4 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Rampage (Jan 27)
3. This Was Promising
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Dustin Rhodes thanking the fans for supporting him through his mother's illness was a sweet, sentimental touch. Then, Swerve Strickland hammered home his heel status by getting in Dustin's face and letting him know he deserved the promo time more.
The way neither man backed down was nice to see, and there was a fairly-surprising amount of intensity to this short, to-the-point segment. It presented Rhodes as a sympathetic family man, then showed clear disrespect from Swerve towards AEW's veteran wrestlers.
TK will likely book this as a throwaway 10-minute match on Dynamite, or something, but he should build it up more and have it headline an episode of Rampage. These guys showed a spark between them here, and that's something they can work with come match time.