Mark Henry Thinks The Four-Man Booth For AEW Rampage Is A ‘Safety Mechanism’

AEW Rampage is set to debut on Friday, August 13 at 10 p.m. ET on TNT. 

Calling the action will be the four-man combo of Taz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, and Mark Henry. AEW has often used a three-man booth and has gone to a four-man booth with guest commentators, but a full-time four-man booth is rather rare in wrestling. 

Speaking to Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Henry explained why he thinks there will be four men on commentary. 

“I’m the new guy. They already have a great relationship and they can put on a great show. I think it’s a safety mechanism. I think just in case that I get on there and I’m not good, (AEW president) Tony (Khan) had to put the safety mechanism in place and throw Chris (Jericho) out there just in case we have to save this thing. I don’t think he has that to worry about. I think we’ll start off a four-man booth and I think once they realize that I can handle it we’ll go to a traditional three-man booth,” he said.

AEW has said that Rampage will be comparable to Dynamite, giving fans hope that it will be a secondary A Show and not a B Show like WCW Thunder became to WCW Nitro. 

When asked how AEW can make sure Rampage stays on the level of Dynamite, Henry replied, “The way you do it is with talent. The better content you have the better things that can be said about it. I’m not gonna dummy it down if I see something that’s not good. This is something that I’ll put my coach’s cap on and I’m gonna have to pull that guy and that girl aside and tell them that, “Hey, you got to do better.” That’s a style of analysis that you don’t get on traditional wrestling because nobody’s doing double roles, triple roles. I’m putting my hand in the community area, I’m putting my hand in the coaching area and the physiology-based area and I’m doing commentary. 

“I want the guys and girls that appear on television to realize that sometimes…I’m gonna be critical because it’s my job to be critical on (SiriusXM’s) “Busted Open” and I feel like that’s what people want. They want to hear our opinion. I will preface it, what I’m saying is my opinion. When I have a hard take, it’s gonna be this is opinion or the facts speak for themselves.”

The only match announced for AEW Rampage is Britt Baker defending the AEW Women’s Championship against Red Velvet. 

Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Rampage beginning at 10 p.m. ET on Friday.