October 12, 2022

 

The friggin' Mountie was in attendance for All Elite Wrestling's Canadian debut! Granted, he was just there as a member of the audience, but as The Big Rybowski and I were finding our way to our seats, we noticed Jacques Rougeau doing the same. I shouted "I AM DA MOUNTIE!" as loud as I could, but Rougeau didn't turn around for an impromptu meet and greet.

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The merchandise on sale at the Coca Cola Coliseum wasn't anything home to write about. Almost all of the shirts (ranging in cost from $45-60 Canadian) had some sort of lame Canadian theme to them... which would be an okay option for some, but not for every single shirt on sale. The Elite with a maple-leaf motif or "I WAS THERE" (in Toronto) were the main shirts, with a Blackpool Combat Club for sale and multiple AEW wrestlers on another. In fact, it was telling who they DIDN'T have merchandise for: nothing for Jon Moxley, Canada's own Chris Jericho, MJF, Britt Baker, The Acclaimed, Wardlow, Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, et cetera. It's not like AEW has an affiliation with a t-shirt company or anything...

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There were a half-dozen AEW Dark Elevation matches, most of which were immediately forgettable. To be fair, this was equivalent of watching Sunday Night Heat before Raw tapings back in the day. The "biggest" match of the taping was Austin & Colten Gunn vs. The Bollywood Boys. Meh. I could have gone without those matches.

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Before Dynamite began, the big screen listed AEW's code of conduct, which permitted any fighting. Hopefully that applied to the locker room as well.

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Tony Khan (kind of) spoiled the debut of Renee Paquette with a pre-show announcement to the crowd. He mentioned that someone familiar to Toronto was joining the broadcast crew and before she actually debuted... and Rybowski correctly guessed it was Renee. Interestingly, a star of her caliber and name recognition could have probably used more build-up than what we saw.

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Dynamite itself was a really fun show almost the entire way through. Jungle Boy Jack Perry, The Acclaimed, Samoa Joe, Jamie Hayter, Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, Danhausen and Orange Cassidy probably received the biggest reactions of the night, while the only time Toronto became "bizarro world" on this night was when they booed Bryan Danielson. My personal favorite match was probably Danielson-Jericho, though most of the segments on the show were very entertaining. 

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Below are some photos from the event (the ones that turned out well were The Big Rybowski's handiwork) and a post-show video of Orange Cassidy's title celebration.