7 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Rampage: New Year's Smash (Dec 30)

2. Hey, One Of These Worked!

Swerve Strickland Mogul Affiliates Blackpool Combat Club Jon Moxley Wheeler Yuta Claudio Castagnoli
AEW

Mark Henry's pre-main event promos are normally skippable nonsense that outlived their usefulness ages ago. Here's where it gets interesting: Rampage's main event needed big 'Sexual Chocolate's' usual insert to give Swerve Strickland's Mogul Affiliates some more juice.

The whole thing was pretty darn good.

Swerve spoke of craving violence (the same violence favoured by members of the Blackpool Combat Club), and Wheeler Yuta got to do some talking of his own. He ranted about proving how important he can be to Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli, then hurled a barb at the Affiliates' ink work.

Firing right back, but in a neatly-subtle fashion, Strickland laughed off the joke with a casual "say less" remark. That was oddly menacing, because it teased that Swerve might teach Wheeler a lesson in-ring if he didn't stop running his mouth.

Advertisement
In this post: 
AEW Rampage
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

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.