AEW Rampage Review - September 30, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Tag Team Champions The Acclaimed def. The Butcher & The Blade and Private Party in a Three-Way Tag Team Match

The Acclaimed were massively over in front of this crowd despite this being taped right after Wednesday's Dynamite. This was a well wrestled match yet a completely pointless one. AEW does this a lot where new tag champs are crowned and then their first title defense will come abruptly against an undercard team (or teams in this case) that did nothing to earn the opportunity. AEW also has to cut down on doing "open contract" championship matches, because it makes zero sense that these two teams would answer the open challenge and no one else. For example, FTR being the number one ranked team for months and not being awarded a title shot is a total joke.

Lee Moriarty def. Fuego Del Sol

Moriarty received a bit of a boost when he broke off from Matt Sydal over the summer and joined Stokley Hathaway, but he's done absolutely nothing of note since. Has he even been in action on TV beyond appearing with the rest of The Firm? I'd like to see him get a meaningful push going forward because the dude is great, but time will tell. This was a serviceable squash to give him a victory and didn't overstay its welcome.

Jamie Hayter def. Willow Nightingale

Nightingale is so damn likable that she can lose pretty much all of her televised matches in AEW and still be beloved by crowds. I assume she's under some sort of a deal with the company at this point if she's been appearing so regularly this year, but it would have been nice if she got that elusive "All Elite" graphic. Nonetheless, this was a fun little sprint. Hayter's hard-hitting offense is always a treat to watch and Nightingale scoring as much offense as she did was appreciated.

FTW Champion Hook Attacked Ryan Nemeth

Much like with Jade Cargill, Hook feels slightly less over than he did previously. I don't know if saying the bloom is off the rose is entirely accurate because he's still popular, but he's long overdue for some legitimate competition. I was hoping he would start facing bigger names after beating the former 2point0 at Grand Slam, but obviously not if he's attacking goofs like Nemeth and starting a storyline with The Trustbusters. This was a waste of time.

Rush def. John Silver

Andrade El Idolo and Rush vs. The Dark Order is the feud virtually nobody cares about. Thus, it's fitting that it's playing out on Rampage, a show virtually cares about at this point. In all seriousness, this was a good main event between two talented competitors, but it certainly didn't feel worthy of the main event slot. It solely existed to build toward Andrade vs. Preston "10" Vance in the Career vs. Mask match next Friday on Rampage and to set up Page vs. Adam Page for Wednesday's Dynamite.

Overall Show

Coming off last week's loaded Grand Slam edition of Rampage, the show was back to its usual subpar standard this week. Rampage is rarely bad, but the hour is completely inconsequential and this episode was an example of that. There isn't anything worth seeking out from this show, but I did thoroughly enjoy Hayter vs. Nightingale for as long as it lasted. There was some solid hype for next week's Dynamite and Rampage as well.

SEE MORE: Rampage Reviews