AEW Were Concerned Fans Would Leave Dynamite Early

There was concern within All Elite Wrestling that fans would leave the Dynamite taping on May 8 early, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

AEW headed to Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for Wednesday night's Dynamite and there were fears fans would leave early to catch game one of the NHL Playoffs second round between the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks. Although the game was not taking place in Edmonton, there was a fan event near Rogers Place that 20,000 people were expected to attend

"They did okay, the crowd... because there was a lot of concern about the crowd leaving because of the hockey game. And a lot of people left right at whatever time it was. I think they're Mountain Time, so it would have been eight o'clock. A lot of people left at eight o'clock. You know, they didn't stay for the Ring of Honor stuff. But they did stay like I was told, like, people did not leave. They wanted to see who... because the last thing on the show was the announcement of who the Team AEW was and people did stay for that. The only reshot people all over that building in Edmonton Oilers jerseys. They were everywhere. The other, you know, because they were playing Vancouver. And when they brought up the show in Vancouver and that, like Kyle O'Reilly talked about wrestling in Vancouver. That was probably the most boos it was you couldn't yet tell other than Don Callis. That's probably the most boos because of the fact that they're playing Vancouver in the playoffs right now and Edmonton is a major hockey city," Meltzer said.

Edmonton Oilers ended up conceding four straight goals to lose game one 5-4. 

There were 4,572 tickets distributed for the May 8 edition of AEW Dynamite in Rogers Place, WrestleTix reported. Attendance was down from AEW's last show at the arena in 2023, which had 5,746 tickets distributed. 

It was announced during the closing moments of Dynamite that a featured match at Double or Nothing will be The Elite (The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, and Jack Perry) vs. Team AEW (FTR, Bryan Danielson, and Eddie Kingston) in an Anarchy in the Arena Match.

H/T WrestlingNews.co