Excalibur Explains Non-Wrestlers in the Audience at AEW TV Tapings, How Nobody Is Happy About the Small Crowds

– AEW broadcaster Excalibur appeared on The Sports Bubble with Jensen Karp this week, and he explained the people who AEW has in the audience at TV tapings, including non-wrestlers, and the protocols for the friends and family associated with the Jacksonville Jaguars who have recently been in attendance at the AEW TV tapings. You can read more on that situation HERE. Excalibur also addressed how nobody is happya about having to perform without real live crowds. Below are some highlights and a clip of Excalibur addressing the topic:

On who AEW has in the audience, who are the non-wrestlers: “So basically, we have the wrestlers who are not wrestling on the episode sitting at ringside. And AEW is owned by the Khan Family, the Khan family also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars, and so we are recording our shows in the Daily’s Place Amphitheater, which is adjacent to the football stadium in Jacksonville. And so the Jags kind of employees, friends, and family, they fill out the rest of the crowd. There are basically 50 people that are in the audience, and they’re all spaced out.”

Excalibur on the backstage protocol: “The way it works is that if you are coming backstage, if you are coming backstage, if you coming into contact with an employee, whether you are a wrestler, a lighting guy, a pyro guy, a rigger, or catering, or security guard, or whatever, you get tested. You get a blood test and temperature check every day that you’re coming into the building. If you are sitting in the crowd, they are kept apart from everybody else there in kind of like the upper bowl area. And those people do health surveys and temperature checks.”

On how Chris Jericho and others feel about the small crowds: “Nobody’s happy about it, but I think this is just the reality of it, and there’s absolutely nothing to be done. It’s so much better to be wrestling in front of 50 people than it is no people. That first week, before that massive taping in Georgia, we were in Jacksonville, and we did it with absolutely no crowd, and it is bizarre that as an announcer, I can hear my voice echoing, you know, around the building.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Sports Bubble with Jensen Karp, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.