AEW Rampage Review - September 29, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Trios Champions The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn def. The Hardys and Brother Zay

Brother Zay is apparently what Isiah Kassidy is going by officially until Marq Quen comes back (how much longer will he be out, by the way?). The Hardys are nothing more than a nostalgia act at this point. I mean, they were last year too when they originally reunited, but they've lost a lot lately and aren't protected at all. It reminds me of the WWE return run The Dudley Boyz had in 2015-2016. I enjoy their pairing with Zay and this was fun for what it was, but I wish this had more of a buildup. We found out The Acclaimed and Gunn will again defend the titles at WrestleDream against TMDK.

NJPW Strong Openweight Champion and ROH World Champion Eddie Kingston def. Rocky Romero (ROH World Championship Was Not Defended)

Kingston will defend both of his belts at WrestleDream against Katsuyori Shibata (who showed up on the stage after this match to have a staredown with Kingston), but only the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship was on the line here. That made sense because Romero is primarily a New Japan Pro-Wrestling guy. This was really good stuff from these two, even if the outcome was never in doubt. More of Kingston is never a bad thing.

The Righteous def. Caleb Crush and Gunnar

No, Gunnar was not the former Jaxson Ryker from WWE, who went as Gunner (notice the slight spelling difference) in TNA. Thank God. In all seriousness, this was a short and sweet squash for The Righteous as it should have been ahead of their ROH World Tag Team Championship match with MJF at WrestleDream. Adam Cole getting injured is a massive bummer for a lot of reasons, but now The Righteous will likely have to lose a two-on-one Handicap match and that also sucks.

Hikaru Shida def. Ruby Soho

Soho came out to The Outcasts entrance music and video, so apparently the group is not completely dead even though Toni Storm is no longer a member. It should be because the stable has stunk from the get-go. The match itself was great and there were some strong nearfalls down the stretch. Soho loses quite a bit, or at least whenever it matters most, but this was designed to earn Shida an opportunity at Saraya's AEW Women's World Championship coming up on Dynamite next Wednesday.

Overall Show

This was a definite step up above the usual Rampage show. We were treated to some above-average action as the three main matches all delivered and the Righteous squash served its purpose. There was nice last-minute hype for WrestleDream on Sunday night and a new match announcement as well. This was an entertaining hour of wrestling. I'd like to see this much effort put into Rampage on a more consistent basis.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews