Why AEW Rampage Hasn't Quite Worked (Yet)
Dark and Dark: Elevation can be inessential by design because they're the closest AEW has to any kind of functioning on-screen developmental, and they're on YouTube. Completists can enjoy seeing everything, records can get padded out for that day somebody needs a push, and try-out guys and girls can maximise some minutes. It's a cool system, but not required viewing.
Rampage is, though, and it has to be.
Dynamite was so good for so long that fans begged for more AEW. This is a rare feeling in the content super-service era, and the new show only being an hour was an incredibly shrewd way of satisfying that need without over-exposing the brand and the wrestlers. But inadvertently, they appear to have done that anyway.
Rampage: Grand Slam was the most obvious example of this, but is perhaps an unfair comparison as it was the first edition to double up on the traditional 60 minutes. The Network asked for it, and AEW - full Arthur Ashe Stadium and all - obliged, but the show felt like a slightly flabby accoutrement to a special Wednesday rather than a mega-event on its own steam.
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