4 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Rampage (Jan 7)

1. Diminishing Returns?

Some of AEW's brawls are starting to feel a bit samey. The violence is indistinguishable from other examples, especially recent ones. Maybe focusing on one or two wrestlers at a time for the next while might be wise, because there are only so many of these things fans can watch.

Rampage's headliner lacked the uniqueness of the Bunny/Penelope Ford vs. Tay Conti/Anna Jay cracker last week too, and AEW's decision to go picture-in-picture whilst Eddie Kingston belted fools with weapons didn't work. Speaking of Kingston, yours truly isn't a fan of him kicking out of a ring bell shot.

That's the point here; these matches are trying to do far too much when they could get more mileage out of less and actually make brawls mean something. Who's really going to remember this Kingston, Santana and Ortiz vs. Daniel Garcia and 2.0 bout two weeks from now?

Rampage shouldn't become home to lazy brawls, basically.