AEW
Audio By Carbonatix
If it’s true that good things come to those who wait, fans of All Elite Wrestling in the Valley are in for a treat tonight. After all, they’ve been waiting more than three years for the popular pro wrestling promotion to bring its events to Phoenix.
AEW will make its Arizona debut on Wednesday, February 22, when it comes to Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix for an evening of slams and spandex.
The promotion will broadcast its flagship television program, AEW Dynamite, live from the arena on TBS. A second show, AEW Rampage, will be taped afterward and shown on Friday night on TNT. Both programs will feature all the over-the-top hallmarks of professional wrestling.
Multiple matches will take place with plenty of high-flying and hard-hitting moves. Heated words and expletive-filled taunts will be exchanged between foes. Massive amounts of pyro will be ignited. Metal folding chairs will be used as weapons.
Meanwhile, local AEW die-hards like Amy and Andy Nemmity will enjoy every second of the action.
Like many pro wrestling fans in the Valley, the local couple, who work as journalists for their website WrestleJoy, have been waiting years for AEW, which launched in 2019 as an alternative to the WWE, to bring its events to town.
“There are a lot of AEW fans here [in Phoenix] who are just thrilled to be able to welcome them with open arms,” Amy Nemmity says. “They’ve been watching AEW’s [shows and pay-per-view events] on television for years and want to be able to cheer and chant and boo along with others and just have a great time. There’s just been so much anticipation that I think the crowd’s going to be on fire. There’s going to be really great energy in the crowd at [Footprint Center].”
The Nemmitys aren’t the only local wrestling fans geeked out for AEW’s debut. Wednesday night’s event is close to a sell-out according to Twitter account WrestleTix, which reports on ticket sales among major companies like AEW and the WWE.
WrestleJoy‘s Amy Nemmity (left) with AEW star Kris Statlander.
Amy Nemmity
Josh Rosenbaum, a teacher at Camelback High School and a longtime wrestling fan, says he bought his tickets to AEW’s event on Wednesday night back in November. He’s bringing his wife along (“It’s the first time she’s going to a wrestling event with me,” he says) and is also expecting the crowd at Footprint Center will be pumped for the event.
“There’s a very strong base of AEW fans here in Phoenix that watch all their shows or even travel all over the country to pay-per-views,” Rosenbaum says. “So it’s nice we’re being rewarded for our fandom.”
AEW fans have also been turning out in droves at a few local meet-and-greets featuring the promotion’s wrestlers around the Valley this week. To wit: Several dozen people waited in line for hours at TriForce Collectibles in Glendale on Tuesday for the chance to get photos with AEW stars Danhausen and Ethan Page.
Geek rapper and wrestling fanatic Mega Ran is also expecting a crowd at an AEW-themed after-party he’s hosting at Cobra Arcade Bar on Wednesday night.
In other words, AEW mania is running wild in the Valley right now.
AEW wrestler Darby Allin during a recent match.
AEW
Why Phoenix Wrestling Fans Love AEW
So what’s the appeal of AEW? Amy Nemmity says the promotion’s matches are more about the athletic aspects of professional wrestling versus the WWE, which is more focused on entertainment.
“The thing that sets [AEW] apart most is the focus on professional wrestling and the feats of athleticism. And also, the variety of styles and types of [characters] in AEW. You just don’t have big, overly muscled guys who are the champions; there are smaller [wrestlers] like Darby Allin, who don’t look like they spend all their time in gyms,” she says. “So they represent a far more diverse audience that’s watching them.”
Brodie Hubbard, a resident of Queen Creek and a longtime wrestling fan, says he watches AEW and is going to Wednesday night’s event for the chance to see such stars as Kenny Omega or the Young Bucks, all of whom are considered to be some of the best wrestlers in the world.
“I’d only seen them on the internet or television, so I was like, ‘Hey, I’ll finally get to see them live and in person,'” Hubbard says.
Rosenbaum became a fan of AEW for the same reasons.
“All their matches are tremendous. People like Kenny Omega or Lucha Bros, these were all guys I wasn’t familiar with being just a WWE fan. And once I started watching them in AEW, I was [hooked],” he says. “The action, the energy, and the emotion was all great.”
Rosenbaum hopes to experience those same feelings on Wednesday night in his hometown along with a few thousand other AEW fans.
“It’s like you just feed off of it as a member of the crowd, which is what we’re going to be doing tonight,” he says.
AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage will take place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, February 22, at Footprint Center, 201 East Jefferson Street. Tickets start at $29.
