All Elite Wrestling founder and co-owner Tony Khan has confirmed the bad news: Rampage has been canceled "for the foreseeable future."
Tony Khan says that we are taping the last Rampage episode for the foreseeable future
— Kimmy (@kimmy_sokol) December 22, 2024More News: Costco Guys More Popular Than Roman Reigns, Says Former AEW Superstar
As confirmed by Kimmy Sokol, Khan announced at yesterday's Dynamite tapings that AEW would be taping the last episode of Rampage "for the foreseeable future." The (presumably final episode) will air on December 27.
The cancelation of Rampage is not entirely unexpected. In October, it was speculated that AEW's Rampage would be canceled, though there had been no official confirmation from All Elite Wrestling at that time.
The decision stems from Rampage and Battle of the Belts not being included in AEW's new TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, which begins in January 2025 and runs through December 2027.
Under the new agreement, AEW's flagship shows, Dynamite and Collision, will continue airing on TBS and TNT, respectively. Both will also be simulcast on Max. Additionally, AEW pay-per-views will be available for purchase on Max starting in late 2025. The deal is valued at approximately $185 million annually.
Rampage debuted on August 13, 2021, airing Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on TNT in the U.S. While its regular timeslot was 10 p.m., it was occasionally moved due to major sporting events, sometimes airing the same day at an earlier or later time or as a special "Saturday Night Rampage."
As AEW's second weekly show following Dynamite, Rampage marked the return of professional wrestling to TNT, the network that had last aired WCW Monday Nitro in 2001.
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However, with the launch of Collision in June 2023, which became AEW's secondary flagship program, and the cancellation of the company's YouTube shows (Dark and Elevation), Rampage had gradually shifted focus to featuring younger and mid-to-lower card talent, essentially taking on the role once held by the YouTube programs.
It can be reasonably speculated that Rampage is something of a casualty in AEW's increasingly intense competition with WWE. At the same time as Khan has inked this new TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, WWE had signed a massive new streaming deal with Netflix, one of WBD's biggest competitors.
At the moment, it seems both AEW and WWE are doing everything they can to lock down the streaming platform market for professional wrestling and, if a show like Rampage needs to fall by the wayside to do it, Khan appears okay with that.
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