AEW Rampage Review - July 7, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver and Alex Reynolds) def. The Elite ("Hangman" Adam Page and The Young Bucks)

I truly couldn't care less about Dark Order's beef with Page and the rest of The Elite at this point. I know it's an example of long-term storyline, but Dark Order mean nothing and them beating The Elite here only extends the program. Sure, they're leaning heel, but what difference does that make? The match itself was solid, but Elite vs. Blackpool Combat Club and Konosuke Takeshita feels like the bigger focal point right now. Why would Elite lose before Blood and Guts?

​Jericho Appreciation Society (Daniel Garcia and Sammy Guevara) def. Matt Hardy and Jeff Jarrett in a Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinal Match

The fact Garcia and Guevara "randomly" ended up together in this Blind Eliminator tourney is so lame. I know they've teased tension in the past and perhaps that was the point, but it defeats the purpose of what this tourney was designed to do. On an interesting side note, Jarrett was influential in The Hardys' departure from TNA back in 2017 and there was some heat between the two for a while after that, but I don't think that was mentioned or even alluded to here. The match was decent and Jarrett's crew turning on Hardy indicates Hardy and Ethan Page vs. Jarrett and Jay Lethal is coming.

Hikaru Shida def. Marina Shafir

If there was setup for this match, I must have missed it. It felt like something you'd see one of the Dark shows (R.I.P.), but that's not to say this was bad. They had a well-worked match, and to give credit where it's due, Shafir isn't as abysmal as she was. She's improved. The key here was that Shida picked up another win and she's apparently been winning a lot lately (according to the commentators, I couldn't remember the last time she was on TV).

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Brian Cage and Big Bill def. Matt Sydal and Trent Beretta in a Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinal Match

These teams were actually random and worked well together, serving as an example of how the Blind Eliminator concept can be fun if done right. All four guys had quality chemistry, both as partners and as opponents. Even the crowd got into it by the end. Cage and Bill winning was the right call and now they move on to face Adam Cole and MJF in the next round on Wednesday's Dynamite.

Overall Show

This marked the 100th edition of Rampage. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a special show by any means, but I did appreciate the attempt to make it more notable than usual with two tournament matches and The Elite in action in the opener. The main event actually ended up being the best bout of the show. This was a perfectly solid show and an easy watch. Rampage's quality is inconsistent from week to week, but this was one of the better episodes.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews