3 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Rampage (Dec 9)
1. Bloodied During Commercials
A while back, QT Marshall thumped Danhausen with a piledriver on the ring steps as ads for other TNT/TBS programming hogged most of the screen. Yep, AEW ran a spot like that during one of those hated picture-in-picture ad breaks. This week, they committed an even bigger sin.
Jon Moxley got busted wide open during an ad break.
Simply going to picture-in-picture as soon as Mox and Konosuke Takeshita began brawling into the crowd (the first truly exciting moment of the match) was peak AEW, but then it got worse. Moxley juiced during commercials, then was positively gushing when Rampage returned to full screen and commentary welcome everyone back.
That was ridiculously poor planning from everyone involved. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the bloodletting happen when fans are actually paying attention and...y'know...might care? These ads might be essential from a financial perspective, but they're a massive pain in the t*ts.