AEW Rampage: New Year's Smash Review - December 27, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Champion "The Learning Tree" Chris Jericho def. Anthony Bowens (Non-Title)

Jericho has a lot of history on Rampage having been a longtime commentator on the show, so it made sense for him to be in action on the last-ever episode. Unfortunately, I couldn't care less about anything he's involved in at the moment and that includes this nonsense with The Acclaimed. It's pure garbage. There was nothing wrong with the match itself, but it did ultimately feel like a waste of time.

AEW World Tag Team Champions Private Party def. Leo Sparrow and Alec Price

I honestly forgot about Private Party being the tag champs because they've barely been on AEW TV since taking the titles from The Young Bucks two months ago. This was a quick showcase for Private Party. Lio Rush and Action Andretti recently became number one contenders, but despite brawling with Private Party afterward, they will not be getting their shot at Worlds End, oddly enough.

Thunder Rosa def. Leila Grey

It's been confirmed that Rosa will challenge Mariah May for the AEW Women's World Championship in a Tijuana Street Fight at Worlds End. With Toni Storm being back, there's virtually no chance Rosa will beat May for the belt, so you'd think they'd make her look like a bigger threat by having her run through Grey quicker than she did. This was fine but needlessly competitive.

Hook def. Nick Wayne

I lose more and more interest in Hook's rivalry with The Patriarchy by the week. Worlds End would have been a good place to do Hook vs. Christian Cage finally, but that doesn't look to be the case. He and Wayne had a nice match in the time they were allotted. Both of these guys have bright futures, but the booking has largely failed them this year in my opinion.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley Addressed the Locker Room Before Chaos Ensued

Moxley's promo was more of the same ambiguous crap he's been spewing since this Death Riders angle started. The brawl that broke out was completely stupid because the AEW guys were going after Moxley and his crew but then brawled with each other when The Death Riders left to create more chaos and literally take Rampage off the air. I appreciated the clever explanation for why Rampage's been canceled, but everything else about this was silly and did nothing to leave me looking forward to Worlds End.

Overall Show

Yes, this was indeed the final edition of Rampage. The show has long been useless, so I'm glad AEW/Warner Bros. Discovery is pulling the plug. It simply serves no purpose when nothing of note ever happens. Not even the Hammerstein Ballroom could bring themselves to care about a majority of what went down on this show. This show was whatever, which was arguably the most fitting finale for the program.

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