AEW Rampage Review - October 18, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe def. The Butcher (Non-Title)

Despite defeating Chris Jericho to retain the ROH World Championship at WrestleDream, Briscoe will again defend against Jericho on next Wednesday's Dynamite in Ladder War. Don't ask why their feud is continuing because I have no idea. I understand wanting to give Briscoe a decisive win before then and this was a well-worked match, but did it really need to take him almost 10 minutes to beat The Butcher, who hasn't been relevant in ages?

Kyle O'Reilly def. Aaron Solo

You could hear a damn pin drop during this match. Solo has sub-zero charisma, so I'm tempted to change the channel whenever I see him in action. As for O'Reilly, he's obviously excellent, but he's been very disappointing creatively since returning from injury. Yes, he's consistently on television, but he's always involved in meaningless matches. He challenged Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Continental Championship and that'll go down at Battle of the Belts XII on Saturday night after Collision.

Anna Jay def. Trish Adora

This was a competitive contest, but the outcome was never in doubt with Jay currently chasing Mariah May for the AEW Women's World Championship. They'll have an Eliminator match at Battle of the Belts, so it was logical to give Jay one last momentum-boosting win before then. The match itself was solid, but May was the bigger highlight while on commentary.

Private Party def. MxM Collection

It's a problem when this is the most notable match on the show and it's positioned as the main event. No, there was nothing technically wrong with this, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about it. This just felt like a match that existed, and that's coming from a fan of Private Party and someone who has dug most of what MxM Collection have done in AEW so far. Private Party seem to be headed for another opportunity at The Young Bucks' AEW World Tag Team Championship. It was already ridiculous that they didn't win at WrestleDream, so the rematch is a must-win situation for them.

Overall Show

We've gotten quite a few five-match cards on Rampage in recent months, so I appreciated that this was a four-match show with two longer matches. Unfortunately, both were extremely predictable and not all that interesting. I found this edition of Rampage to be fairly dull, but at least there was effective hype for the Battle of the Belts XII special. I don't know why those shows are still a thing, but oh well.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews