AEW Rampage Review - August 26, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Dark Order (John Silver, Alex Reynolds and Preston "10" Vance) def. House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King and Buddy Matthews)

As you can tell in the above graphic, Vance was advertised as being in this match, but I swear there was a graphic that aired during Dynamite's Rampage rundown that showed Silver and Reynolds teaming with a mystery partner. I assume that was a mistake because I always assumed Vance was the third man if Evil Uno was unable to appear. Nonetheless, this was your standard six-man tag team match in AEW, which is to say they worked a fast pace and nothing really landed for me. It was good, don't get me wrong, but I'm probably spoiled by what we got in the main event of Wednesday's Dynamite. Dark Order winning wasn't a huge surprise since I figured Miro might factor into the finish, but I could've done without Reynolds pinning Black for the victory.

AEW TNT Champion Wardlow def. Ryan Nemeth

I completely forgot Wardlow is from Cleveland. He received a strong ovation, but it would have made more sense for him to be on Dynamite. I guess Nemeth either currently lives in Cleveland or did at one point and that's why he was on the show, but he didn't belong in this match. At the very least, this should not have been for the title. Wardlow made quick work of him and that was it, but it did nothing for Wardlow or the TNT title.

Powerhouse Hobbs def. Ashton Day

Putting two squashes back-to-back was an interesting idea, though not one I would have done myself. At least Hobbs put his opponent away quicker than Wardlow did. This was pure dominance from Hobbs. We also saw The Factory beat up Starks in the back. Are we supposed to take The Factory seriously as badasses now? Regardless, I'm looking forward to Starks vs. Hobbs at All Out.

AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champions Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo def. Ortiz and Ruby Soho

You'd think Tay would use Guevara as her last name if she didn't want to use Conti anymore (and understandably so since that was her surname from her last marriage), but apparently not. At any rate, this was a solid television match, but I can't bring myself to care about any of this crap. Those AAA mixed tag titles hold no value and it isn't impressive that Guevara and Melo have them. Eddie Kingston called out Guevara weeks ago on Dynamite, but we found out this week there hasn't been any progression with that program because Kingston was legitimately suspended for roughing up Guevara backstage. Are we getting the match between them at All Out or no? What a mess.

ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli def. Dustin Rhodes

I'm just going to go ahead and assume Rampage is basically ROH TV until ROH TV officially gets up and running again, because that's primarily where we've seen the Ring of Honor stuff furthered in recent months. It doesn't exactly paint the title as important, but I know that's not among Tony Khan's highest priorities right now. This was a match I was looking forward to, and they delivered a quality contest, but I believe they are capable of more. The weird finish didn't really help, either.

Overall Show

For a show that airs so late on a Friday night, you'd think Khan would be putting forth more of an effort to make Rampage more must-see. It doesn't have the same exciting vibe it did when it premiered a year ago this month and it hasn't for quite a while. This episode was evident of that. Despite featuring five matches, none of them are worth going out of way to see. It was a serviceable show on the whole, but it's no shock why the show continues to lose viewers. It's an inconsequential hour of wrestling with the occasional gem.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews