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AEW Rampage to Debut on TNT on August 13; AEW Dynamite Moving to TBS in January
May 19, 2021
All Elite Wrestling announced the creation of a new television show and the eventual movement of AEW: Dynamite from TNT to TBS on Wednesday.
According to Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald, AEW said in a press release that a new show called AEW: Rampage will debut on TNT on Aug. 13 at 10 p.m. ET. The hour-long show will join Dynamite as AEW's second weekly television show.
AEW also revealed that Dynamite, which has aired weekly on Wednesday nights on TNT since its inception in 2019, will move to TBS beginning in January 2022.
Additionally, AEW will air four new professional wrestling specials annually on TNT.
Per Patrick Hipes of Deadline, AEW CEO Tony Khan said the following regarding the forthcoming additions and changes:
"As a lifelong wrestling aficionado who is privileged to present AEW to longtime and new fans alike, it means a lot to me—personally and professionally—to share the news that All Elite Wrestling will call TBS home beginning in 2022. The history of wrestling in the United States cannot be told without acknowledging the contributions of TBS, which as WTBS years ago delivered wrestling to the Southeast and eventually to a massive national audience. TBS has the same passion for wrestling today, but will offer AEW and our fans more primetime programming, content and global opportunities that will establish TBS as the world's undisputed destination for wrestling."
Khan has long teased a second television show, and it will finally come to fruition in August in the form of Rampage.
While AEW has used its two YouTube shows—AEW Dark and AEW Dark: Elevation—to showcase some of its undercard talent, a second television show should create more opportunities and reach a wider audience.
Notably, the 10 p.m. ET airtime for Rampage means it will begin airing once WWE SmackDown on Fox ends on Friday nights.
The move to TBS is also significant since Dynamite will be leaving the channel it has called home since the start, although it will remain firmly under the Turner umbrella.
As Khan alluded to, TBS has a rich history in the professional wrestling business much like TNT, as it was the home of Georgia Championship Wrestling's World Championship Wrestling show for more than a decade in the 1970s and 1980s.
The announcement of four annual AEW specials to air on TNT hearkens back to WCW and its Clash of the Champions specials in the 1980s and 1990s.
Running from 1988-1997, Clash of the Champions was a roughly quarterly event that aired on TBS and provided fans with pay-per-view quality cards on regular television.
Given that AEW only has four official pay-per-views, the annual specials could be a good way to showcase significant feuds and matches in between those pay-per-view events.