AEW Rampage

''AEW Rampage'', also known as ''Friday Night Rampage'' or simply ''Rampage'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), running from August 13, 2021, to December 27, 2024. It aired every Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on TNT in the United States, although major sporting events occasionally moved it to an earlier or later time slot the same day or the next day (as a special ''Saturday Night Rampage'').

''Rampage'' was AEW's second weekly television show, following the premiere of ''Dynamite'', and the second professional wrestling program to air on TNT since the final episode of ''WCW Monday Nitro'' on March 26, 2001. With the premiere of ''Collision'' in June 2023 (which subsequently became AEW's secondary flagship program), and the cancellation of AEW's YouTube shows (''Dark'' and ''Elevation''), ''Rampage'' essentially succeeded the YouTube shows by focusing on younger and mid-to-low card talent. The series came to an end on December 27, 2024, as the program was not included in AEW's media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that took effect on January 1, 2025.

Episodes of ''Rampage'' were typically taped after the live broadcast of the preceding episode of ''Dynamite''. On occasion, some episodes were also taped after ''Collision'', while a select few episodes had aired live, notably those that aired back-to-back with the '' Battle of the Belts'' special.

History

Original format (2021–2023)

The American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) was officially announced and launched on January 1, 2019, and their weekly flagship television program, ''Dynamite'', began airing on TNT that October. On January 15, 2020, TNT's parent company WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery) and AEW announced a US$175 million contract extension for ''Dynamite'' through 2023. As part of the new deal, it was also announced that AEW would be launching a second weekly television show.

In May 2021, AEW revealed their second weekly television show, and fourth program overall, as ''AEW Rampage'', which would begin airing on TNT on August 13 as a one-hour show on Fridays at 10pm Eastern Time (ET). During AEW's marquee event Double or Nothing on May 30, former WWE wrestler Mark Henry was announced to be a part of the ''Rampage'' commentary team as an analyst. On August 4, ''Dynamite'' and ''Dark''s commentators Excalibur and Taz and wrestler Chris Jericho, who had served as a guest commentator several times on ''Dynamite'', were announced to join Henry as ''Rampage''s four-man commentary team. AEW President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Khan said that the commentary team would not always be all four men, as Henry would also have other roles on the show, such as doing interviews. In September, AEW wrestler Ricky Starks replaced Henry on the commentary team, with Henry subsequently just doing interviews on the show.

In an interview with '' PWInsider'', Khan stated that while ''Rampage'' would air live for most episodes, some episodes they would pre-tape, depending on the city that the preceding episode of ''Dynamite'' was held in (although this would later shift to most episodes being taped in conjunction with ''Dynamite'' with only a few airing live). He also said that ''Rampage'' would serve as the go-home show for AEW's pay-per-view (PPV) events, due to the show airing two days before those events. ''Rampage'' in turn replaced that role for ''Dark'' as although ''Dark'' normally aired on Tuesdays, it would instead air on Fridays during the week of a PPV to serve as the go-home show. Khan also said that Warner had asked him if he would rather expand Wednesday's ''Dynamite'' to three hours, but he rejected the notion, stating that he did not want to run ''Dynamite'' for that length as he highly preferred that third hour as a separate show on a different night. He also claimed that ''Rampage'' would not be a secondary show to ''Dynamite'', and that it would be its partner or its equivalent. He further said that ''Dynamite'' and ''Rampage'' would be AEW's core properties, while their YouTube shows, ''Dark'' and '' Dark: Elevation'', would be their peripheral properties, essentially their developmental programs.

''Rampage'' aired immediately following WWE's own Friday television program, '' SmackDown'', which aired on Fox and then USA Network beginning in September 2024. Although ''Dynamite'' had run against WWE's '' NXT'' from October 2019 to April 2021, there was expectation that there would be no overlap between ''Rampage'' and ''SmackDown'' in nearly the entire country unless ''SmackDown'' were to run over its scheduled endtime of 10pm ET, when ''Rampage'' began broadcasting. Throughout ''Rampage''s 2.5 year broadcast history, this only occurred once, which was on October 15, 2021. That night, ''SmackDown'' aired a special episode titled "Supersized SmackDown", which extended its runtime to 10:30pm with the additional 30 minutes airing commercial free, therefore directly competing with ''Rampage'' for its first 30 minutes. ''SmackDown'' had also aired on Fox's sister channel FS1 due to the MLB playoffs airing on Fox, which also decreased ''SmackDown''s normal average viewership. During the 30 minutes that the shows went head-to-head, ''Rampage'' beat ''SmackDown'' in the key demographic of viewers aged 18 to 49, drawing 328,000 views to ''SmackDown''s 285,000 views.

It was initially announced that both ''Dynamite'' and ''Rampage'' would be moving to TNT's sister channel TBS, also owned by Warner, in January 2022. However, on September 23, 2021, it was revealed that ''Rampage'' would remain on TNT while only ''Dynamite'' would move to TBS.

The May 6 and May 13, 2022, episodes of ''Rampage'' were moved to 5:30 p.m. ET in order to accommodate TNT's coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. The May 20 episode was moved to 7 p.m. ET to make way for TNT's coverage of the NBA Western Conference finals.

Final format (2023–2024)

As a result of an amended broadcasting deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, AEW added a third weekly program on Saturday nights called ''Collision'', which premiered in June 2023 on TNT. The YouTube shows, ''Dark'' and ''Elevation'', were subsequently canceled to make way for ''Collision'', which was positioned as AEW's second main program, while ''Rampage'' shifted to focusing on younger wrestlers, essentially becoming what the YouTube shows were for the company.

Due to the NCAA March Madness coverage occurring on March 22, 2024, on TNT, ''Rampage'' instead aired live on March 20 immediately after ''Dynamite'', with both programs airing on TBS. This would be the only time for the program to air on TBS.

During the tapings on December 22, 2024, Tony Khan announced that the December 27 episode, which was the New Year's Smash special, would be the final episode of ''Rampage'' as the program was not included in AEW's new media rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, which took effect on January 1, 2025.

Special episodes

2021

2022

2023

2024

Broadcasting

In the United States, ''Rampage'' aired on Fridays on TNT at 10pm ET. The program was to move to TBS in January 2022, but in September, AEW announced that while ''Dynamite'' would move to TBS, ''Rampage'' would remain on TNT.

On September 25, 2019, AEW announced an international streaming deal with FITE TV primarily for regions outside of the United States and Canada via the " AEW Plus" package, which included live streaming and replay access of ''Dynamite'' in simulcast with its U.S. airing. This was expanded to include ''Rampage''.

Canada

On August 9, 2021, ''PWInsider'' reported that TSN, which aired ''Dynamite'' in Canada, would stream ''Rampage'' online in simulcast with the U.S. through its website and TSN Direct service.

Europe

On July 3, 2021, WarnerTV Serie (known as TNT Serie until September 24, 2021) announced a deal to air ''Rampage'' on Monday nights in Germany.

On July 6, 2021, Toonami (another Warner channel) announced a deal to air ''Rampage'' in France.

On August 27, 2021, Sky Sport (owned by Comcast, which held rights to rival wrestling promotion WWE in the United States) and AEW announced that ''Rampage'' would air on Mondays nights in Italy.

On January 1, 2022, AEW announced that ''Rampage'' would be broadcast every Tuesday night on ITV4 with repeats every Thursday night on ITV1 in the United Kingdom. It was also available to view on their streaming service ITVX.

On February 10, 2022, Warner TV announced that they would air ''Rampage'' in Poland.

In Spain, AEW announced that ''Rampage'' would air on TNT starting on June 19, 2022.

Latin America

On October 22, 2020, AEW reached an agreement with the digital platform Pluto TV, broadcasting its repeat events (including past pay-per-views) with commentators in Spanish from Latin America. This would later include ''Rampage''.

On October 1, 2021, ''Rampage'' began airing on Space, a WarnerMedia International channel in Brazil and on Space's Spanish feed, available throughout Latin America on Saturdays. On September 30, 2022, it was announced that AEW would stop airing on Space in Latin America on October 1, with Brazil following on December 30.

Africa

''Rampage'' began airing on TNT Africa on October 2, 2021, in Sub-Saharan Africa. The show aired every Saturday morning at 10 AM CAT, one week after the U.S. broadcast.

Asia

In India, ''Rampage'' aired on Eurosport starting on August 15, 2021, and later at the same time as the American airing from August 21, 2021, every Saturday 7:30 AM IST. Eurosport was owned by Discovery Communications, which acquired WarnerMedia later in 2021 to become Warner Bros. Discovery. ''Rampage'' began airing on Premier Sports in the Philippines in October 2021 On April 8, 2022, it was announced that as part of the AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) working relationship that ''Rampage'' would air in Japan on NJPW World.

Oceania

''Rampage'' aired on ESPN2 starting February 18, 2023, in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Niue, Nauru, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Northern Marianas, Tokelau, Tahiti, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, American Samoa, Marshall Islands, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Wallis, and Futuna.

See also

*List of professional wrestling television series

Notes

References

External links

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Rampage
2021 American television series debuts
2024 American television series endings
2020s American sports television series
American live television series
American professional wrestling television series
American English-language television shows
TNT (American TV network) original programming