Yesterday on the latest episode of Being The Elite, Kenny, Cody and the Young Bucks pulled a bit of a rib on us. They celebrated the sell out of their inaugural episode of AEW on TNT. But the conversation quickly spilled into them pretending they had no locations planned whatsoever for any of the episodes going forward.
In keeping with how things usually go on BTE, they proceeded to rattle off big decisions as if they’re being made on the spot. Each camp talked about where they wanted AEW on TNT (that’s just what I’ll keep calling it until it has a real name) to go. And of course these counted as official announcements… but there was a bit of a rub to that. They ended up censoring the locations in question! As a means of building anticipation for the actual reveal, the scene in the episode itself was ladened with bleeps as the screen cut to TV test patterns.
So they left us hanging, but not for long. The next day, they revealed on twitter the uncensored version of the scene, revealing where AEW will be heading on the 9th and 16th of October.
WATCH – the #Uncensored Version of @MattJackson13 @CodyRhodes @KennyOmegamanX & @NickJacksonYB announcing which two cities will host @AEWonTNT episodes 2 and 3! pic.twitter.com/hwhIknIs0H
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 6, 2019
On October 9th, 2019, AEW On TNT goes to Boston, Mass.
Boston is of course a pretty major city, and one with a pretty strong wrestling history to boot. Aside from SummerSlam, the city has housed all of WWE’s Big Four events, even hosted King Of The Ring back when the term was ‘Big Five’.
Perhaps most notably, Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels to become WWF Champion for the very first time when Boston hosted WrestleMania 14. Notable wrestlers to come out of the area include former WCW head booker Kevin Sullivan, long-time indy name Eddie Edwards, and of course Sasha Banks. John Cena also hails from near the area, and WWE often tries to pass off Boston as being his hometown, though that’s not really accurate.
AEW’s second episode of weekly prime time TV action will be coming to you out of the Agganis Arena. It’s a multi-purpose arena listed as having a capacity of about 7,200 for concerts. TNA held a Slammiversary show in the building in 2013 and only drew 3,800. But uh, I don’t think I’d use that as a high benchmark…
On October 16th, AEW On TNT arrives in Philadelphia.
Philly’s history with wrestling needs no introduction. It was the birth place and proud home base of ECW back in the day. Even before that, wrestling was generally a thriving industry in Philadelphia. It’s also famous for attracting rabid fans, though AEW thus far has had no problem getting that everywhere they go. So that’s going to be fun to see.
They will be hosted by the Liacouras Center. This place is notably larger than the Agganis Arena, having a technical capacity of 10,000. But it does have a sub-theater that houses 5,000. That seems like a potential safety net if somehow tickets don’t sell well here. I couldn’t imagine that in Philly really, but I imagine that was comforting for them as they always keep their expectations low.
And of course, there is still a mystery here as Kenny teased his choice for Week 4, only to be cut off by the end of the episode during BTE. And when the full clip was revealed… he was still cut off. But ah well, we’ll certainly know sooner rather than later.
So far, so good. Getting solid markets in general as well as solid wrestling markets. I know the strategy as a whole has been to target markets where Double Or Nothing got high PPV buys. Makes all the sense in the world to me.
The only real question is… does Cody seriously think that ‘Kelly’ rhymes with ‘Philly’? That’s just silly! Now silly, that rhymes with Philly! S’what he should’ve said. Ah well, kept people from guessing it, I suppose.
