More Details on Plans for AEW Dynamite at MSG Falling Through

As previously reported, Tony Khan revealed during a live interaction with fans at the AEW Dynamite on 34th St. TV taping that there were plans for AEW to hold its first episode of Dynamite at Madison Square Garden in New York City. However, the people who originally offered AEW the deal later called Khan and said, “We don’t want you anymore. We don’t want you to do the first episode of Dynamite here anymore because it would really upset somebody.” He’s presumably referring to WWE.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week had more details on Khan’s comments. Meltzer noted that while he was aware of AEW talking to MSG for a date in 2019, he was never told it would be for the first episode of Dynamite, which became “a non-starter for all the reasons you’d expect.”

Additionally, Meltzer noted that in recent years, he was also told that the costs of running AEW in Madison Square Garden would be too high, so Arthur Ashe Stadium made more economic sense to the new promotion. AEW would eventually debut at Arthur Ashe Stadium with the Dynamite Grand Slam in September 2021.

AEW ultimately held the debut episode of Dynamite at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.