By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Dot Net contributor Rich Bailin (and his son) attended Friday’s AEW Rampage in Washington, D.C. at Entertainment and Sports Arena and sent the following report.
-There were a lot of women and children in the crowd. The crowd skewed younger as well, maybe more so tonight than on Wednesday. It seemed like an equal or slightly bigger crowd than Wednesday night, which makes sense.
-I’m not sure if he was shown on camera though it would be tough to avoid him but Kip Sabian was walking around the arena both nights taking pictures with anyone who asked. My son even got a pic with him and officially met his first wrestler. He was sitting in the front row both nights as well and through Elevation and Dark.
-Speaking of Elevation, there was no one behind the commentary desk while the matches were happening. Excalibur, Taz, and Mark Henry were on commentary for Dark tonight though. The last half of Dark was a lot of fun. A lot more fun than I expected and some good competitive matches that could have gone either way.
-I’m not sure how it came across on TV, but the crowd was 50/50 during the Jade Cargill vs. Anna Jay match. Hook, on the other hand, had the support of the full crowd with multiple “Send Hook” chants during both nights.
-Tony Khan came out before Rampage and thanked us for coming and said he would be back out at the end of the night with a friend who wanted to say hello. That friend turned out to be CM Punk, who brought out a sign that said Hello before coming to the ring. A funny moment came when Punk said we got to see Hook and the fans chanted ” Send Hook” again. Punk said, “Hook would come back but he is probably in the back eating chips and smoking marijuana.” Tony shook his hands no and Punk said no Hook isn’t smoking marijuana right now. A fan shouted it was now legal in DC recreationally, and Punk said that was great. He said he may not smoke it, but that’s great news. He said Bryce Harper probably hated hearing that then asked us if we thought Alex Ovechin would beat Wayne Gretzky’s record. Punk then played the which section is louder game before saying goodnight.
-A great two nights of wrestling this week at least from a live perspective. Sure when we watch on TV we all nitpick or see things we don’t like, but being there in the crowd most if not all of that goes away. It is a party atmosphere all night and it is hard not to get caught up in that. I know there are a lot of places AEW is still wanting to go, selfishly I and my son hope it’s not another two-plus years before they make their way here again.
We are looking for reports on all WWE, AEW, NXT, Impact Wrestling, MLW, GCW, and other notable live events. If you attend a show, you are encouraged to send a report or even basic results to dotnetjason@gmail.com
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