for Cage being the one to team with Swerve Strickland against Darby Allin and Sting at All In. Luchasaurus is essentially an afterthought as a result, but oh well. This was a simple squash to give him a win before he defends against Allin at All Out.

The Outcasts (Saraya and Toni Storm def. AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida and Britt Baker)

I was surprised that we got this on the Rampage before All In instead of on Dynamite (which featured a random match between Ruby Soho and Skye Blue), but it made sense to give Rampage a main event with star power for a change. It was pretty pedestrian stuff yet a solid preview of what to expect in the four-way for the AEW Women’s World Championship at All In. All four women teased tension afterward, including Storm and Saraya. A sign of things to come?

Overall Show

Rampage typically isn’t required viewing and this episode was no exception, but at least they had some star power between the women in the main event and the AEW TNT Champion being in action. We also got an AEW International Championship defense (though it had an incredibly predictable outcome), but I could’ve done without the Marshall match. That felt like something you’d see on Dark or ROH TV.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews