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AEW WORLDS END ON-SITE REPORT
DECEMBER 30, 2023
UNIONDALE, N.Y. AT THE NASSAU COLISEUM
AIRED ON PPV
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR
Hello friends! It’s been a minute since I’ve written for PWTorch, but here I am with an on-site report for the latest AEW PPV, Worlds End that emanated from the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. I was happy to attend with my wife; it was her first PPV experience.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, listen to the latest episode of the PWTorch Dailycast’s “Wrestling Night in America” with Greg Parks & Brandon LeClair, the regular post-PPV crew. I provided my on-site thoughts and discussed the ups and downs of the show. It’s always great to work with those guys and I thank them publicly for having me.
Arena & Atmosphere
The arena is about 20 minutes from my house if there’s no traffic. There’s always a traffic concern on a Saturday night, especially with the road I’d have to take (Hempstead Turnpike for you Long Islanders), but we had no issue. There was a bit of a line of cars to get in once we got there, but the wait wasn’t too bad. There was the usual line to get out, which is always a blast (sarcasm) coming out.
To be honest, I’m not a big fan of this venue. It opened in 1972 and was renovated in 2015 after the NHL’s New York Islanders, who were tenants from their inception, agreed to leave (a very strange situation). As one of my friends said, “The renovated Nassau Coliseum is your definition of putting lipstick on a pig.” I think that explains it well. It was limited in a lot of ways before they renovated and it’s the same now. There are a limited number of concession stands, bathroom access is not great, and there’s always congestion in the concourse due to its small size. I think if you poll Long Islanders, you wouldn’t find a favorable rating of this venue. I wish this show was at the Islanders’ new home, UBS Arena. That place is light years better than Nassau Coliseum. Anyway…
The crowd was diverse, as an emailer pointed out on the Dailycast, and consisted of mostly 20-40 somethings. (I just graduated from that demographic, but enough about me!). I heard some people talking in the lobby about “watching WWE in the 2000s” and “AEW hits different.” I sense that most people in this building were those 2000s WWE fans and I think a lot of us “old schoolers” that started in the ’80s or earlier are becoming the minority.
Crowd & Matches
I won’t get too into the granular details about the matches. If you’re reading this report, you know what happened. You can check out Wade Keller’s report or Brandon LeClair’s report for the blow-by-blow.
I sense there are still “mic” issues with the crowd because I would say overall – overall – the crowd had good energy throughout the night. They weren’t rabid, I’ll tell you that, and the consensus on PWTorch podcasts is the crowd felt dead for a lot of the show. I won’t fight that, but given that AEW has had production issues in the past, you can understand the contradiction. Except for pockets of seats here and there, the arena was full. I’m curious how we looked on TV. Looking at the big screen, I don’t sense we were lit all that well, but I could be wrong. This was a show where AEW should have shown the crowd, contrary to a lot of the TV shows recently which have had low attendance.
As far as Zero Hour, the people in the arena enjoyed what they saw, especially in the first match given both Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander are Long Islanders. The Battle Royal had its moments, but the crowd didn’t like the eliminations of Danhausen and Dalton Castle. If I remember, they were upset with John Silver, another Long Islander, getting tossed. Once it came down to Killswitch and Trent Beretta, the cat was out of the bag as to who was going to win. Credit to my wife as she called his winning. I was getting drinks for us during Hook vs. Wheeler Yuta, so I can’t speak to that match. From what I could tell, they were into Hook. Personally, I didn’t really care and didn’t bother asking my wife about once I sat down.
The matches the crowd seemed to enjoy the most were the opening eight-man tag and the last three. I’ll list my most over acts and most heat (like Wade always asks his on-site reporters on his post-shows) later. The match probably went a little longer than necessary and they started to lose the crowd a little, but they were happy to see Daniel Garcia get the pin. I don’t get it, but people are into this guy, so who am I to say. They didn’t like not getting “the dance.” (Too bad, but that’s just me.)
I go back to the 2000s WWE people because they were most into the Adam Copeland vs. Christian match. You heard the chants, so I won’t repeat anything. This match had a lot of the touches that those guys pulled off during their heyday in that time. They popped every time a weapon came out, especially for the fire spot. I’m assuming most people know about the match between Copeland and Mick Foley at WrestleMania 22 in 2006 where they did the spot that Nick Wayne ended up taking. As Brandon astutely pointed out on the Dailycast, Copeland wore nearly the same gear he wore in that match. One quibble is that our section and surrounding ones couldn’t see the brawl in the crowd once they went all the way up. There was a brief chant of “We can’t see!” The crowd liked Copeland winning, and there was heat for the post-match angle. Personally, I don’t like how Killswitch can just pass the contract to Christian and I’m not going to ignore that even if “the story works.” Sorry, folks.
The crowd was into Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston, including an enthusiastic “Eddie! Eddie!” chant. It had limitations, though, because it followed the Copeland vs. Christian match, which soaked up a lot of energy. AEW needs to do a better job laying out the shows because I think Tony puts too many big matches back-to-back, especially late in the show. You got your heavy stuff late and the crowd by then is tired. That’s a problem to me but, maybe others think differently
Anyway, I got up during this match to get food because my wife told me the lines weren’t so bad anymore. So it was around 10:30 or 11:00 at that point. That’s how bad the lines were all night. I had her call me on Skype and point the camera at the ring so I could see the match while I got a freaking hot dog. I couldn’t see too well, but I felt the crowd. They were into the win and the post-match hug between Moxley and Kingston. Greg, Brandon, and I had a good discussion on this over on the Dailycast. I think it was Brandon who pointed out he wanted to root for Swerve in this tournament, but he really couldn’t because it’s yet another title in AEW and he didn’t want him saddled with it. At least Kingston can make it work.
In the main event, MJF came across as a star, as he would 20 minutes from his hometown. It’s late in the show, though, so he probably would have gotten an even stronger reaction if the crowd wasn’t so tired. It was weird with Samoa Joe because he was getting cheered once his music hit and there was a “Joe! Joe! Joe!” chant, but then he was booed when he was introduced. The crowd enjoyed the match overall but were not happy with the result. At first, I thought people felt their time was wasted, but I think the issue was the “pass out” finish. They didn’t like that for their hometown guy. With that said, the crowd was stunned for the title change, but less stunned for the Devil reveal. You got your “ooohs” and “ahhhs,” but not to the effect this should have been.
The only other matches I have anything to say about are Swerve Strickland vs. Dustin Rhodes and the eight-man tag involving Jericho. Swerve was over in a big way and the crowd rejected what they did. Nobody wanted to see Dustin come back and people in my section were yelling, “Beat this jobber, already!” Now, Dustin is more than that as we know, but given how over Swerve has gotten recently, this made no sense and was a step back for him. Why did it take almost ten minutes to beat a 50-something with a bad ankle?
As far as the eight-man tag involving Chris Jericho, they were singing Judas, which was odd to me, but it wasn’t strong in the arena. I was at Double or Nothing earlier this year and it was a lot louder then. He was rejected heavily throughout the match. I’d be curious to hear how it sounded on TV, but it wasn’t good. I was told the “NDA” chants came across. I don’t know if the “F— you, Chris!” came across as strongly, but it was there as well. They’re in a bad spot with him.
People didn’t care about Miro vs. Andrade. They didn’t care about C.J. revealing she was with her husband after all. They didn’t care about her during the match. That’s not good for two people who can be key pieces on TV moving forward.
Toni Storm was the favorite in the match against Riho, but it wasn’t as strong as people think. There’s not much to talk about in the Abadon vs. Julia Hart match.
Most Over & Most Heat
As I mentioned earlier, in the spirit of Wade Keller, I will mention the three most over acts and three that drew the most heat.
The three most over acts were Swerve Strickland (by a country mile), MJF, and Sting. There’s an honorable mention to Mark Briscoe. They need to use him better. It was nice to see Sting get that reaction given that it’s likely his last appearance in the New York market.
The acts that drew the most heat were Chris Jericho, Christian, and Don Callis. It’s not good for AEW that two fiftysomething WWE stalwarts and a manager are getting the most heat. Your new heel world champion should be one of those acts, but he wasn’t.
Overall Thoughts
After the show, MJF slowly walked up the ramp and blew kisses and the crowd and waved. There was some emotion on his face, and I thought for a second that he was going to talk. That’s about the only thing that seemed unique to the in-person experience. Other than that, there’s not much else to report other than what was mentioned.
I had some hesitancy about going to this show because of the arena. One thing I didn’t mention is there’s no public transportation connected directly, so everyone drives in. It causes congestion coming in and out. At least at the UBS Arena and Madison Square Garden you can take the train. That alleviates some of the congestion. I’m not sure I’ll go again if it’s in this venue. To me, the customer experience is important. At my age, I don’t need the aggravations, especially with the logistics my wife and I go through when we try to go out without the kids.
One thing I should mention is the merchandise seemed slim. We only saw two stands in our area, but I can’t imagine it was much better around the building. You had some shirts unique to the show, but not much in the way of wrestler-specific. I think I saw a Sting shirt and maybe an MJF shirt. They had some figures on sale too, including a bloody Eddie Kingston for $100. I love Eddie, but that’s a bit much for me. The AEW Tag Team Championship belt went for $700. Who’s laying out $700 for that? Not me bud, not me.
Overall, I’m glad I went. If I watched this show at home, I’d probably have hated it. Being in the arena, I didn’t hate it as much factoring in all the issues.
I will be back in a few weeks with a new episode of the VIP podcast “Pro Wrestling Then and Now” reviewing some old Royal Rumbles with Kelly Wells. Thank you for taking a few minutes to read this!
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!
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