Tonight was the long-awaited premiere of AEW Rampage! The Pittsburgh crowd was on fire for the first episode and everything seemed to go off without a hitch.
Rather than just write it off as a success and move on, let’s reflect more on the debut hour of this program in more detail.
Here are my biggest takeaways from All Elite Wrestling’s brand new show’s first episode.
There are plenty of talented people in Impact Wrestling, but the promotion hasn’t exactly been making the same waves in the business these past few years that it once did. In the past, it was the de facto #2 behind WWE. The gap widened to the point where it wasn’t even viewable from the same distance and AEW instantly overtook that secondary spot.
Since partnering with AEW, I’ve heard more about Impact Wrestling than several years combined and I’ve certainly been more interested in the product by proxy. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.
Having Christian Cage win the Impact Championship on AEW programming is something that could theoretically get viewers from 15 years ago interested in checking out what the former TNA is up to now. It can also get new viewers watching just because the belt was treated like it mattered and it isn’t even in this company.
I doubt Cage as champion is going to boost Impact to the levels they were in 2006 or so. I’d argue there’s likely to be less people watching than when Kenny Omega was holding the title, even. But this was a very smart play to help out a partnered federation and give AEW something important to kick off the show without sacrificing anything with their own titles.
Speaking of which, AEW is just fundamentally much better lately at booking championship matches and utilizing their champions than WWE. It’s not a direct competition and not everything has to be about comparing those two companies, but it’s hard not to think about the positives and negatives in relation to one another.
WWE has been firmly stuck in this philosophy of booking champions in repetitive matches (either to avoid having to think of anything else, since it’s easy to copy and paste, and/or because they think “more matches means it’s an epic feud”). A lot of the time, the only way WWE seems to think of a way to set up a challenger is for them to score a win over the champion in a non-title match. Renaming it a “contenders match” doesn’t change it any more than getting rid of the automatic rematch clause just to have former champions win a No. 1 contender’s match for a rematch was an empty promise.
AEW, though, managed to do three title matches on this show with varying degrees of methodology.
With Cage, the Impact Wrestling title win shows that he can beat Omega and it’s likely something Impact is extremely happy about. Two birds killed in one shot.
With Fuego Del Sol, it was clear he wouldn’t win the TNT Championship from the onset. I highly doubt more than a few people watching thought he had any shot at winning that. At best, fans may have thought he’d win by count-out for a non-title victory.
However, they added the extra bonus stipulation that if he did win, he’d get a contract with AEW. Suddenly, there were more stakes attached that made it intriguing far more than just “Miro beats a jobber.” On top of that, the match started with some tornado DDT action that put the momentum in Fuego’s corner and the crowd went nuts.
Red Velvet is great and I’ve been a fan of her since she first appeared on AEW Dark. I wanted her to get signed almost immediately and I’ve enjoyed seeing her progression into a better and better performer as time’s went on. But she wasn’t going to win the title from Britt Baker either.
Did it matter? Or did you still have fun watching the match?
Now ask yourself if you would have had just as much fun with a three-match episode of WWE television where Bobby Lashley fought Jeff Hardy, Sheamus fought Humberto Carrillo and Charlotte Flair (if she were champion still) fought someone like Liv Morgan.
On a regular episode, with the way WWE books things, I highly doubt any of us would be talking about those matches, despite how all six are talented.
On commentary tonight was Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Taz and Mark Henry. AEW hasn’t been shy about having at least a three-man booth and has dipped into the four and even five commentator pool, but that shouldn’t be the case.
There’s such a thing as having too many chefs in the kitchen.
I know. I’ve done a podcast for 10 years and I’ve had solo editions and episodes with 9 people on the show. The magic number is 3 people with the right chemistry where they can talk among each other without interrupting.
Excalibur held things together as he always does. Frankly, in my book, he’s overlooked when people speak about the best commentators right now. He’s the anchor in AEW, even more so than Jim Ross or Tony Schiavone (though the latter is rock solid, too).
Mark Henry was seemingly hesitant to talk. He’s new at this gig, so let’s give him a little bit of time to get over some opening night jitters. Not everyone’s cut out for that role and he might not be, but others have had worse first nights and went on to become better commentators.
Taz honestly felt like he didn’t need to be there, in my opinion. That’s not a slight on him in the way it might seem, though. I’ve actually never been too fond of his work in WWE, but I’ve considered him the highlight of AEW Dark as he’s super fun on commentary for that show.
But then there’s Chris Jericho. He’s fantastic in so many ways and he’s been a great commentator before, but tonight, he dominated the discussion in ways that turned off a lot of fans.
“Jericho screaming on commentary is not it.” and “Chris Jericho is insufferable with all the screaming” were among the many criticisms I saw during the hour on Twitter.
If I were grading based on interest level, Jericho beats out Henry and Taz. However, maybe the latter two would have contributed more insightful and worthwhile opinions without Jericho taking up as much of the real estate.
I can’t help but to think next week should be Excalibur, Taz and Henry to see how that plays out without Jericho. Then, they can adjust accordingly.
It’s pretty definitive at this point that Rampage is going to be the SmackDown for AEW while Dynamite is Raw and the two Dark programs are effectively a merger of NXT, 205 Live and Main Event.
We’ve known that this is likely how it would play out for a while, but it couldn’t be certain until the premiere actually aired. For all we knew, Rampage could have had an entirely different feel to it.
It doesn’t, though. It’s just a third hour of Dynamite.
In some ways, that’s good. People like Dynamite, so give them more. However, on the flip side, it’s bad that it’s just the same third hour that everyone complains about from Monday Night Raw with the only difference being that it’s on another night of the week.
Granted, not having three hours in a row can feel much different. I’m not ruling that out. But at this point, AEW is getting closer to as much programming each week as WWE does when it comes to its mainstream in-ring content. Sometimes, Dark goes on forever and there will be about 7 hours of AEW compared to WWE’s 9.5 hours.
That’s still 2.5 hours of a difference, which is more than an entire show. However, how many of us complaining about too much WWE content are actually watching 205 Live, Main Event and NXT UK? I know people who have said 3 hours of Raw is insufferable and they don’t even watch SmackDown, let alone NXT and the D and E and F shows.
Eventually, AEW is going to reach oversaturation, too, if it hasn’t already. I’m curious to see if the same criticisms will apply and if people will refer to Rampage incessantly as “the B-show” in the same regard as SmackDown—which is entirely true and everyone knows it.
AEW has always tried to blur the lines between heel and face. Sometimes, those in the company even work themselves into a cyclone trying to spin that narrative and it’s clear they just want to play around with shades of gray with a “whatever happens tonight that can make people pop is what we’re going with, so shut up and enjoy the ride” mentality.
Being in Pittsburgh, Baker was going to be cheered. I’ve never quite understood the “Yay! That person is from around my area, so I like them more!” idea, but it’s a thing. We all know it.
AEW booked her in 50/50 fashion and I both liked and hated how that played out.
Red Velvet’s not an effective heel in my eyes. She doesn’t give me the bitchy vibe as much as she would need to, especially in comparison to Baker’s attitude. Having her cut the promo ahead of time to secure the boos reiterated how the match flow would go, with Red Velvet playing up a more villainous edge.
After the submission, though, Baker was back to being full heel. She not only attacked her opponent post-bell, but her altercation with Kris Statlander—a surefire babyface—felt awkward. Jamie Hayter’s appearance helping her out ended the show and I can’t help but to think this was a mistake.
Pittsburgh booing Red Velvet and especially Kris Statlander for one night, or wrestling with the idea of not knowing how to respond since they want to cheer Baker but don’t want to boo her adversaries, isn’t something that will make or break anyone’s characters, but it doesn’t help, either. Nor did the short feud with Nyla Rose help Baker’s heel persona. If anything, that just felt like she was going more for a babyface switch and we’re back to what we were before.
I’m not big on the hot potato character alignments. Big Show’s perpetual pendulum swings made me roll my eyes more than pop. Hopefully, AEW doesn’t find itself booking Baker in similar fashion where she’s a heel who is written to be cheered and a babyface who is ultimately not all that likable of a persona.
What were your takeaways? Tell us by leaving a comment below!