Posted in: AEW, TV | Tagged: AEW Dynamite, aew rampage, all elite wrestling, Maverik Center, ring of honor, salt lake city

A Slightly More Unbiased Account of AEW Dynamite in SLC

This past week, we were able to attend AEW Dynamite live in Salt Lake City, and the vibes for this were far different in many ways

As part of All Elite Wrestling's touring schedule for what remains of 2024, the company finally brought Dynamite back to Salt Lake City for a live show after five years. The last time AEW had a live Dynamite in Utah was significant because it was THE very last live arena show they held before the pandemic. I remember leaving the show that night to get on the train home, opening my phone to learn Rudy Gobert (then on the Utah Jazz) tested positive for COVID-19 after joking about it earlier that week. And within days, the country was shutting down. So this was an interesting return in a lot of ways to the Maverik Center as the show, the company, and the vibes were very different than last time. (Yes, they technically came back with Collision last year, but let's be real: Dynamite is the show you want to be a part of every week when they roll through.)

Since I see Chad McMahon already gave his "unbiased" opinion of both Dynamite and Rampage live from his parent's basement, here's what our experience was like at the actual show. We were given a press ticket for near ringside to check out the show, running into fellow journalist and wrestling fan Tommy "Milagro" Martinez from Slam Wrestling. Of course, being in Utah, it only makes sense we're among the few who cover wrestling as part of our gigs, and we kinda had a few seats to ourselves that were marked off for press, so that was a fun experience being near-ringside with someone I knew who was passionate about the next three hours. I actually got there a little late as they were wrapping up whatever Ring Of Honor taping they were doing before. I walked into the arena just as Satnam Singh was done having a match while they got set up for Dynamite.

The first few bits of the show were pretty fun to watch, as we got the Adam Page promo at the start, followed by Jay White. We had a great view of Shelton Benjamin and Sammy Guevara, with MVP talking smack on the outside in a pretty damn good suit up close. I don't know how any of these matches came off on TV, as I haven't gone back and watched either show, but the crowd was really into the opener. The Kyle Fletcher interview was also hot, but that's more on the crowd wanting to tell him to "wrap it up!" When he talked about people asking, "Why, Kyle, Why?" I heard someone out loud ask, "Who the fuck asked you?" Because he's right! Who actually goes on social media and writes, "Why, person, why?" Shaving his head didn't get the pop they were expecting. More people reacted to Brian Cage and Lance Archer than him going buzzed.

The highlight of the night, if for the simple reason that it involved tables and ladders, was Chris Jericho vs. Mark Brisco. Everyone in our area knew someone was going through the tables they set up during the commercial, because that's what AEW does. Gotta hit the big spot to start, pace the rest of it out, then hit a few at the end. Jericho flying through the tables was definitely a sight to behold in person. The match really didn't miss a beat or die out, only at the end when it was clear Jericho was getting another title run for no real reason. The match was fun, but it's clear no one at ringside cared that we got a new ROH champion. And it kind of makes me wish I got to the building earlier, because I wonder how many people actually care about seeing ROH in the first place.

Mercedes Moné and Kamille came out next for the "you already know who's winning" match of the night because they were building up Kamille against Kris Statlander. It made a few of us feel bad for Queen Aminata because she's been doing well in the company and deserves a bit better than just being cannon fodder for a powerhouse match. The winner of all this was Mercedes as she was enjoying heeling it up. We also got the Christian Cage/Hook/Kip Sabian story, which went over like a fart in church because they've done little to make anyone care that Christian attacked Taz. We didn't even really hear the reason why in the arena, all we knew was we finally got an answer, and now Kip has a father figure for some reason. We also had the House of Black and Adam Cole's segments on the show, but there was a bit of an issue with the mics so sometimes we really didn't get to hear much of what they had to say.

The six-man main event was pretty fun. It was cool to see the Young Bucks and Private Party go at it, with the added bonus of Daniel Garcia and Jack Perry beating the piss out of each other around the ringside, almost destroying some of the AEW/DC Comics branded gear at ringside. However, all that energy got sucked out of the room when they finally did the big angle at the end of the night with Chuck Taylor and Jon Moxley. The moment we saw Chuck earlier in the show, we all kind of said to each other, "Chuck is gonna die tonight." They did the angle and then just sat there for an uncomfortable amount of time. Why isn't this army of men, who have been stewing in the parking lot for two hours, continuing the chase? Let the EMTs do their thing; go after the people who just broke his neck. It made no sense and people were calling them out for it while they stood there. If it didn't make sense in person, I'm sure it looked like shit on TV.

Between the live show and the taping, we got a dark match with a local, as Manny Lemons from our local promotion, Devotion Wrestling, came out to fight Q.T. Marshall. It was at this moment that I realized a good chunk of the crowd in the upper seats were here for Manny and only Manny. Because once this was over, they were gone! Hey, I love supporting locals, too, but at least stick around and get your money's worth! The bigger surprise of this was seeing Q.T. back in an AEW ring, as we assumed he was staying behind as a backstage coordinator.

We moved into the Rampage tapings, as we learned this week that the show (along with AEW Battle of the Betls) was getting canceled as of 2025. Bad news for talent who need more seasoning or a place to develop their stories when they can't get on Dynamite or Colission. But if you were to ask me when the last time I watched Rampage was, it was probably playing in the background at a sports bar sometime in 2023. They've made no effort to make the show a must-watch, so here we are. It was fun seeing Anna Jay in action as it's clear she's taken lessons learned from traveling and been applying them to her matches. But the highlight of the show, and possibly of the entire evening, was Ricochet vs. Nick Wayne. Someone pointed out that Mother Wayne had an outfit on that made her look a bit like Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, which I got a kick out of.

Before we wrap it up, there are two things I want to point out here. First off, this show was nowhere near a sellout, and it should have been. As you can see from the images here, they filled the arena for camera angles and then closed off the rest. This is pretty typical for both AEW and WWE, but the difference in 2024 is kind of depressing. When WWE came through Salt Lake City in February, the cheap seats in the nosebleed section of SmackDown in the Delta Center were going for around $100-125 per seat, and they sold the show out BEFORE they mentioned The Rock would be on TV a week ahead. Those same seats here in the Maverik Center for AEW were going for around $20 a pop. Ringside and near ringside weren't all that more expensive. We have a wrestling community in SLC that are diehard fans, so what was the real difference maker?

I would say it was a lack of promotion in the area from AEW. When WWE was coming to town, they blitzed us with ads, got people to call into radio shows ahead of time, did TV appearances, and had digital billboards up. They made sure you knew they were coming. When I told people I was going to AEW Dynamite, they didn't even know the show was in town. They watch the show and sit through the banners with Excalibur telling people to buy tickets. But beyond Mariah May being on our local Fox TV station, there was nothing to indicate they went all-out to get this show promoted and sold. Just on ticket prices alone, this place should have been three-quarters full. There is clearly a failure between getting the word out and getting people enthused about buying tix, especially in a market where I know for a fact we have wrestling fans with expendable cash. Plus, I know we're not the only market that's had this kind of setup in recent months. At some level, that needs to be examined and scrutinized.

The second thing, which I believe needs to be talked about at some level, is Tony Khan's awkwardness. I got no issues with the guy, obviously I got opinions as a wrestling fan, but ultimately he's done a good thing creating a second major wrestling company in North America. But some of the choices on his show off-camera are odd. First, before Rampage started, he came out to talk about how we were all going to time travel, like in his favorite movie, Timecop. I kid you not; they showed a poster for the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi film on the big screen, as he talked about us being able to see ourselves at home in two days. I get he's excited, and I like the film, too… But in terms of weird wrestling fan interactions, that's up there!

When the show ended, he came out again to thank us and talked about the last SLC Dynamite show before the pandemic, which was nice to see he remembered. (Or someone told him before he went out. I don't know, it's a show!) But then he said he was coming down to ringside to give autographs, especially for kids. (No joke, he signed a bunch of stuff for kids and a few adults, but just kinda moved on from most people trying to snag a selfie.) Now, I don't believe this is a bad thing, but my criticism of this is we just sat through a wrestling show where you flew out over 100 wrestlers to be at as part of their jobs. You couldn't get five or six wrestlers to come out and sign autographs for those who stuck around to the end? They have big autograph books they sell for $40 in the lobby, with places for everyone on the roster to sign, and there's no way for anyone to even get a handful of these unless they paid for the VIP experience earlier in the day. All we get is TK, and you only really get to hang out with him for a moment if you're a kid.

That's half a dozen missed opportunities to give the fans more than they expected in a single action. It makes me wonder if anyone has actually brought this up to Khan. And if they haven't, what is anyone behind the scenes actually thinking about this? There's so much room to improve this experience.

Overall, I had a really good time; I thought AEW did a decent job for a show in a state they don't visit normally. The lack of star power was pretty obvious. It's almost glaring when Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita, Darby Allin, Swerve Strictland, and others we've seen for weeks prior to this just aren't here. (I was actually disappointed not to see Swerve, especially since he was running around in a leather Utah Jazz jacket for months!) I would really like to see what a show in SLC would look like with them two weeks away from a PPV running on all cylinders instead of being in the building phase of one since we're not getting Full Gear for another month. It would be great to see them return more often and really push the market. Again, this should have been a near sold-out show, and while some of that rests on the product, a good chunk of that lies with the promotion for this ahead of time.

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