3 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Rampage: Black Friday (Nov 25)
1. A Stip Nobody Needed
Final whinge coming up, and it's about Final Battle.
Claudio Castagnoli will join JAS if he loses to Chris Jericho on the 10 December ROH pay-per-view. Tony Khan will either press the reset button on his reign, or Claudio will leave the Blackpool Combat Club behind permanently to become Jericho's new in-house tea boy.
Surely Castagnoli's well-delivered promo about proving something to himself by beating Jericho "when it counts" would've been enough? Apparently not. AEW fancied adding on another stipulation for the hell of it, then overriding the original story (Claudio regaining the gold that means so much to him) with an unwanted sub-plot.
The JAS also has too many members already, so there's little interest in adding more. This fan really hoped Jericho slaying former ROH World Champions would lead to something bigger than this, to be honest. Seeing Castagnoli play butler to him, Sammy Guevara and whomever else sounds second-rate.