AEW Rampage Review - August 23, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Conglomeration (Kyle O'Reilly, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe and Tomohiro Ishii) def. Johnny TV, Brian Cage and The Beast Mortos

I've said it several times, but I don't understand why we see so much of The Conglomeration on AEW TV every week when there are so many others not getting television time at the moment. I like everyone in the group, but these matches are meaningless. This was a solid six-man tag team match, but the heels were no threat. That's why Cage teamed with two random people instead of The Gates of Agony. Briscoe and Mortos had their ROH World Championship clash on Thursday's ROH TV, but that was the only aspect of this match that made sense.

Roderick Strong def. Fuego Del Sol

Undisputed Kingdom walked by The Conglomeration while making their entrance. Will the feud ever end?! At any rate, this was a pretty straightforward showcase for Strong. Props to Fuego for selling nicely for his offense. This was rather brief and existed to give Strong a win heading into the Casino Gauntlet match at All In. On a side note, I assume Fuego signed some sort of new deal with AEW because he's been popping up quite a bit on AEW TV and ROH TV lately.

Mina Shirakawa def. Robyn Renegade

I've become a fan of Shirakawa's work through the appearances she's made in AEW this year. She has natural charisma and can obviously go in the ring as well. I'm glad she's back after her storyline with Toni Storm and Mariah May wrapped up at Forbidden Door. Now that May is a heel again and could be the next AEW Women's World Champion after Forbidden Door, maybe she'll be May's first challenger? I don't know what this needed to as last as long as it did, but at least it resulted in a win for Shirakawa.

The Gates of Agony def. Iron Savages (Boulder and Bronson)

This felt like a match you'd see on ROH TV, meaning it had no business happening on Rampage. Gates of Agony are a talented team and I'm all for them being featured more, but keep Iron Savages relegated to Ring of Honor, please. Their shtick is terrible and it's amazing they get as much television time as they do (even though their in-ring work is totally fine). This was essentially a squash for Gates of Agony as it should have been.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Von Erichs def. The Outrunners

In what world is this match a main event, even on Rampage? I believe this was AEW's final show in this Texas venue, so perhaps they wanted to end things with The Von Erichs given their history in the area. Despite that, I wouldn't have had this close the show considering it was an average outing at best and had nothing to do with All In whatsoever. The crowd was behind The Von Erichs and I suppose that's all that matters.

Overall Show

All In is Sunday and Saturday's Collision emanates from Cardiff much like Wednesday's Dynamite did, so with all of the wrestling this weekend from AEW, don't bother going out of your way to watch this show. You get five matches that have zero storyline significance. None of the matches were bad, but it was wrestling for the sake of wrestling. Honestly, Shirakawa being in action may have been the biggest highlight. Everything else was just sort of there.

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