I went to All Elite Wrestling’s Buffalo debut three weeks ago . After not thinking I would go to either AEW show that’s in proximity to me. Those being in Toronto and Buffalo. I casually looked at tickets and went on StubHub a few times. I found the Toronto shoes but assumed Buffalo was sold out (boy, was I wrong about that) because I couldn’t find any tickets. The cheapest tickets on the resale market for the Toronto shows at Coca Cola are around $120 CAD for Rampage and $200 for Dynamite. I balked at that. I price myself out at a certain point and that much for nose bleeds didn’t have me jumping to buy a ticket.
All Out took place on the Sunday before the show I went to. After watching the post-show media scrum and refreshing Twitter religiously over the next 24 hours I realized something. AEW’s next show is in Buffalo. Sure, my favourite wrestler CM Punk was rumoured to not be there because of what happened after All Out but it’s still live wrestling. I’ve also been itching to hop the border. I hadn’t been to Buffalo since 2019. I love Buffalo. It’s my home away from home and I’ll throw this in too. The Bills played the next night in Los Angeles. I’m a die-hard fan and thought maybe some good mojo would come their way if I go over.
So I hopped on Ticket Master, Stub Hub and every other app that I want to sponsor me eventually. I looked into it and tickets were pretty reasonable. Around $60 CAD. I had a bit of freedom to pick my seat too and I was going alone so I ideally would have wanted something without a ton of people. I chose the first row in the 200 section by the entrance. I’d never say by the entrance before so I wanted to see what it would be like. Some people may not have dug my seats as much but I’m a 26-year old guy who has 20-20 vision. Not trying to brag too much there. A lot of people were watching the screen which I never understood. Why not just watch it on the couch with your own cheap beer?
I bought my ticket literally the morning of and had some anxiety about my ArriveCAN and just passing the border in general. Everything was smooth sailing! I really wanted to do a lot of content there and I caught some pretty good audio. I wanted to interview more people but I got the sense that people just wanted to go to the show. I talked to these guys promoting a the Nickel Championship Wrestling in Batavia Downs which you can check out here. They were cool guys! That’s what’s awesome about wrestling shows and I guess sports in general. You go alone and you make friends there and find people to talk to.
I got to my seat at around 6:45 and they were setting up for Dark. The guy beside me struck up a conversation with me and we were talking on and off about the CM Punk rumours and a few other things. I don’t know where some people get their news. Just be careful about what you read online from people not named me. A couple came over and I could see that the boyfriend did something I’ve done before. Brought a reluctant girlfriend to a wrestling show. I tried striking up a conversation about watching The Bunny and Blade wrestle as Cherry Bomb and Pepper parks at a gym but it obviously went over her head. They were super nice but when I saw the tickets beside me went unsold, I hopped in there so quick. Again no offence to them, they were cool! Didn’t get my references but nobody does. I’m a big man and it’s nice to be able to stretch the legs.
They taped Dark to start out and it was cool seeing the House of Black entrance. There’s definitely something with that group, with our without Malakai Black. They blitzed through Dark. I don’t think a single match went over 5 minutes. They could use Dark so much better. I’d have a few matches on there that actually builds to things. I thought Dark sucked before I went to this show and I left thinking the same thing. AEW ring announcer, Justin Roberts did some crowd work and played particular favour to section 118.
The show started and Tony Khan appeared on screen to announce the World Trios Titles and World Title have been vacated following the events after All Out. There were some boos from the audience, including myself when he vacated CM Punk’s World Title. Tony announced that we’d be seeing new Trios Champs that night and that he’s starting a tournament to determine the new World Champion. My disappointment soon turned to excitement. One of the matches Tony announced was Bryan Danielson vs Adam Page in the tournament. I was going to see Bryan wrestle again live in Buffalo. Bryan is the best technical wrestler in the world and has been for the past twenty years. He’s one of my favourite wrestlers and he never has a bad match. He and Hangman Page had epic clash’s last year when Page was World Champ.
MJF came out sporting a Josh Allen jersey and playing to the crowd. I fan girl’d hard and started shouting that I love him. It was like Jesus playing at Red Rocks for this guy at first. Then Jon Moxley came out and the facade ended. MJF said that Josh Allen sucks which is factually inaccurate and then he wiped his rear-end with the jersey. Tho
Dynamite started with Death Triangle taking on the Best Friends. I’m a huge Rey Fenix fan so I was going crazy for him and Death Triangle. I still don’t understand the appeal of Orange Cassidy. He would be one of the main attractions for Dark. I’ve reasoned with myself that it’s fine he’s on the roster because he’s a good locker room guy and can produce good matches. He should not be anywhere near a championship in that company though. Death Triangle of course got the win and the crowd was pretty into both of the acts.
Everyone loves the Acclaimed and everyone loves some smack rap from Max Caster. Did not happen. Swerve Strickland interrupted the Acclaimed before Caster could get going. This team is so over, man. I’m a huge fan of their act. I didn’t get to see Max Caster rap! I would have loved to see what Max cooked up but it was a smart move to not have him with a live mic after what happened Sunday with Punk and The Elite.
Wardlow had a quick, dominate win over Tony Nese. The crowd was very into Wardlow, the young fans specifically. He’s built like a beast and the crowd loves him as a face. Big things are in store for Wardlow. It’ll be interesting to see how the crowd reaction is to him in a couple of years when he’s presumably on top.
Bryan Danielson vs Adam Page tore the house down. I’m team Bryan because he’s the greatest wrestler of all time. I’ve never really gotten Hangman Page like the rest of the AEW audience does. I don’t matter though, the audience at large does. Some kids with their dads came up near the seats in my row after the people next to me left. Their dad was pro Hangman so they were too of course. I was jousting wrestling chants with a 10 year olds. This kid’s “Hangman” and “No, No, No” against my “Come on Bryan” and “Yes, Yes, Yes”. Bryan ended up getting the win and I didn’t have to get laughed at by this kid. I wish I was could say I wasn’t dreading that possibility.
Daniel Garcia, the hometown wrestler beat Wheeler Yuta in the main event. Garcia was super over with the lo crowd and this was a great venue for him to get his first Title win in AEW. He beat Yuta for the ROH Pure Championship. Bryan came out and put the Title on him. It continued the still ongoing conflict with Garcia and Chris Jericho. Very cool moment for him.
Jericho had the crowd, including myself singing Judas and that was pretty sweet. Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara came out for their match and I left after Sammy won because I was so fired up about it. Okay, maybe I just wanted to get a good night’s sleep on a work night. To eat, I had a pretzel and to drink, a Diet Coke. Not exactly fuel to keep you going till 1 AM.
I’m going to be honest here. I’m a big fan of beating the traffic. I waited a bit till some of the people left then I tried leaving. I could not for the life of me figure out how to leave. I found some stairs and went down them. I walked into a corridor and saw a door that lead to the outside. It had a sign that said an alarm will go off if I leave. I didn’t want the home of the Sabres panicking because some Foreigner doesn’t know his way around so didn’t go through that.
I’m walking around and down more stairs and I see new ROH Pure Champion, Daniel Garcia backstage with some security guys. You can question me all you want. I’m a Canadian who loves crossing the border. I didn’t want to be somewhere I’m not supposed to so I ran out of there. It was cool seeing him and I kind of wish I went up to him and congratulated him but I really didn’t want to mess around. When you watch the Vlog you can see my live video.
I left and crossed the border back into Canada pretty easily. Overall, it was a very fun experience. If you ever get the last minute urge to go to AEW, follow through with it. You won’t be disappointed. Check out the Vlog coming out today for more exclusive footage.
Let me know if you’ve been to an AEW show yet and if not, if you’re planning on doing so. Keep it locked here for more wrestling coverage and content. You can reach me on Twitter or all of my other links.
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