5 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Rampage (Oct 15)

3. Context Counts

CM Punk and Matt Sydal have a bit of history together. Whilst it would've been easy for AEW's announcers to palm that off as inconsequential ('you're in the big time now, boys!'), they didn't. Instead, Excalibur and crew spoke about that shared lore, and didn't shy away from old independent wrestling chatter mid-match.

All Elite's producers even drummed up footage from a 2005 bout in IWA Mid-Mouth for the 'Buy In'. That helped add context to the match massively, which stopped it from coming across as just another singles bout on Punk's inevitable road towards the AEW World Heavyweight Championship someday.

Clips from IWA sucked viewers into the relationship and past these guys have.

Also, score another winner for Punk since becoming All Elite generally. He's obviously enjoying himself, and has relished facing young guys like Darby Allin, Powerhouse Hobbs and Daniel Garcia. This was a departure from those trials against future greats, and it worked well.