4 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Rampage (Oct 1)
Down...
1. Wrong Headliner, Mr. Khan!
Yeah, this wasn't great.
That 'Hair vs. Hair' match pitting Orange Cassidy vs. Jack Evans wasn't the right main event for this show. It was obviously played for laughs due to the gimmick, but it just never really sparked the way Cassidy's matches against higher-profile opponents have. He's gone backwards lately, and a feud with Matt Hardy's goons won't change that.
Bryan Danielson vs. Nick Jackson, or even the women's Triple Threat, should've been in this spot instead. The whole experiment came across as a headliner from some family-friendly indy show - that's not exactly good enough for the top billing on AEW's second weekly broadcast. Sorry, but it isn't.
Fans tune in to All Elite for sterling in-ring work, logical storytelling and/or a break from "sports entertainment". Put it this way: WWE would get slaughtered if a match this basic and uninspiring closed out Raw or SmackDown. So, AEW don't get a pass just because they're the competition.