5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite (November 22 - Results & Review)
2. A Dead Crowd In Chicago
It’s lazy punditry to aim fire on crowds when they respond to a wrestling show with collected indifference or vocalised protest via the “what” chants (more on that later) or other various hijacks.
Audiences pay to attend and reserve the right to react however they wish as long as they’re not harming others around them. The wrestlers and bookers are The Show, and are there to dictate the emotional responses if they’re effective in their roles. Too many people creating The Show haven’t been strong enough in their positions for much of this year, and the outcome was Wednesday’s sterile scene.
Chicago will always be one of AEW’s bases, but there were more lively events in Jacksonville in the summer of 2020 than this one. A lower number until a late walk-up should be an alarm bell, and flat disinterest to huge portions of the show shouldn’t be written off as just a still night in ‘The Windy City’.