Thank you to rajah.com reader @lentonbombfor sending this in:
I sat second row, Section 221.
The last time I saw All Elite Wrestling Live was at State Farm Arena and Cody Rhodes was doing a moonsault off the top of a steel cage (and I still had someone to sleep next to me every night, and hopes, and dreams...) so you can see how much has changed since then. For starters:
I sleep next to nothing but the cold embrace of regret (and Conrad Thompson's soothing podcast voice).
AEW runs the smaller Gas South Arena in Duluth when they shoot Dynamite in Georgia.
Cody Rhodes returned to WWE and now jobs to Jinder Mahal on WWE Superstars every week.
And now my only "hope" and "dream" is that every heel going forward also focuses on Seth Rollins' back now that Shinsuke pointed it out. A big group back attack! A gang attack on a back! A gang bang back smackdown attack! Wait...
I also must admit I don't follow every minute of every AEW TV program like I used to, but I wanted to check out the show this past Wednesday due to the hype surrounding AEW All In: London. So, what did I experience that you, the fan at home might've missed?
The first thing I noticed once I entered the arena at 7:30 was the growth in two demographics of their live audience since the last time I attended a live AEW event: children and adults with special needs. And I do NOT mean this to be insulting, but there had to be at least a dozen+, in my section alone, grown men with mental disabilities that were there with a caregiver or as a large group. I had noticed this a lot in WWE PPV events in Atlanta, so it was really cool to see it carry over to AEW.
And the kids. Woah! I'm usually not excited to see kids at the ONE thing I've been able to do away from my 9-year-old but there were so many kids that were fully invested in the show that helped boost the energy around us (us being me and the empty seat next to me because the person I bought a ticket for didn't come). I'll be honest, I find it way more exciting to feed off a cheering group of elementary school children than I do sitting behind a couple of Neckbeard the Pirates trying to get their weekly "Shut the F*ck Up" chant onto TV.
Props to AEW for the improvement in the audience!
The first thing we saw was the filming of Jack Perry Attempting to Retire the FTW Championship. Quick, fun, then we moved on to Dynamite Prep.
A "Terry Funk" graphic was shown. This was the only thing done for him during the night (at least for the live audience).
Before Dynamite kicked off, AEW Ring Announcer Justin Roberts came to the ring and read off signs in the crowd. I'm not a huge Justin Roberts fan, but the guy is great with the fans. He used every minute he had to acknowledge the signs and wish Happy Birthdays and say "Hello!" Hi, Justin!
Dynamite kicks off! We had a ton of energy! We were psyched for the opening trios match aaaaaaand no one was quite sure what all happened in the 5-10 minutes that followed. There were so many run-ins, so many outside-the-ring shenanigans, and so few explanations, that even the most hardcore fans sitting around me had to just shrug and say "that was it?"
One of the BIGGEST complaints you're going to hear from me, and I'm not sure if this is the norm for an AEW taping, was that there was no playback in the arena. If you couldn't see it from your seat, you couldn't see the action. This could be arena-specific or could be a production choice, because there were plenty of screens to show it on. So when the fighting went to the outside, unless you were sitting right in front of it, you were lost. It was time to whip out your phone, scroll pictures of when your family wasn't broken, and just wait until someone decided to flip your way.
The MJF Pretaped Interview was the only one that played on the big screen that the live audience stayed invested in. We laughed, we cheered, we cried, I missed being held. MJF controls the crowd in every way he's presented.
Match of the Night would be the Moxley vs. Rey bout. We loved it. I won't give you my spill on why I usually don't like Moxley matches and why I DID like this match because I'm just a dingus on the internet and no one cares about my opinion, but we all loved this. Great match. Great angle. A lot of fun.
AEW keeps things moving so well, I guess because they do so much picture-in-picture to get their commercial breaks in, so there's very little time spent with nothing to watch. If you've ever been to a WWE live event, you know you'll spend half the time watching video packages (usually the same ones... over and over and over...)
The Jericho/Ospreay segment was a lot of fun. But being live for Don Callis reactions proves that his heat isn't real. The fans just sit around and discuss if they can drown him out, get a "shut the F* up" chant going, or get more heat than Dom gets. Which is fine. They're having fun. And this is supposed to be fun, I GUESS.
Adam Cole's Pretaped Interview was the first "bathroom break" moment of the night. Though in fairness, it was almost approaching 9:00 o'clock hour. The audience did not care.
AR Fox, Swerve vs. Darby, Nick Wayne was just a mess for the FULL live audience. Remember my complaint about how we can't see the wrestling unless it's being done IN the ring or RIGHT in front of us on the outside? The wrestlers don't care about that. The production team doesn't care about that. It was so very frustrating because we'd get these brief glimpses of excitement or we'd hear a different section "ooooh!" and "aaaaah!" and we'd just have to twiddle our fingers and cry. Our entire section. Crying together.
The post-match segment was a lot, though it is heartbreaking how not special they've managed to make Sting feel here. Christian manages to be highlighted and steal the spotlight of every segment he's in. And Sting stands behind people like a Scarecrow? Baby boy can't even get a chant.
No interest from the live crowd for the FTR/Young Bucks pretaped interview.
Justin Roberts announced that it was referee Stevon (?) Smith's return to Atlanta so it was Stevon (?) Smith appreciation night. He didn't ASK us to cheer for Stevon (?) but then pointed out that some of the fans were cheering and he bet more would join in. I wasn't sure what the guy's name was: Stevon or Steven? I don't think most of us understood, because the chant never took off. Bizarre.
The Women's Match was fine. They really did work hard to get us into it and we were by the last few minutes. But it was definitely the coldest crowd reaction of the night.
Everything from here on out were THE biggest pops of the night:
Billy Gunn returning to help The Acclaimed was a Daddy Ass Sized Pop! I had never seen BG live before and I had no idea how over he was. Thanks to The Acclaimed? Was he this over before? Did Mr. Ass shake buildings during the Attitude Era?! Witnessing that live reaction sold me on the newly announced trios match.
But that being the "biggest pop of the night" was only true until The Hardyz music hit. Those guys are so over everywhere they go, and I've been seeing them wrestle live for 15 years now. No matter what criticism you have for either of the two (and they've deserved plenty), they have developed characters, moves, and a connection with the fans that can't be touched. This was the first time everyone in the entire arena was behind the same wrestlers.
And their match was the exact Hardy Boyz match they've been having for years and it still works wonderfully! The fans don't NEED the chaos, refusal of tag rules, and run-ins to enjoy wrestling. They need to care about who is in the ring.
But this was only the biggest pop of the night until MJF/COLE ran down. And the pop for those two lasted from the moment the music hit until the two slipped backstage. The television segments don't do it justice to how over Better Than You Bay Bay truly is.
After Dynamite went off the air, MJF promoted All IN: London, and then he led the live crowd in singing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" while the crew changed the ring aprons for AEW Collisons.
I won't spoil Collison, but I got to see Sting wrestle, and seeing that has been on my "Bucket List" for years so that was an amazing experience to check off!
Wait. I guess that's a spoiler.
@lentonbomb on Twitter
