AEW Rampage, also known as Friday Night Rampage or simply Rampage, is an American professional wrestlingtelevision 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.[1] 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.[2][3]
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.[4][5] 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.[6] AEW President and Chief Executive OfficerTony 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.[7] In September, AEW wrestler Ricky Starks replaced Henry on the commentary team, with Henry subsequently just doing interviews on the show.[8]
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.[9] 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.[10]
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[a] unless SmackDown were to run over its scheduled endtime of 10pm ET, when Rampage began broadcasting.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]
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.[14][15]
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.[17][18]
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.[19]
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.[20]
Series debut. Rampage was the first weekly wrestling series to air Friday nights on a Turner network since WCW Power Hour in 1994. Second professional wrestling program to air on TNT since the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001.
AEW debut and professional wrestling return of CM Punk, who made his first professional wrestling appearance since he walked out of WWE after the Royal Rumble event in January 2014.[25]
Part 2 of the inaugural Grand Slam event that aired as a special two-hour episode of Rampage. Taped immediately after Dynamite's conclusion on September 22, 2021. Rampage's first stadium show.
Part 2 of the second annual Grand Slam event that aired as a special two-hour episode of Rampage. Taped immediately after Dynamite's conclusion on September 21, 2022.
Part 2 of the third annual Grand Slam event that aired as a special two-hour episode of Rampage. Taped immediately after Dynamite's conclusion on September 20, 2023.
In the United States, Rampage aired on Fridays on TNT at 10pm ET. The program was to move to TBS in January 2022,[35] but in September, AEW announced that while Dynamite would move to TBS, Rampage would remain on TNT.[36]
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.[37]
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.[38]
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.[39][40]
On July 6, 2021, Toonami (another Warner channel) announced a deal to air Rampage in France.[41]
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.[42]
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.[43] 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.[44]
In Spain, AEW announced that Rampage would air on TNT starting on June 19, 2022.[45]
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.[46]
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.[47] 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.[48][49]
Africa
Rampage began airing on TNT Africa on October 2, 2021, in Sub-Saharan Africa.[50] The show aired every Saturday morning at 10 AM CAT, one week after the U.S. broadcast.[51]
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.[52] 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[53] 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.[54][55]
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.
