4 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Rampage (Sept 9)

Dax Harwood = future singles champ? AEW gets back to basics on Rampage.

by Jamie Kennedy
Samoa Joe
AEW

Samoa Joe is back.

His promo time was one of the bigger stories coming out of Rampage, because it set up an ROH TV Title defence vs. Josh Woods for next week's show. That wasn't the only title situation AEW moved to tease - Chris Jericho might've just put himself in the frame for an ROH World Title shot soon too.

That was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from Friday's episode though. Jericho slid that quasi-challenge in there on commentary right after watching Claudio Castagnoli defend vs. Dax Harwood. Ah yes, the FTR man. What a 2022 he's been having, but not only as a tag man alongside Cash Wheeler.

Rampage featured the latest solo special from Dax, and it proved why Tony Khan should take a punt on him with one of the singles belts soon/next year. Speaking of Khan, the All Elite boss got right back to basics after a fraught week, and the product was much better for it.

Simple booking was his approach here, but a few minor niggles did annoy. They couldn't, however, stop this from being the best episode of Rampage for a while.

Here's all the good and bad from it.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.