AEW Rampage: Fyter Fest: Week 1 Review - July 15, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kings of the Black Throne def. The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds)

Kings of the Black Throne are House of Black's team of Malakai Black and Brody King, for anyone who may have forgot because it's been a while. Dark Order are such non-factors that it's almost impossible to care about them at this point, though I enjoy the pairing of Silver and Reynolds. I guess it was nice to see House of Black not beat Fuego Del Sol on Rampage for a change. This was a glorified squash, but the most interesting part came afterward when Black and Sting went face-to-face. That certainly caught my attention.

ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham def. Lee Moriarty

This stemmed from Gresham abandoning Moriarty in their tag team match against Gates of Agony. And yes, Gresham is indeed a full-fledged heel at this point now that he's officially a part of Tully Blanchard Enterprises for some reason. Gresham and Moriarty had a nice match, but it didn't reach the level I hoped it would, likely due to time constraints. On the bright side, it was revealed afterward that Gresham's opponent at Death Before Dishonor will be none other than Claudio Castagnoli. If I'm AEW, I'm immediately putting the belt on Castagnoli. I realize it will feel rushed, but that's the best way to get people to care about this Ring of Honor relaunch.

Athena and Kris Statlander def. Charlette and Robyn Renegade

The Renegade twins have been used a fair amount by AEW over the last year. I've never been overly impressed with them myself, but they're decent. Then again, we barely saw them in action here due to this lasting under 30 seconds. Athena and Statlander made quick work of them and I'm not necessarily complaining, either. The babyfaces are clearly headed for a clash with The Baddies, so this made them look dominant before then.

The Acclaimed Attacked Gunn Club

I didn't at all care for the alliance of The Acclaimed and Gunn Club when it first started, but I became a fan of the faction over time because they were entertaining together. That said, I was fine with Gunn Club turning on them because The Acclaimed should be babyfaces at this point with how popular they are and this accomplished that. I'm glad Max Caster and Anthony Bowens weren't made to look like fools for accepting Billy Gunn's offer to do one last "scissor." This was what it needed to be to move the feud alone.

The Lucha Brothers def. Private Party

Before Tuesday's edition of Dark, it had probably been months since I last saw Private Party in action on AEW TV. I assume one of them was hurt, but it's not as if the company was doing anything of note with them prior to that point, anyway. Excalibur mentioned on commentary that these two teams previously met in the tournament to crown the inaugural AEW World Tag Team Champions back in late 2019, which I completely forgot about, and Private Party have obviously fallen far since then. This was a quality main event, but the only purpose it served was furthering Lucha Brothers' feud with Andrade El Idolo and Rush without the latter two being involved.

Overall Show

This was apparently the 50th edition of Rampage, but it really didn't feel all that special. The only significant development was Gresham vs. Castagnoli for the ROH World Championship being announced for Death Before Dishonor and that's about it. The main event and Gresham vs. Moriarty were well wrestled yet forgettable and the other two matches were basically squashes. Rampage isn't always the most eventful hour of wrestling, but it's usually more worthwhile than this.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews