2 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Rampage (April 7)
Downs...
5. We Interrupt AEW To Bring You…
...an ad for more AEW!
The opening FTW Title brawl was relegated to a smaller box on the screen so All Elite Wrestling could hype Dynamite whilst Rampage was still in progress. That's fine if the announcers are doing it, or if storylines build anticipation for Wednesdays, but a picture-in-picture ad during your own show? F*ck that.
This felt counterproductive. It'd be like interrupting a movie, popping the action in a tiny box on the screen, then telling you to check the same movie out. That sort of thing just shouldn't be happening, but it does. Worse, AEW did exactly the same thing during Battle Of The Belts later.
Wait, that isn't actually the worst part. Ethan Page and Hook didn't start trading weapon shots until they'd been muted and shunted off to an afterthought bit of real estate on-screen. So, in other words, one of the most exciting parts of their match happened without sound as AEW hyped Dynamite.
Wow.