7 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Rampage: New Year's Smash (Dec 30)
Tension between Sting and Darby Allin; Tony Khan gets the final Rampage of 2022 right.
It'd take a rather brave pro wrestling fan to claim that Rampage has been anything better than average in 2022. In fact, most episodes this year have been utterly sh*te - it's like Tony Khan has jotted down some matches on a napkin, handed it to producers and said, 'That'll do'.
Amazingly then, the final episode of a quite dreary 12 months for the 'B' show was must-see content for anybody who watches Dynamite and wants more. AEW put on two cracking matches, Jade Cargill had one of her better efforts, and there was enough storyline/character development scattered throughout to make one giddy.
This, this is what Rampage should be.
Did All Elite get everything right? No, but that's alright. One of the 'Downs' here is actually nitpicking from a curmudgeonly old-school fan who sometimes struggles with modern tropes. That's on this writer, not necessarily AEW or the roster, so it's all good.
Speaking of good, here's plenty of it from the 'New Year's Smash' edition of TK's Friday night fun time. Have a happy new year when it comes, everybody!