10 Things You Only Learn Attending AEW LIVE

9. Something Is Definitely "Up" With The Audio

House Of Black
AEW

On certain if not most weeks, something fairly annoying happens.

Dynamite cuts to a backstage segment. Some weeks, a wrestler - most recently Bryan Danielson - starts to cut a promo. You miss the first two sentences. The audio isn't just difficult to hear; the wrestler is muted. The audio is eventually picked up, but even then, you have to turn up the volume. The audio in backstage segments is invariably lower than the action in the ring.

Live, it is a completely different story - to a quite staggering extent. On the May 24 Dynamite, Jay White and Juice Robinson attacked Ricky Starks backstage. Juice's wild-eyed, obnoxious threats boomed through the speakers in the MGM Grand; compared to the typical TV feed, his amusing trash-talk was positively deafening. The contrast was staggering.

Dynamite is approaching its four year anniversary, which begs the question: how does this keep happening?

It's not as if this isn't a known issue; "It wouldn't be a Dynamite with no audio problems" is a running gag on Twitter. People complain about this on a weekly basis.

It isn't just a backstage issue, either: while the May 24 Dynamite and Double Or Nothing definitely weren't the loudest AEW shows ever, the buildings were a lot noisier than Twitter suggested last week. It was strange to read that the fans were down for FTR Vs. Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett: the last five minutes of that match were as loud as anything I've heard in a live setting.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!