1 Up & 5 Downs From AEW Rampage (Oct 7)
Tony Khan's AEW Rampage flops AGAIN. Will the show ever get back on track?
It's wearying to watch Rampage these days.
The "third hour" began amidst the buzz and excitement of CM Punk's AEW arrival last year. Fittingly, the show now echoes the All Elite career of the man who proudly debuted on it - like Punk, Rampage's future is uncertain and there are definitely major question marks over its continued importance to Tony Khan's company.
Last week was atrocious, so most fans were just looking forward to some proper in-ring action on Friday night. After all, AEW would tag-team Rampage with Battle Of The Belts IV, and that'd surely veer focus away from Khan's wonky over-reliance on stories and feuds that are a real struggle to watch unfold.
Two six-man tags were lined up, and the show even tried to establish new challengers for the AEW Tag straps. The problem with that last bit is that Tony's prior booking didn't feed into this plan at all. Yeah, let's just say Khan's sought-after 'Promoter Of The Year' award in The Wrestling Observer could be hard to justify with programming like this.
Here's some good and an unhealthy helping of bad.