AEW Rampage Review - June 24, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Andrade El Idolo def. Rey Fenix

This was the all-out barn burner it had the potential to be on paper. I'm actually surprised we hadn't gotten it prior to this point, but the action was exciting and the crowd was hot for it. It's such a shame neither of these guys are going to be a part of Forbidden Door due to AAA/CMLL politics. Nonetheless, we finally got the AEW debut of Rush (in person) and it looks like we're headed for Andrade and Rush vs. The Lucha Brothers. That should be stupendous.

Serena Deeb and ROH Women's World Champion Mercedes Martinez def. Laynie Luck and Sierra

I don't think we've seen Deeb at all on AEW TV since she unsuccessfully challenged Thunder Rosa for the AEW Women's World Championship at Double or Nothing. She's been teaming with Martinez on the Dark shows as of late and Deeb made it clear on Tuesday night that she has her sights set on the ROH Women's World title. I hope it isn't long before we get that one-on-one match. This was essentially an elongated showcase for the two of them.

Hook def. The DKC

I feel like Hook has barely been featured on AEW TV since he and Danhausen beat Tony Nese and Mark Sterling at Double or Nothing. They're a fine pairing, but Hook has a much higher ceiling than that, so I'm glad he went at it alone here. We haven't seen him in a standard squash in a while, so this was a step in the right direction and exactly what it should have been. What he does next, however, I have no idea.

IWGP Tag Team Champion Jeff Cobb def. ROH World Tag Team Champion and AAA World Tag Team Champion Cash Wheeler

I've been saying it for years, but Cobb is a total star. I haven't closely been following his work over in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, but he always impresses me whenever he's in action and I was happy to see him back in an AEW ring (he had a one-off match with Jon Moxley on Dynamite in February 2020). This was the quality main event you'd expect from these two. The show-closing brawl was another mess and I don't think it had the effect Tony Khan probably thought it would as far as selling viewers on Forbidden Door.

Overall Show

Did anyone notice that we got more emphasis on Ring of Honor on this show than we have at any point on AEW TV in the last three months? The ROH Women's World Champion and one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions were in action and ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham popped up in a backstage segment. All we needed were ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe and ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta and it basically would have been an episode of ROH TV. In all seriousness, hopefully we get more development/news on the ROH front soon. This was a solid show with fun opening and closing matches, though virtually none of it had to do with Forbidden Door outside of what happened in the main event and afterward.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews