5 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Rampage (1 May - Results & Review)

Downs...

3. The Early Atmosphere

It was pancake flat as soon as Kenny Omega was wheeled out of the ring on a stretcher.

Perhaps this is harsh. Perhaps the fanbase were only coming down after a hot angle starring one of their favourites. That'd be understandable, but the complete and utter lack of crowd noise during Jay White vs. Dante Martin did stick out as odd. More on that match later; it's another one of the 'Downs'.

Daily's Place gave AEW programming an intimate but passionate feel last week, so it was a little jarring to go back to these larger scale arenas with pretty much zero atmosphere. This is why Rampage arguably needs to be a warm up show for Dynamite or Collision, not the other way around.

AEW did manage to pick the energy levels up again by the end, to be fair. Seeing people sit on their hands and yawn their way through Jay White matches isn't fun for the viewer back home though. Tony Khan might want to think about using Rampage as a lead-in for these three hour blocks instead.