Chris Jericho believes that running smaller venues, like The Hammerstein Ballroom, will help AEW regain momentum.
Ahead of this weekend’s AEW and ROH shows from the venue, Jericho spoke to Z100 New York about how the company booking buildings with lower seating capacity will help increase ticket demand.
“We’re at a place where to go to some of the middle-size venues – not in every city but in some of them – it’s a very smartmove for many reasons but most importantly just the vibe of the fans,” Jericho said.
“You want to put 10,000 people into an arena, and if you can, you do. If you’re down to 5,000 but you go to a 4,000-seat arena, it increases demand, and it just makes the show that much more exciting. It translates so much better on TV.”
“It just makes it cooler, and we have always had the cool factor in AEW, especially when we started.”
Both Friday’s Final Battle and Saturday’s episode of Collision drew sell-out crowds based on what the venue was scaled for. According to WrestleTix, 1,491 tickets were distributed to each show.
AEW is taping Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite from the Hammerstein on Sunday afternoon. The show will feature the final matches in the Continental Classic’s round-robin portion.
Tony Khan stated during the ROH Final Battle post-show media scrum that “it’s safe to say” AEW and ROH will also run future events from Hammerstein.
Jericho defeated Matt Cardona to retain the ROH World Championship on Friday’s Final Battle pay-per-view. Previously, he had wrestled his longtime friend Lance Storm at the Hammerstein Ballroom at 2005’s ECW: One Night Stand. His full interview with Z100 New York is available below.