TOP FIVE LIST: My Top Lasting Impressions After Seeing AEW Fyter Fest Live in Denver including the venue itself,

I was excited to see that AEW was coming back to Colorado. Living an hour outside of Denver myself, I try to catch live wrestling shows when I can. There is a solid independent scene and we get one or two shows a year from the big two. Weather is way too unpredictable, so I understand that it’s been once a year for AEW since we all got snowed in during the show the last time they were here for a winter stop on their schedule.

I went with a lapsed fan who is a co-worker. He watched in the Attitude Era, went to one WCW show live, but spent his time as a UFC/MMA guy since its rise to popularity. I was curious to hear his lasting impressions over pancakes at 10:30 p.m. after watching four-and-a-half hours of wrestling, especially being someone who watched WrestleMania this year mostly because he had Peacock and wanted context of what I’d be obsessively talking about for the next few days afterwards.

He said he loved the action and the pacing. This was seeing moves live that he was pretty unfamiliar with, but also from talent he was mostly unfamiliar with. He did say that the show was a blast and he’d love to go back.

Now I’ve watched for decades and once moving out of a small town where events happen within a short drive, I don’t miss many opportunities to see live touring wrestling, so I try to catch as many independent shows when CWC (Colorado Wrestling Connection) or CSW (Colorado Springs Wrestling) run shows. It was one of the better live events I’ve been to, and maybe my favorite AEW experience outside of Sting’s retirement.

I now present to you with my top five lasting impressions the next day after Fyter Fest.

Honorable Mention: Lio Rush is good. I don’t like him, and that’s the point. He’s mouthy, he talks way too much for someone who just needs to needs to mature, but he was my friend’s favorite to watch at the end of the night who wasn’t named “Speedball” Mike Bailey (he became a fan ahead of time of Speedball), and was a perfect heel against Will Ospreay.

Ticket Prices

This was my favorite part. Live events have gotten too damn pricey! AEW chose the Mission Ballroom, which excited me when it was announced. It is Denver’s newest concert venue, and I’ve seen a handful of concerts there. The sound is incredible there, and its setup was something I could see lending itself to AEW well having plenty of space, but the crowd would be right on top of the action.

The best part of this venue? Tickets where you can see sell for $40. I went for the lower bowl upgrade. Floor tickets were more, but in 2025, a $250 floor seat isn’t outrageous any longer. I miss growing up and going to punk rawk shows that were $7 at the door, but maybe I’m just an old man yelling at the clouds now.

The Venue Itself

Paul Heyman liked to book buildings that would sell out when running ECW. He could have found a larger venue and sold more tickets, but a sold out crowd of 3,000 has more energy than 4,000 in a 6,000 person arena.

First, it makes for better TV. AEW still being on traditional cable, if one were to be channel surfing, that person is less likely to stop and watch a show in front of empty chairs than if it’s a full crowd. I am a lifelong retailer, and the same concept works when making purchases in anything. You’re more likely to shop from a store that looks full than looks empty because it gives the impression that the organization is trustworthy to shop from.

It also creates more energy from the crowd. You talk and chant with strangers and fall into herd mentality when the magic of pro wrestling ignites the audience. It’s infectious. That leads directly to the wrestlers performing better and adds even more to the television production, as the crowd connects with the crowd and sees a stronger live presentation. That sold out venue also tells the audience that left enjoying themselves to buy the tickets early when AEW returns, because you won’t want the show to sell out before you can get your tickets!

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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They Are Figuring Out Merch

As I previously mentioned, I’m a retail guy by trade. Nerdstalgia (located at http://nerdstalgia.shop) is where you can buy pop culture media and collectibles which was born of my passion of collecting myself, so I always have to make a stop at the merch stand and every wrestling card, every concert, and even when I’m at the minor league baseball team, I’m probably leaving with a hat, shirt, or something to sit on the shelves that take more and more of the house until Mrs. Griffin threatens divorce. AEW always disappointed at the merch stand. Items for four or five stars, a few shirts, then overpriced belts and autographed items.

This time the merchandise was broad and plentiful. There were items from main event stars and a few undercard wrestlers. There were hats, posters, flags, belts, and small items like keychains and fans – old-school “grandma is too hot in church waving fans” is the only way I know to describe them. If you never lived the southern states, I have no other way to help you. There was a Don West-inspired commercial from Daddy Magic before the show, and Justin Roberts announced that all programs purchased had mystery autographs in every copy during a commercial break.

Merch booths don’t just make the audience happy to be able to leave with a souvenir to remember the experience, they are also the highest margin impulse purchase people make, which make me, a person who was in a band and has worked on the retail side of the music industry scratch my head when it was done so poorly before. Seemed like found money from the business side of AEW.

Four-and-a-Half Hours is a Long Time

The Mission Ballroom being a concert venue, it wasn’t made with comfortable seating. General admission are simple concrete benches. You don’t sit for most of a concert, so it’s not terrible for a three hour concert when you’re up for over an hour of it. Now four-and-a-half hours including a pre-show ROH match of mostly being seated? I don’t want to describe the soreness of this aging man’s backside in this article, but as John Cougar Mellencamp said so well, “Getting Old Ain’t for Wimps.”

I realize that the venue seating wasn’t the fault of AEW, and others paid for cushions or non-general admission seats, but four hours is a long time for anything.

I love movies almost as much as I love wrestling, and Martin Scorsese is an absolute legend, but I still haven’t watched “The Irishman” simply because of the runtime. Wrestling is much different than “The Irishman” in pacing and attention needing to be paid, which is part of why I can watch four hours of wrestling and have put off a great film for six years, but it’s still a lot.

Then to finish it all off with a multi-man match where, as much as it pains me to say this when talking about Adam Cole, no one in the last match is anywhere near as over as the talent earlier in the card. At that point, we fans are tired. We appreciate your match and your performance, but we don’t have anything left to give.

The Shows Need to Connect

A major frustration with AEW is keeping up with Collision. Not everyone can watch everything that’s put out. In a world where there is so much content, I can’t see every show, I don’t have time for all the podcasts, added content on YouTube, or posts on various social media platforms.

If you are trying to tell a story that is connected, you need to assume that this will be someone’s introduction to your story. This was always a philosophy of Stan Lee. He would say that any comic could be someone’s first comic book.

Every issue of his comics would give the short version of who you’re about to read about. You’d know that Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and now has powers, or that The Incredible Hulk changed due to gamma rays. The most important segment of any TV is the “previously on” segment that not only reminds you of what happened, but sets the viewer up for key points to watch for in the coming episode.

I don’t get to watch wrestling seven days a week. I’m pretty sure Mrs. Griffin would threaten divorce. Saturday is a tough day to watch wrestling unless I make a PLE a priority, so I rarely catch Collision. I find that too many stories happen in a vacuum and aren’t covered elsewhere.

I really like FTR as a tag team, but it becomes hard to know why they’re wrestling the CMLL luchadors if you only watch Dynamite. I can’t even find anyone who covers Collision with a decent YouTube show recap. I know more about what happens on NXT from main show coverage than I do what happens on AEW’s second show, not even second brand.