As noted previously, I was at ringside for last night’s (3/8/23) AEW Dynamite in Sacramento, CA. As promised, here is my live in-person recap of the event (will contain SPOILERS for Rampage! I’ll cut those off below):
I arrived 40 minutes before doors opened and was near the front of the security lines to get in. A few hundred fans were already there, that grew to probably in the thousands by opening time. Like most of California, Golden 1 Center doesn’t let you bring much more than yourself in. A lot of people couldn’t bring their signs in due to size limits of 11×17″ or slightly bigger than a sheet of legal size paper. Bags had to be checked in at a valet of they were bigger than an average size men’s wallet. That caused a lot of issues for fans. When doors opened I went straight to a merchandise table and got a souvenir event t-shirt, putting it on under my “Busted Open” hoodie. Good for layering. After using the restrooms I made my way to my seat at ringside, my back was to the entrance area with the ring to my right. Could not see the floor around the ring due to barricades. No comment on food/beverages/prices because I didn’t have anything (had a big lunch at a nice burger place just down the block from my office. I work just over a mile from the venue so getting there and leaving was quite easy. Leaving was easier than arriving, my light rail stop heading there was about a 2 block walk away)
The venue was not sold out. To my right was the hard camera section that was mostly tarped off. I would estimate about 85% full at peak. Some fans left before and during the Rampage taping. More arrived throughout the first hour.
The event began 75 minutes before broadcast with the taping for this Monday’s Dark Elevation episode on YouTube. I could see the heads of Paul “Big Show” Wight and Matt Menard at the commentary desk from my ringside seat. Dasha Gonzalez was the ring announcer. They taped 7 matches, first bringing out the unknown talent then the main roster stars got their entrances. A treat for me was that first up was Emi Sakura from Japan. We also got ROH Women’s Champion Athena, Brian Cage and Jake Hager (I LIKE THAT HAT!) plus more. The main event there was Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth vs. Lucha Bros. Most of the matches except the main were glorified squashes. I really like Dasha, she’s a great announcer and backstage personality.
That went about an hour then we had a short break before Dynamite went live. Justin Roberts did his entrance and got us warmed up, then out came Tony Khan for his introduction. After that…WE ARE LIVE!!! Opening match was Orange Cassidy vs. Jay Lethal for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship (afterwards renamed International Championship). I don’t like Cassidy and Best Friends but nobody at ringside for either side (refs kept Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt & Satnam Singh in the back). It was a surprisingly good opener. Cassidy won but Jarrett followed with a post-match guitar shot to set up a title match next week in Canada.
Renee Forever Young (Paquette) interviewed Powerhouse Hobbs backstage. Like everyone else, we love Renee and having her there live.
Ricky Starks promo. Another guy I don’t like. A bit of a pop for Juice Robinson laying him out. Several Bullet Club fans in my seating area.
Tony Schiavone interviewed Wardlow backstage. Saw this on big screen above the entrance ramp behind me.
Renee came out to a great reaction to interview Ruby Soho. Buried everyone before they brought out Slye Blue for their match. Blue is not ready for Dynamite/Rampage even as a mostly jobber. She does not look comfortable enough with the veterans. As Soho, Saraya & Toni Storm left they flipped us off as some of us tried to return the favor, maybe risking getting tossed out. Only live!
Renee interviewed Adam Page backstage. Most of us knew very well already that Renee is married to Jon Moxley so we keep waiting for Page to hit on her. Page still had quite the bruising and redness around his eyes from his PPV match.
FTR came out to a big pop and got a great reaction throughout and after their interview with Schiavone. Nothing but respect for Top Guys.
Renee interviewed Jade Cargill backstage as FTR left. Didn’t get audio and was only shown on big screens high above the ring. Will have to watch this on TV (I DVR’d the show but will not have a chance to watch until this weekend).
JAS came out for their trios match. Of course we did the Judas sing-along! They faced Top Flight & AR Fox in a solid trios match. JAS promo afterwards led to The Elite coming out…AND House Of Black after a video promo. Despite the lights going out I could see them running to/from the ramp. Now I know how they do it! (My seating was in front of the curtain to backstage where the losers go)
Tony Khan announcement backstage about the All-Atlantic Championship. We did not see or hear this.
Bryn Danielson video promo. This got a huge reaction when he suggested he was done.
BCC came out for their match. Jon Moxley came through the crowd but not my area, I couldn’t see him due to my position. Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta were with him. They won then further beat down Dark Order until evil Uno made the save, then Adam Page came out and we started the Let Them Fight! chants as refs broke it all up. Expected but fun.
The Acclaimed interviewed backstage. They got pops of the night. I hate them.
Main Event started backstage as it was changed to Falls Count Anywhere for the TNT Title. Their hardcore stuff got huge reactions and then they came to the ring through the entrance behind me! We popped HUGE! The match was a solid boss fight although our pop for Hobbs winning was slightly muted by QT Marshall interfering to help Hobbs win. After the cameras went off, Hobbs cut a full heel promo burying Sacramento and we booed them out of the building.
Click below for Rampage recap (SPOILERS!).
There was about a 20 minute break to get the ring aprons changed and ready. Justin Roberts kept us entertained by having win with two ringside workers as part of a theme the entire night, which the fans really got into. It culminated in a game of rock-paper-scissors between them. The guy my section was behind lost.
Big pop for Jim Ross’ entrance.
The first match taped was The Acclaimed vs. 2 jobbers who were on the Elevation tapings. This got the biggest pop of the night. The match was a squash. The Acclaimed interacted with a fan at ringside with a sign afterwards, nice spot for the fan. This may not make TV.
Mark Briscoe came out to a nice reaction from his fans. He announced a ladder match for the ROH PPV on 3/31 for the ROH Tag Team Titles he holds/held with the late Jay Briscoe (his brother). The first team in the match was announced-big pop because it means Lucha Bros come out again.
The second match was Nyla Rose vs. Riho. TV editing probably won’t do this justice, in person this was a great match and getting to see Riho as a longtime fan of her in Japan was a real treat for me. Marina Shafir (also on Elevation) seconded Rose. No Vickie Guerrero. Riho won, then Saraya/Storm/Soho cane out for the beatdown and spray painting on Riho. Of course they shit on us and flipped us off on the way out.
The third match was Konosuke Takeshita vs. Preston Vance. Good reaction to Takeshita, the Japanese star from DDT. Another solid match won by Takeshita. Don Callis came out to applaud Takeshita as he walked by my section to the back, let’s see if this makes TV.
The final match was Sammy Guevara vs. Action Andretti. They played the Rampage opening video and pyro after they entered, catching us off guard. This will not look good on TV as a result. That means it’ll be the opening match Friday. Guevara won. After the taping ended and commentary left JAS stuck around and Chris Jericho cut a long heel promo to not exactly send us home happy. Those of us who stuck around still sent him off with a Judas sing-along. Justin Roberts thanked us for coming and being a great crowd.
There was a Jungle Boy promo taped which we did not see/hear. No Mark Henry on screen either. Anything that will air that was not a match or Briscoe we did not see. Also note the order in which matches air on Rampage may differ from the order they were taped.
Overall I had a blast and enjoyed my first live TV experience. Seeing Dark tapings was a cool early bonus. Dynamite was good but as PPV fallout felt disappointing due to no MJF, Danielson or many others not being there in person. Rampage had a squash and 3 solid matches otherwise so let’s see how it comes off on TV. My advice is if you ever have a chance to go to a live broadcast, do it for the experience and to be able to later compare it to what we see on TBS/TNT. But clearly they were saving the big stuff for the return to Canada next week and that left a lot of us unhappy and feeling that for PPV fallout, it didn’t deliver.
