AEW Rampage: Road Rager Review - June 17, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jon Moxley def. Dante Martin

There was no way Moxley was losing ahead of his Interim AEW World Championship match with Hiroshi Tanahashi at All Out. Rather, it was more a matter of how credible Martin would look in defeat, and I thought he had a really good showing. It was a competitive match and an enjoyable one at that. Going forward, though, Martin should be racking up more singles wins on TV if AEW wants fans to take him seriously. He was on the right track before reuniting with his brother Darius, but their reunion was short-lived and he's been directionless ever since.

Max Caster and Gunn Club (Austin and Colten Gunn) def. Ruffin It​

Ruffin It was a trio consisting of Leon Ruffin and Bear Country. Do they team together elsewhere? Either way, they never stood a chance here. They have a nice dynamic, but they didn't have a chance to show anything because this was so short. Then again, I'm not complaining because I have no desire to see a match involving Gunn Club go longer than it needs to. They work well with Caster, but this felt like a throwaway win for them so they can be fed to another trio on TV soon.

AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill def. Willow Nightingale

I've become a big fan of Nightingale through what I've seen of her in Ring of Honor, MLW and in AEW. She's competent in the ring and has a ton of charisma, so you'd think Tony Khan would want all of her upside on the roster. I appreciated that this exceeded the five-minute mark, but it ended up being a rather basic bout with Cargill on offense for a majority of it. Athena and Kris Statlander once again made the save afterward, so maybe AEW is building toward a three-way as opposed to Cargill facing either of them one-on-one just yet.

Darby Allin def. Bobby Fish

This was a logical match to do after all the weeks Allin has spent feuding with reDRagon. As expected, it was a good main event. Fish is the least important member of Undisputed Elite and Allin has felt significantly less special recently, but nonetheless, this was very well wrestled. Sting's post-match return closed the show on a high note and sets the stage for an Allin and Sting vs. reDRagon tag team match if they want to go there.

Overall Show

I was a big fan of Wednesday's Road Rager edition of Rampage. AEW has tied some of the themed shows into Rampage as well, but this felt like one of their weaker efforts. Sting's return at the very end was a cool moment, but everything else felt like a glorified episode of Dark or Elevation. There wasn't anything bad by any means, but nothing felt overly important, making for a missable show on the whole. On a side note, the announcement that we're getting a Winners Take All match between FTR, Roppongi Vice and United Empire's Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan at Forbidden Door has me excited.

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