AEW Dynamite Almost Draws Record-Low Crowd For January 31 Episode

Empty seats were here, there, and everywhere at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana for the January 31 episode of AEW Dynamite. 

The venue has a capacity of 8,933 but only 2,236 tickets were distributed for the show, according to WrestleTix, with large sections of the arena ultimately going unoccupied. All Elite Wrestling last held a show in the building for the April 13, 2022 episode of Dynamite which had 3,655 tickets distributed. Altogether, ticket sales were down 38.9 percent for the January 31 episode from the promotion's last show at the UNO Lakefront Arena. 

Matches featured on Dynamite included Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Hardy, Swerve Strickland vs. Rob Van Dam, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Taya Valkyrie, Chris Jericho vs. Kyle Fletcher, and Hangman Page vs. Toa Liona. 

WrestleTix noted the January 31 episode of Dynamite narrowly escaped becoming AEW's worst-attended Dynamite outside of Daily's Place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The January 17 episode of Dynamite in North Charleston, South Carolina only has 2,220 tickets distributed. 

AEW are looking to address their live event struggles by running fewer smaller markets moving forward. This comes after the appointment of Kosha Irby as AEW COO, who will be looking to improve AEW attendances following the departure of AEW Chief Marketing Officer Rafael Morffi.