A Night At AEW With The Boys
Image: Lee South/AEW
By Jonathan Reed
I went to my first ever AEW event last night, and it was really fun.
Shoutout to the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Shoutout to Tony Khan for putting the Civic Coliseum over, both live on the mic and afterwards on social media by calling it an iconic venue that helped make a dream come true for him.
I consider myself a wrestling guy. I was born in 1990. The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels was equal to Michael Jordan in terms of my childhood heroes when I was 6. I was enamored by the Attitude Era. I checked out around 2002 and stayed gone until 2014, when Bray Wyatt and his family got me hooked again.
I’ve obviously been aware of AEW since their launch. I see clips online, both good and bad. I read stories and headlines on X about their tv ratings and projections for the future. I’m aware that they are seen more as competition to WWE’s “minor league,” NXT, than they are to the actual WWE. I know most of the names on the roster and some of the current storylines.
I went into Wednesday night’s Dynamite with a fairly open mind just looking to have fun hooting and hollering.
I had my crew with me: VolsTim85, the world’s biggest Hulk Hogan mark and someone who is up to date on the current wrestling world but yearns for the early 90s, Big Mac Cody McClure, my radio cohost and someone who loves the early Randy Orton era of RAW but has little interest in anything past 2006, and Intern Bubba, a self-proclaimed AEW mark that was ecstatic to be there but probably got quickly annoyed at how many questions we kept asking him. We were ready to hoot. We were ready to holler.
There are few things in the world that I love as much as a fun crowd at an event. I don’t care if it’s a game, a concert, a movie or a rodeo. I love being around people that are all there to have fun and make noise.
A wrestling event is a different breed. The energy inside the Coliseum was evident from the get-go. The crowd, mixed with people like me who were just there to watch wrestling and loyal diehards like Intern Bubba, was hot. The brand-loyal diehards wanted to show their appreciation to Tony Khan for finally bringing AEW to Knoxville. They bullied the casuals like myself into believing that we were at a major show.
Khan and his stable of talent did their part to reward those fans.
The show started with a face-to-face between their two biggest stars, Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega. Their mic battle fell a little flat, but it quickly escalated when they were forced to team up in a brawl against common opps. It spilled over into the crowd, and then backstage. We got a double suplex through the merch table. Big Mac McClure was out of his seat fist pumping feeling like a 10-year-old again (if 10 year olds were allowed to drink a bunch of beer). We got a breathtaking double backflip from Ospreay and Omega, one off of the railing in the crowd and another off of the support beam that was holding up the lights.
“A, E, DUB!” “A, E, DUB!” “A, E, DUB!”
I’m not saying I had a flashback to being a young boy at an ECW show before they went mainstream, but I did feel the similarities.
For most of the crowd, this is THEIR wrestling company. They’re invested in its success. They know they’re rooting for the underdog. That’s a big part of what they love about it.
At least that was my takeaway after hearing the shrieking young boy behind trying in vain to start a “fight forever” chant. That boy was giving his all for AEW. For all 120 minutes. It never stopped.
I can still hear him when I close my eyes.
The show ended with “The Wrestler Formerly Known as Edge and Adam Copeland” maineventing. It bummed me out a little and made me think about my own mortality as an aging man trying to entertain people. Big Mac McClure thought it was cool to see a legend.
VolsTim85 was irate that our close personal friends, the Rock n’ Roll Express, got their ass beat by Jon Moxley and his crew. (Shoutout to the Rock n’ Roll Express for coming by the White Claw Hard Seltzer Studios and hanging out with us on Tuesday). He was distraught leaving the show, but he felt something.
And that’s what wrestling is all about.
Feeling something. I enjoyed my 2+ hours in the AEW universe last night, and I will give them a chance next Wednesday night to keep my interest. Maybe they will, or maybe it was just a special night of hanging out with my buddies and a really passionate wrestling crowd.
Sometimes it’s all about just being in the moment.