AEW Rampage Review - July 21, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Darby Allin Won the AEW TNT Championship No. 1 Contender's Royal Rampage Match

I think this is only the second time AEW has done a Royal Rampage match with the two rings, but it's already become one of my favorite gimmicks they do. Maybe I enjoyed this more being there live for it, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and was well executed. I wish there were fewer tag team guys (who were never going to win), but they did further some stories and the final few minutes were great. I'm beyond over Allin being in the AEW TNT Championship picture, though. Aside from Double or Nothing this year, it feels like that's where he's been stuck for years.

Billy Gunn and The Acclaimed def. QTV (QT Marshall, Aaron Solo and Johnny TV)

It was already announced that Acclaimed and Gunn will challenge House of Black for the AEW World Trios Championship on Saturday's Collision, so I don't think there was much doubt surrounding the outcome of this match. Then again, QTV had no business winning, anyway. This was decent for what it was, but here's hoping this marked the end of the rivalry and we can move on from it. The former John Morrison/Hennigan continues to feel utterly wasted.

AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander def. Marina Shafir

This was far from a main event-worthy match, but I understand the Royal Rampage was the main attraction of the episode. This simply existed to give Statlander another title defense and to kill time. Shafir is mediocre at best, but she held her own and the match was perfectly fine. Statlander is being kept strong and racking up wins, but it feels like she's already lost a lot of momentum from when she returned two months ago. She's already back to being another woman on the roster.

Overall Show

Full disclosure: I was in the building in Boston for the Dynamite and Rampage tapings, but it was getting late and I left after the Royal Rampage match. That was worth staying for, the other two matches were not. As noted, I enjoyed Royal Rampage and AEW would be wise to make it the entire episode in the future. The other two matches were pretty pointless, but it was a quality show for Royal Rampage alone.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews