AEW Rampage Review - July 19, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, Kyle O'Reilly and Tomohiro Ishii) def. The Undisputed Kingdom (Roderick Strong and ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett)

I didn't know Ishii was a member of this Conglomeration group, too (I thought it was just Cassidy, O'Reilly and Mark Briscoe), but it makes sense given his ties to Cassidy. This lasted longer than I thought it would, but it was a fun opener. The problem is that I couldn't care less about this ongoing faction feud. It feels like they're trading wins without any real consequence. Strong is challenging for the ROH World Championship at Death Before Dishonor next week, so you'd think he would've won here.

FTW Champion Chris Jericho and Big Bill def. The Outrunners

Anything involving the Learning Tree garbage immediately loses my interest and this was no exception. It was bad enough we were subjected to it on Wednesday's Dynamite, so I don't know why we had to suffer through it again here. Yes, it gave Jericho a win before he defends his FTW Championship against Minoru Suzuki next week, but I could've done without this, especially since The Outrunners are an enhancement team and could've been squashed significantly quicker.

Minoru Suzuki def. The Butcher

As noted in the previous paragraph, Suzuki will get his shot at the FTW title next Wednesday on Dynamite, so this was designed to remind the AEW audience of what he can do. He's had so many matches in AEW that I don't know how necessary this actually was, but I understood the intent (not to mention Suzuki doesn't win too many matches in AEW). This was a hard-hitting affair while it lasted.

Kris Statlander def. Sydni Winnell

Statlander cost Willow Nightingale the win in the finals of the Owen Hart Cup last week, so their feud is clearly continuing as it should. This served its purpose in that it helped her get back on track after losing to Nightingale two weeks ago, but it didn't make much of an impact with there being two other squashes right before. The best part about it was that it was kept on the shorter side.

The Lucha Brothers def. Private Party

This felt like a match straight out of Dynamite 2019. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it did remind me of how much more important both teams were back then (as well as how deep AEW's tag team division was early on). This was an entertaining main event despite the outcome never being in doubt. They're not feuding at the moment, so it was basically a bout that existed for the sake of existing.

Overall Show

Take the five-match format and throw it in the trash, please. The episode started and ended well enough with two quality matches, but I don't get why there has to be three squash matches in the middle. I don't care how brief they are. Doing three back-to-back-to-back causes each of them to lose a little bit of their luster. This was your average edition of Rampage in that it was total throwaway but featured its fair share of solid wrestling.

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