AEW Rampage Review - August 4, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Keith Lee and The Hardys def. Kip Sabian, The Butcher and The Blade

Lee and The Hardys were a random trio, but this essentially served as a spotlight win for them. Lee has consistently shined as of late but still doesn't have any direction. And no, I don't think we're ever getting that Lee vs. Swerve Strickland match, or at least not any time soon. Sabian, Butcher and Blade were fine in their roles, but this could have been a tad shorter. We found out later on that The Hardys will face The Young Bucks next week on Dynamite.

Anna Jay def. Skye Blue

These two had a match on Rampage back in August. Blue won to advance to the semifinals of the women's Owen Hart Cup, so it was logical that Jay would get her win back here. In all honesty, it didn't matter who won because it's not as if either of them are in the middle of anything significant at the moment, anyway. The match was perfectly passable while it lasted, but the finish sucked. For what it's worth, Jay wasn't billed as Anna Jay A.S. this week and I hope that means the A.S. crap is officially dead.

Swerve Strickland and AR Fox def. Logan Cruz and Tyshaun Perez

Strickland and Fox are being established as a team, so it made sense to give them a squash win here over two local athletes. I loved their chemistry in Lucha Underground and am looking forward to them being paired up again in AEW. They beat the holy hell out of Nick Wayne in his training facility (or wherever that was) during Dynamite this week, so expect Darby Allin to seek revenge next week ahead of the eventual tag team match.

Blackpool Combat Club (ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli and Jon Moxley) def. Best Friends in a Parking Lot Fight

I thought this was advertised as a six-man Parking Lot Fight also involving Orange Cassidy and Wheeler Yuta in that graphic that was shown on Dynamite, but I must have misunderstood it. They got involved anyway toward the end, but keeping it two-on-two for the most part was smart as six people would have been too chaotic. This was a follow-up on the Parking Lot Brawl Best Friends had with Santana and Ortiz at Daily's Place two or three years ago (has it really been that long?) and it was as wild as you'd expect. Moxley didn't bleed during the Anything Goes three-way on Wednesday, but he bled a gusher here. As I always say, AEW does too much of this stuff regularly for this to feel special, but they certainly put forth a commendable effort.

Overall Show

For better or for worse, that Parking Lot Fight was the most memorable match on Rampage in recent memory. It wasn't my cup of tea, personally, but it made Rampage worthwhile this week, I'll say that much. The rest of the show was business as usual. That isn't to say it was bad per se, but it definitely paled in comparison to your average Dynamite or Collision. Feel free to make time for the main event but skip the rest.

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