AEW Rampage

Sanders’ AEW Rampage Review 7.15.22

Weekend is here y’all! Lee Sanders on this TGIF as we got ourselves a new edition of AEW RAMPAGE! Nothing new with yours truly this week as I’ve been taking it easy getting lost in voiceovers and side projects. Thank you by the way to those of you who subscribed to my YouTube channel as we surpassed the 12,000 mark. If you haven’t subscribed please do so by clicking here and say hello! Let’s roll as tonight is part two of Fyter Fest week that’s going to continue next week.

Commentators: Chris Jericho, Jim Ross, and Tony Schiavone

MATCH 1:JOHN SILVER, ALEX REYNOLDS VS MALAKAI BLACK, BRODY KING

Action already underway on this 50th episode as Silver gets in the tag to go head to head with Brody. They go for a lock up as Johnny Huggie gets pushed across to the corner post. Brody wants him to try and shoulder tackle him. Silver tries and fails twice as Brody shoulder bumps him flat on his behind. Reynolds and Silver double team on him and do a double hip toss on Malakai. Reynolds tries a dive between the ropes onto King but gets caught and planted to the ground as we head into our first commercial break. And we’re back as Black gets in a frontal sweep on Reynolds. Silver gets in a hot tag as he bounces off the ropes with a spinning clothesline on Black. Cover attempt as Malakai kicks out of that one. Reynolds comes in as they try to double team on Black. Brody tags the back of Black as the two big men do a low and hi combo on Reynolds. Black connects with a kick to the face while Brody connects with a clothesline that only gets a near fall. Reynolds and Silver try to double team on King with thrust kicks, enziguris, and a jacknife pin-cover as Black interrupts it from high above. Black helps Brody set up Reynolds for Dante’s Inferno to end this one.

Winner: House of Black (9:14)
Rating: **
I can appreciate this match being competitive as much as the next person but this should’ve been a squash match. If it was Dark Order taking on Acclaimed or Private Party then to go on as long as this match did would be fine. This is the House of Black though and for me each time Silver was tagged in it just wasn’t that believable for me that he could go toe to toe with these big and tall behemoths in Malakai and King. Nice opener nonetheless but rather predictable who was going to win this one.

Post-match Darby attacks Brody from high above the ramp structure and unloads with his fists as Malakai looks on and is about to help when Sting arrives! Sting and Malakai stare each other down and walk away. Miro appears in a video package wondering why his God humiliated him in his last outing. He wonders if his God made him cross paths with the House of Black to fight them or if he is to be join House of Black.

MATCH 2: ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH-JOHNATHON GRESHAM(C) VS LEE MORARITY

Lee takes down Gresham with a double leg takedown as he gets on top and pounds on him. Gresham quickly leaves the ring to regroup with Tully. The champ gets back inside as Lee delivers a kick to the midsection followed by a knee to the face as Gresham rolls out the ring again. Lee gives chase as the two are fighting by the barricades. Lee sends Gresham crashing into a barricade before tossing him back in the ring. Gresham plays possum in the corner to bait Lee into taking a kick in the midsection. It works as Gresham follows up with a couple of chops followed by an arm twist as Lee strikes him in the face. Gresham wants to have a chopping match as he takes his wrist tape off. The ref sees this and tosses the tape out as Gresham hits the groin of Lee. Gresham now picking on the ankles as he delivers a series of headlock takedowns as we head into a Picture in Picture break. Grr these breaks! Gresham manages to stay dominate throughout the break as we come back now with Lee delivering a big kick to the face of the champion. Lee comes back on the champ with a hook suplex, followed up with a kip-up, and a dropkick as he connects with a bridge suplex-pin attempt. This only gets him a near fall as the action continues. Gresham once again in control of the wrist of Lee as we see a crucifix pin by Gresham for a near fall. Lee with a rollup pin of his own for a near fall. A lot of pin exchange attempts now as it keeps going back and fourth. Gresham now with the octopus stretch to make Lee tap out!

Winner: Johnathon Gresham (12:00)
Rating: ***
Great competitive match right here for the ROH championship. I for one am happy that AEW fans are getting a chance to see the champ in action as we get closer to Death Before Dishonor. Lee continues to hit it out of the park with every opportunity given to him. Without a doubt he’s going to be a future main eventer. Mark my words people.

Post-match Tony Schiavone talks with Gresham as he appreciates Schiavone saying he enjoyed his match as he plans on outperforming and out wrestling all of AEW fans favorites. Tully hypes of Gresham, calling him the best technical wrestler in the world as Claudio aka Cesaro comes out to stare down Gresham.

Backstage we see Christopher Daniels with a warning to Jay Lethal to not talk trash about Samoa Joe. He promises to slap the taste out of his mouth if he keeps trash talking Samoa Joe. Very odd to see Daniels appear out of nowhere here but I’m happy to see him. Little bit concerned about his left eye though as it appears to be black and not some type of contact lenses.

MATCH 3: RENEGADE TWINS VS ATHENA AND KRIS STATLANDER

Annnnnnnnnd the match is over with a brutal beatdown on the twins. If you blinked you missed it.

Winner: Athena and Statlander (47 seconds if even that)
Rating: DUD
GLORIFIED squash match. Simple as that. Why even air this?

Post-match Leila Gray tries to come out and fight Athena and Statlander but gets her ass handed to her. This sets up Jade and Kiera to come out and fight Athena and Statlander. They get in their hits on the babyfaces before quickly backing off and walking away as Athena and Statlander look on.

Stokley approaches Lee during the middle of his interview. Stokley wonders what exactly is Matt Sydal is going to do for him as he (Stokley) can do a lot of good for Lee’s career. Sydal tells Lee he’s got the opportunity of a lifetime for Lee as next week he’ll face Dante Martin. Oh joy! It’ll be a good match but really Mat?

Billy Gunn & Sons are with Schiavone in the ring. Billy Gunn talks about how he loved Acclaimed a lot, more than his own kids. A time came however when Daddy Ass had to drop the hammer. Acclaimed come out looking to fight as they aren’t rapping. Billy slows them down as he wants them to scissor each other one last time before they all go their separate ways. Acclaimed ain’t having it as they take the fight to them. Acclaimed demand a match against them as Gunn Club tell Acclaimed not today, not today.

MATCH 4: PRIVATE PARTY VS PENTA OBSCURO & REY FENIX

YouTube TV sadly froze during the first couple minutes of this opener as we soon went into our last commercial break. Private Party has Penta isolated in the corner, taking it to the brothers as they’ve been wrestling the perfect match so far. Penta makes the tag to Rey. Rey with a great arm drag and leg drop on Quinn. Nice 2 for 1 by Fenix as he focuses on Kassidy now with chops to the chest. Rey has Kassidy in the corner as Mark comes in from behind to help Kassidy land a crossbody on Fenix for a near fall. Mark now the legal man as he and Kassidy do a quick low & high combo on Fenix. Tag made to Kassidy as he stomps on the face of Fenix in the corner. Fenix able to plant a jawbreaker to tag in his brother. Penta with a thrust kick to Mark and a Death Valley driver on the other followed by Made in Japan for a near fall. Alex and Jose are going at it yet again as Obscuro superkicks Andrade! RUSH comes down to attack Obscuro from behind while the ref is distracted as Rey gets in a tag somehow and gets in the black fire driver for the victory!

Winner: Lucha Bros (11:00)
Rating: ***
Pretty solid main event match as we haven’t seen Private Party regularly on television in months. Pretty much after they joined Andrade we saw them disappear. Matches like what they had tonight against Lucha Bros reminds you how much great depth AEW has in its tag division. Some pretty high quality tag teams here with Private Party for me being pretty high on the list. They didn’t seem as green and clunky in previous matches I can recall. Lucha Bros are absolute pros as always and didn’t disappoint as for me as my eyes were mainly on Private Party and they did great. Right team won as it’s all about setting up Lucha Bros for the big payback on Andrade and company. Why do I have a feeling though that Alex and Jose are going to be part of this though? Like they will be in tag action as well? Hope I’m wrong!

End of Show

THE FINAL SCORE:  REVIEW

GOOD

Nice spotlight of tag action this week but for night two of Fyter Fest I feel that they came up a little short. Great ROH World championship match, and a great main eventer. Also great seeing faces we haven’t seen on the regular such as Daniels, Lee, Private Party, Renegade Twins even. It may have been dubbed Fyter Fest but this episode mainly felt like a continuation in bridging the gap to the ROH Death By Dishonor ppv event. Having Cesaro just out the blue be Gresham’s next challenger felt too rushed. Also, not a fan of commercial breaks when we have a World Championship match going down. There really should be limited commercials for matches of that caliber. Also, we hadn’t seen Brian Cage and a few others in months and they are just in the shadows of Tully Enterprises. I really wish the commentators could’ve explained to viewers who is who and why certain folks were with Tully now. Last, AEW needs to do a better job plugging the YouTube shows. At least mention for example Renegade Twins can be seen regularly on AEW DARK and ELEVATION. When you don’t take time out to educate your viewers they aren’t going to care as much if at all. You could just see a lot of rushed things in storylines and angles in this episode, matches put to the side. Other than two really good matches, everything else was average at best. For more great talk of all things wrestling and beyond, be sure to follow me on Twitter @THERCWRSHOW and check me out on YouTube.com/thercwrshow Enjoy the weekend y’all!

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