AEW Rampage

AEW Rampage, also known as Friday Night Rampage or simply Rampage, is a professional wrestling television program. It is produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and airs every Friday at 10pm ET on TNT in the United States.
==History==
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 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 Darks commentators Excalibur and Taz and wrestler Chris Jericho, who has served as a guest commentator several times on Dynamite, were announced to join Henry as Rampages 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 now 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. He also said that Rampage would serve as the go-home show for AEW's pay-per-views (PPV), due to the show airing two days before those events, in turn replacing Dark, as although Dark normally airs 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 WarnerMedia 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 really wanted 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 Elevation, would be their peripheral properties, essentially their developmental shows.
Rampage airs immediately following WWE's own Friday television program, SmackDown, which airs on Fox. 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 the latter were to run over its scheduled time, which ends at 10pm ET, when Rampage begins broadcasting. To date, this has occurred only 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 SmackDowns 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 SmackDowns 285,000 views.
It was initially announced that both Dynamite and Rampage would be moving to TNT's sister channel TBS, also owned by WarnerMedia, in January 2022. However, on September 23, 2021, it was revealed that Rampage would remain on TNT while only Dynamite would move to TBS.
==Special episodes==
Episode 	Date 	Venue 	Location 	Rating(18–49)	U.S. viewers(million)	Notes
Debut episode 	August 13, 2021 	Petersen Events Center	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 	0.31 	0.740 	Series debut; Rampage is the first weekly wrestling series to air Friday nights on a Turner network since WCW Power Hour in 1994.
*Kenny Omega (c) vs. Christian Cage for the Impact World Championship
*Miro (c) vs. Fuego Del Sol for the AEW TNT Championship
*Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. (c) vs. Red Velvet for the AEW Women's World Championship
The First Dance 	August 20, 2021 	United Center 	Chicago, Illinois 	0.53 	1.126 	AEW debut of CM Punk.
*Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament Semifinal.
*Jade Cargill vs. Kiera Hogan
*Jon Moxley vs. Daniel Garcia
Grand Slam 	September 24, 2021	Arthur Ashe Stadium 	Queens, New York 	0.29 	0.640 	Special two-hour episode of Rampage taped immediately after Dynamite concluded on September 22, 2021; Rampages first stadium show.
*Debut of Homicide
*Special appearance by Lil Uzi Vert and American Top Team's Jorge Masvidal
Halloween episode 	October 29, 2021 	Agganis Arena 	Boston, Massachusetts 	0.25 	0.623 	Halloween-themed special episode. Was taped immediately after Dynamite concluded on October 27, 2021.
*Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston in a AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament semi-final match
*Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. vs. Abadon in a Trick or Treat match
Black Friday episode 	November 26, 2021 	Wintrust Arena 	Chicago, Illinois 	TBA 	TBA 	Black Friday special episode taped immediately after Dynamite concluded on November 24, 2021.
Winter Is Coming 2021	December 17, 2021 	Curtis Culwell Center 	Garland, Texas 	TBA 	TBA 	Second annual Winter Is Coming event; to be taped immediately after Dynamite: Winter Is Coming concludes on December 15, 2021.
Christmas Eve episode	December 24, 2021 	Greensboro Coliseum 	Greensboro, North Carolina	TBA 	TBA 	Christmas-themed special episode; to be taped immediately after Dynamite concludes on December 22, 2021.
New Year's Smash 	December 31, 2021 	Daily's Place 	Jacksonville, Florida 	TBA 	TBA 	Second annual New Year's Smash event that will take place during AEW's annual year-end party for talent and staff in Jacksonville.To be taped immediately after Dynamite: New Year's Smash concludes on December 29, 2021.
==Streaming==
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 includes live streaming and replay access of Dynamite in simulcast with its U.S. airing. This was expanded to include Rampage.
On October 22, 2020, AEW reached an agreement with the digital platform Pluto TV, broadcasting its repeat events (including past pay-per-view) with commentators in Spanish from Latin America.
==External links==
* Official website
Category:Television programs
Category:All Elite Wrestling television programs
pt:AEW Rampage