Review of a Live Wrestling Show
All Elite Wrestling has come to the Kansas City, Missouri area three times now, and I have attended two of them. I only missed the one from November 2021 due to Covid-19 and the fact that I did not trust being in a huge crowd when the cases in my state were insane. After a two year difference, and an entire year stuck in Florida, a LOT had changed with the company, but it was still great. Out of any of the major TV companies, you get your most “bang for your buck” with an AEW show for sure. I think the only time I had a better experience was when Impact Wrestling was still called TNA and put on amazing house shows in smaller venues that made fan interactions top priority. When one attends an AEW show, not only do you get to see a live taping of AEW Dynamite, but fans in attendance usually get AEW Rampage and AEW Dark Elevation as well. The ticket prices had gone up a tad since the last time I attended, but the nearly double-sized show made up for that.
I was somewhat saddened by the fact that there was no “Meet and Greet” for this show that I could find anything about. Usually there is some kind of charity drive that ends up advertised and fans can go meet wrestlers and have pictures taken, but this did not happen. My guess is the fact that this was nearly a sold-out show (so much so that they added more seats) and there was really no need to try to get any extra money at the gate, or they feared too many people trying to get pictures. Either way, I hope we get an opportunity next time.
This review will be a bit different, because I would likely be rating the matches as much as I will be discussing what it’s like to attend an AEW show live. I may go back and do one of these for the previous show I went to, hopefully before my memory starts fading on it.
For anyone wanting to watch some wrestling, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.
The Card:
AEW Dark Elevation:
- Nyla Rose defeated Max The Impaler by pinfall.
- Private Party Defeated Camaro Jackson & Sk Bishop
- Ortiz defeated Anaya
- Serena Deeb & Mercedes Martinez Defeated Tootie Lynn & Miranda Gordy
- ” Daddy Magic” Matt Menard & “Cool Hand” Angelo Parker defeated Warhorse and Danny Adams
- Ruby Soho Defeated Hedi Howitzer
- Dark Order’s Evil Uno & 10 defeated The Factory’s Q. T. Marshall
AEW Dynamite:
- Casino Battle Royale – Kyle O’Reilly wins – The winner of tonight’s Battle Royale faces Jon Moxley to determine who will go on to face the winner of the June 12th New Japan Pro-Wrestling Eliminator (Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto) for the Interim AEW World Championship on June 26th at the FORBIDDEN DOOR live on pay-per-view!
- Death Triangle’s “The Bastard” PAC defeated The House of Black’s Buddy Matthews (with Malakai Black, Brody King, and Julia Hart) by Pinfall.
- “Hangman” Adam Page defeated David Finlay by Pinfall.
- Thunder Rosa (C) defeated “The Problem” Marina Shafir by pinfall.
- Jon Moxley defeated Kyle O’Reilly by pinfall.
AEW Rampage:
- Eddie Kingston defeated Jake Hager by pinfall
- Jay Lethal and Satnam Singh defeated Davey Vega and Mike Fichett by pinfall
- Kris Statlander defeated Red Velvet by pinfall
- FTR and Trent Beretta defeated Will Ospreay and Aussie Open by pinfall
Dark Elevation is a Youtube show, and can be watched for free below:
My Thoughts:
As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!
Location, Location, Location!
I feel spoiled with shows like this, because I live something like ten minutes from The Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, MO, which has historically always been the venue for AEW in this area. It’s a mid-size arena that is used for everything from concerts and our local semi-pro Hockey Team, and it’s an amazing place. I appreciate it versus going into Kansas City proper because it has no crowded parking garage, no insane downtown traffic, and has an amazing view no matter where one sits. They have great attendance here, and the crowd is always on fire. I won’t lie, my seats were not as good this time, probably due to scalpers and ticket bots raising the prices of the sort of seats I would have wanted, but I could still largely see everything.
Missouri’s Finest!
You all will have to get used to the fact that I mark out whenever a wrestler that I’ve seen live or works in my area ends up on TV. Pretty much everyone from Central States Wrestling in Kansas City and Glory Pro Wrestling in St Louis ends up on AEW Dark when ever they come through. This time we had appearances by Anaya, SK Bishop, Camara Jackson, and Dan “The Dad” Adams, which I am familiar with very well. Others like Max The Impaler, Warhorse, and Heidi Howitzer that wrestle in Missouri frequently. despite being a bit more well-known. Overall, a show like this makes me embody that Leonardo Di Caprio meme where he’s pointing at the TV, because that’s me throughout a show like this. Of course, all the locals lost, but that’s the nature of matches on Dark.
In the Future, Not Sure I’ll Sit Here Again:
Last time around, I was able to get seats right in the televised side of the arena off the the side of the center. They were great seats and I attempted to get something similar, but ended up with the above. Being so close to the entrance ramp doesn’t obscure one’s view too bad, but the area can be a bit loud with pyro and forces those seated to turn the the side the entire show. Better luck next time I suppose.
A Bit of History:
We got to see the unveiling of another AEW title at this show, the confusingly-named AEW All Atlantic Championship (which included Japan for some reason!). Having PAC win the first match was cool, especially since his match with Kenny Omega in kansas City in 2019 was phenomenal. The crowd seemed confused when this popped up, likely because many, like myself, assumed trios belts would be next up – not another men’s singles belt. Either way, history was made in Kansas City!
Crazy That this Happened in My Hometown:
Usually big stuff like having Will Ospreay show up in AEW would be set aside for places like Chicago or Florida, but since I saw this show during the build up for Forbidden Door, all bets were off! Having Aussie Open show up and put on an amazing match with FTR was one of the main highlights of the show.
My Son’s Highlight of the Night:
While he didn’t wrestle, it was cool to see Danhausen at the end of the show hyping up the crowd. We had actually started to leave until I heard the telltale tones of Danhausen’s ska-esque theme song, and knew we better get back in there. The was the typical crowd send-off thing that the TV viewers don’t get to see, and it was pretty funny.
Conclusion:
Overall this was a great show, but felt somewhat rushed due to them needing to film three separate TV shows. This is a great venue for wrestling, and I always LOVE seeing local guys, so without anything else I was going to have fun with it. My son seemed somewhat overstimulated, and perhaps up to five hours is too much for a six year old, but he seemed to have fun, even after he accidentally spilled his popcorn. Next time I hope they can do something about ticket gouging and have a meet and greet, but if those are my only two gripes, I guess it was a successful show!
[…] of the state (he hails from St. Louis, Missouri). Although I’ve caught glimpses of him at AEW shows in Independence, MO, where he unfortunately fell short in a dark match, it just wasn’t the same. That’s […]