AEW Rampage Review - November 17, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW TNT Champion Christian Cage def. Trent Beretta

I really liked the idea to determine a number one contender on one show and then do the title match on the second show in the same night. AEW doesn't do back-to-back shows often, but it's a clever concept to connect the two shows. I don't think anyone actually thought Beretta would beat Christian for the AEW TNT Championship, but they had a good match, nonetheless. Both guys can always be counted on for a quality contest and they told a solid story with Christian targeting Beretta's arm.

"Timeless" Toni Storm def. Emi Sakura

It was established on Wednesday's Dynamite that this was designed to be a warm-up for Storm before she challenges Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women's World Championship at Full Gear. Even though the outcome was never in doubt, it was more competitive than I figured it would be and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It was a well-worked match and I continue to dig Storm's Timeless shtick. She does a wonderful job of committing to the character.

Roderick Strong def. Action Andretti

Strong beat Darius Martin last week on Collision, so it made sense for Andretti (Martin's current tag team partner) to be Strong's next opponent. It's ironic that Strong has been playing up a fake neck injury for months and yet he almost legitimately suffered a neck injury here during a scary spot where Andretti botched a Spanish Fly on Strong. Strong finished the match, but here's hoping he's okay. This was a nice match otherwise.

Samoa Joe Saved AEW World Champion and ROH World Tag Team Champion MJF From Bullet Club Gold

This started out as a backstage sit-down interview with Renee Paquette and Jay White and turned into an all-out brawl with MJF going after White. It transitioned to the ring, and instead of the night ending the same way Dynamite did, Joe made the save, basically confirming that he'll be MJF's partner in the ROH World Tag Team Championship match on the Full Gear Zero Hour pre-show. The whole thing was well done. The crowd popped big for Joe and I'm curious whether he'll turn on MJF mid-match or if they'll actually manage to coexist.

Overall Show

Rampage is often an inconsequential show, but this benefited from the Collision lead-in and having more star power than usual with Christian defending the TNT title in the opener and the show-closing segment with the Full Gear main event combatants. Even Storm vs. Shida and Strong vs. Andretti were well-wrestled affairs. All in all, it was a fun hour that, like Collision, effectively built toward Saturday's pay-per-view.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews