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I attended last night's AEW Dynamite on 34th Street taping last night and it was among the most fun and festive atmospheres I've seen at a pro wrestling show in forever. I don't know if it was a mix of the NYC fans and the fact it was back in The Hammerstein Ballroom or not, but this was a crowd that came to cheer, heckle their least favorites and sing and chant. It really made the show so much fun live and in the case of Ricochet especially, the heckling of him for being bald enhanced his match.
The show was especially strong on the wrestling side since they were running Continental Classic matches. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Orange Cassidy and Mascara Dorada vs. Roderick Strong especially. Bandido vs. Ricochet was very entertaining and there's a strong angle with MJF, Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland with Strickland cutting a hell of a promo in response to being compared to P Diddy last week on Dynamite. The booking for the Classic, in my opinion, has been the best of any iteration of the tournament with so many competitors still in contention this late, which also added to the fun of the matches live.
The fans were singing "Feliz Navidad" to the luchadors, which was great.
The show was sold out. AEW used every corner of the backstage area for production and vignettes.
When Tony Khan started teasing a NYC PPV (which, if I am AEW, I am running NYC the weekend of Wrestlemania in Saudi Arabia in 2027, but that's just me), which energized the crowd even ore. When Khan told his story about Madison Square Garden wanting the first Dynamite and then backing out so they didn't upset "someone", the crowd booed loudly and chanted, "F*** the Fed", which was hilarious. Khan made sure to point out it was not the current MSG management but execs who are no longer there.
AEW was selling a special Dynamite on 34th Street t-shirts and AEW Santa Claus hats last night.
Eddie Kingston legitimately took the mic after his ROH match to tell NYC how much he missed and loved them and even noted he wasn't supposed to and was going to probably get in trouble for it.
One thing that rarely gets pointed out but should is how hard the promotion's Ring Crew works as they had to change over the ring several times from ROH to AEW and back to ROH as well as cleaning up the ringside area, changing mats so they were clean, etc. It's easy to overlook the efforts if you aren't paying attention, but that's the lifeblood of keeping things moving along and they should get their flowers.
It was really, really nice to see everyone I saw last night who said hi or stopped to talk. All of you are the best.
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