The Day AEW Rampage Died

Eddie Kingston sold his Full Gear match with CM Punk using his eyes in a legendary face-to-face confrontation. His mood shifted from combustible to seething to sarcastic to sarcasm's close relative - unbridled rage - in one of the best angles of the modern era. Kingston was sensational in the ring on Fridays too; his World Title Eliminator match opposite Bryan Danielson was so incredible that they summoned a standing ovation seconds before the finish. That's what a finish should f*cking do: peak at the perfect time.

PAC and Andrade worked a fantastic series, as physical as it was spectacular, in which they worked over one another's brain tissue. Minoru Suzuki Vs. Bryan Danielson. A series of very good and very over CM Punk matches (versus Daniel Garcia, versus Matt Sydal). It has faded so badly now that the very idea that CM Punk made his impossible return to wrestling after seven years on the show feels surreal. It's almost like if Steve Austin worked Kevin Owens on Velocity, and not WrestleMania 38. That's probably hyberbole, but the last slew of episodes have felt inessential in the extreme in the grim, final phase of development that took root in 2022.

As the year started to settle, Rampage started to feel like the baggy middle of the less good episodes of Dynamite. Angles were scarce. Promos were filmed backstage and often interrupted. Nothing climactic was settled on Rampage, only gently advanced. For example, Adam Cole Vs. Trent, a very good match, functioned to set up the Lights Out match between Cole and Cassidy a couple of weeks later at Beach Break. That is a standard Khan booking device - a way of building interest in a bigger match without being must-see in and of itself - but that device is often used alongside more bold booking moves.

Increasingly, as 2022 unfolded, Rampage became the exclusive home of such hardcore completionist fare.

CONT'D...(2 of 6)