5 Ups & 7 Downs For AEW In 2023 (So Far)

5. Rampage’s Decline

Sure, the 'B' show dropped in quality significantly throughout 2022, but 2023 has been really poor. Rampage has fallen off a cliff in terms of overall importance to AEW. Worse, it's about to become the default 'C' show once Collision launches, and the duff ratings reflect this slide.

Tony Khan's apathy towards Rampage has transferred over onto his audience, and no amount of last-minute tweets hyping the card will change that. People know they'll rarely (if ever) see anything that actually matters on the Friday show. It's a collection of decent-good matches with barely any consequence.

This could be the beginning of the end.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Rampage will slip even further before the end of the year. Christ, it already feels like Khan is writing the show's format on the back of a napkin in catering, and it's hard to envision him putting more emphasis on it now he has Collision to think about.