Notable things happened Wednesday night as part of AEW’s flagship weekly show, Dynamite: Hangman Page and Jon Moxley had another confrontation leading up to their match next week pending the (maybe kayfabe?) medical clearance of Hangman, the main even for March’s Revolution pay-per-view event was set as an Ironman Match between Brian Danielson and Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and in their first ever visit to Seattle AEW sent the crowd home happy as undersized goth human cannonball and local boy Darby Allin reclaimed the TNT Championship to close out the show. I would have enjoyed seeing all of these segments live about 15 minutes from my apartment. I had tickets for this show. I could not go.
I was not physically unable to attend, I did not have some work emergency that kept me away. I was in the Ticketmaster virtual line the moment tickets went on sale. I got two seats at a respectable price in the second deck of Climate Pledge Arena. And then I texted my best friend Kyle. We watched roughly 10,000 wrestling shows together in high school, and at various times in the 25 years or so since have kept up with the show to varying degrees. AEW came around as we were both getting sick of the WWE’s offerings, and re-excited us both.
He was going to look into getting the time off, I was not going to take no for an answer although I do have another local friend who I know would have gone and had a great time. But before I could press him for an answer and tell him I’d handle flights and everything to go to this show with him, he went and died. Asshole. I’m still pissed at him.
Not because I missed a wrestling show; there’s a part of me that thinks a lot of live athletics are better at home for a lot of reasons. I missed that shared experience. And even if he couldn’t have made it out, the week since has been filled with wrestling news we’d have been agog over: Vince McMahon’s seeming return from corporate exile and now breaking news that the Saudi public investment fund may be interested in buying WWE.
And I’m sad about the million other things I can’t just shoot him a message about. Pestering him to start Andor, the best Star Wars thing since Rogue One. The opening scene of The Americans and their use of Tusk. Which of course would have turned into a three day exchange about Fleetwood Mac. And then six other winding tangents about new things or things we’ve talked about a million times over 20 years.
Wednesday’s Dynamite was the first wrestling I had watched since before we lost Kyle Thanksgiving weekend. I’d been busy with work leading up to the holiday and then didn’t much feel like engaging with it. But in the same way with the soap operas my mother used to watch, you don’t have to see every episode. Within a very short time frame I was caught up on who was feuding with who and why and could throw my allegiances where appropriate. I’m glad I did. I think.
AEW has an expanded Friday night show tonight a few hours away in Portland. Would we have arranged to drive down for it after Dynamite? Maybe. Was there any chance I’d do so now? No way in hell. But I may stay up for it on tv, and I’ll DVR it for sure. And I’ll watch it, and think of probably at least 6 texts I won’t get to send.