AEW Rampage Results and Review (9/30/22): AEW is in Trouble
AEW Rampage was yet another disappointing show. It’s becoming clear that AEW doesn’t view Rampage the same way it does Dynamite. It almost feels like an afterthought that doesn’t get much effort into it. This is a shame because AEW has a ton of talented wrestlers that can help elevate the show, but poor booking decisions are holding it back. Granted, this show was likely affected by the hurricane in Florida, but this has been an ongoing issue. Nevertheless, here are the results and my review of AEW Rampage.
Results
The Acclaimed def. Private Party & The Butcher & The Blade
Lee Moriarty def. Fuego Del Sol
Jamie Hayter def. Willow Nightingale
Rush def. John Silver
Review
*AEW Tag Team Championship Match*
Private Party vs The Butcher & The Blade vs The Acclaimed
AEW usually puts on really good tag team matches, but that wasn’t the case for this one. I’m not sure why Private Party and the Butcher and the Blade received an opportunity at the titles. That seems to become a common trend in AEW as of late. It seems like they’re starting to move away from their ranking system in terms of giving wrestlers opportunities at titles. This is a shame because personally, that’s something I really enjoyed about AEW. Now wrestlers are getting opportunities with little to no reasoning for why.
Regardless, this match wasn’t that impressive. It was good for the Acclaimed to get a win in a triple threat match against two veteran teams in AEW. But the match itself wasn’t great. The crowd didn’t seem that into it either. Now we must keep in mind that Dynamite and Rampage get filmed back-to-back on the same night, so that is a reason for the crowd to be less alive during Rampage. Hopefully, AEW can do a good job with the Acclaims title run because they deserve it.
Lee Moriarty vs Fuego Del Sol
Another unintriguing match was Lee Moriarty vs Fuego Del Sol. Both of these men have the potential to be pretty good wrestlers, but this match didn’t showcase that. The point of the match was to make Moriarty look strong and start to establish him as a threat. But having Moriarty beat someone who has about 12 wins and just about 60 losses in his AEW career. It wasn’t a complete squash match like on last week’s Dynamite, but it is the same idea. If you’re trying to build someone up and establish them, having them beat someone who is a no-name freelancer or someone who doesn’t win much doesn’t do anything. Now I’m not saying these men aren’t talented in the ring, but the match was pointless and not that great.
Willow Nightingale vs Jamie Hayter
If the show had any sort of bright spot, it was this match. Willow Nightingale and Jamie Hayter are two of the more underrated wrestlers in the women’s division. Hayter has proven herself time and time again and now has the crowd behind her. During the Saraya segment on Dynamite this week, the crowd started a massive “Jamie Hayter” chant. It’s clear that she is over with the fans and now is the time to give her a push. Was this match amazing? No, but it was still pretty solid and probably the best on the card. I think Nightingale and Hayter can put on a better match, but I’m still happy with the one we got.
HOOK Appears
The problem with this segment is that it didn’t make any sense. Ryan Nemeth came out and insulted Philadelphia and HOOK came out and beat the hell out of him. The issue is that HOOK was advertised to appear on the show. So it doesn’t make sense if they advertising him to appear, but he just comes out to beat up Ryan Nemeth. I understand that they wanted to feature HOOK on the show, but this wasn’t the way to do it.
John Silver vs Rush
The match itself was pretty decent. Although I feel like it was kind of pointless, it was nice to see John Silver get television time. Silver and the entire Dark Order have been underutilized for years in AEW. What was one of the best factions in the game is now full of wrestlers who compete on AEW Dark. However, Rush did look strong in this match. He showcased how physical and violent he is as a wrestler. He hit a few brutal moves on Silver to help him secure the win. Also, I’m not sure why this was the main event of the show. It feels like the tag team match should have main evented Rampage because the titles were on the line. Regardless, the match really didn’t need to happen and took time away from other segments and matches that AEW could have done.
Overview
Rampage was seriously lacking. It was one of the worst wrestling shows I’ve seen in quite some time. And I understand that booking was affected by the hurricane, but Rampage has been lacking for a while now. It’s extremely clear that AEW doesn’t view Rampage on the same level as it does Dynamite. It’s similar to how WWE viewed Smackdown for a while. AEW is going to be in trouble if they don’t put more time and effort into the Rampage shows. They have so many talented wrestlers in the company that they aren’t using, so it’s not as if they don’t have the talent. They are just booking the show extremely poorly.
