On Wednesday night, all Elite Wrestling made its Los Angeles debut with AEW Dynamite. It was their first show on the West Coast outside of Las Vegas and Double Or Nothing. Massive crowd reactions highlighted it, but LA still doesn’t get enough respect as a wrestling town. It’s telling that they picked a venue like The Forum to begin their journey in Los Angeles. There’s too much history, too many sports moments, and AEW Dynamite only added to it.
After a grueling match with Daniel Garcia, a run-in by fellow function-mate Chris Jericho, and while sporting a crimson mask, Jon Moxley grabs the mic and yells LA is “ALL ELITE COUNTRY!” and he couldn’t be more… right. AEW might have Jacksonville as their home, but Los Angeles is the birthplace of All Elite Wrestling.
A Personal Touch And The Perfect Venue
While sitting in the same seats that as a kid, I used to watch Magic Johnson, Nick Van Axel, Eddie Jones, and before the 99-00 season Shaq & Kobe. I saw Prince, The Foo Fighters, and Tommy The Clown (no relation to Frank The Clown) here. There is HISTORY in those walls, and now, AEW has carved its own. In a city where you can do ANYTHING else. 15,000 strong decided to fight traffic, skip the beach, and travel the opposite way of Hollywood to land in The City of Champions, Inglewood, CA. It’s a huge deal.
After three years, over 135+ flagship Dynamite shows (feels like Chicago got at least 50 of those, no disrespect to Chicago), 43 Rampage shows, and hundreds of thousands of tickets sold… LA, the birthplace of AEW, is now on the books. Now, I don’t mean the “birthplace” because of the Cody Independence Day promo he cut outside of Smackdown in Ontario (which isn’t LA, by the way), which led to Jimmy Jacobs‘s firing, no, no, no.
PWG Comes Full Circle
It is the birthplace of AEW, in my opinion, because of the fans. Let me be more specific, the fans of one of the greatest indie promotions that has ever existed, Pro Wrestling Gorilla a.k.a. PWG. The VFW in Reseda has held host to some of the best matches that your favorites have been in. Including the EVPs and co-founders of AEW, The Young Bucks. The fast-paced work rate, false count, “crowd hanging on the edge of their sweaty seats” (if you’ve been there, you know) was birthed in those secret walls. That energy was somehow bottled and is now poured into your TV screens every Wednesday and Friday night. It’s something that EVERY SINGLE WRESTLING COMPANY has tried to do and has failed. (Unless we are talking Black & Gold NXT, that’s for another day, my people).
From the AEW Dark taping with Death Triangle, to CM Punk getting partially booed, to MJF successfully kicking off the AEW version of Austin vs. McMahon, it will be beneficial for them for decades to come. The crowd was there for every single moment. The line wrapped around the parking lot two hours before doors opened just to enter security. That’s in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week in the second-biggest market in the country. LA was ready, it was deserving, and LA was long overdue. LOS ANGELES IS A WRESTLING CITY, but it seems like LA may be the heartbeat of ALL ELITE WRESTLING.
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