All Elite Wrestling draws biggest non-WWE B.C. wrestling attendance mark in 58 years

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It’s been 58 years since a non-WWE wrestling show in British Columbia sold as many tickets as All Elite Wrestling Dynasty did inside Rogers Arena on Sunday (April 12).

You’d have to go all the way back to March 4, 1968 with a show at the Pacific Coliseum headlined by the Assassins vs. Gene Kiniski and Don Leo Jonathan for the Vancouver-version of the world tag team titles.

That show also featured the legendary Lou Thesz taking on Abdullah the Butcher and Rocky Johnson (father of The Rock) battling Don McClarty. That card still holds the non-WWE provincial attendance record with a reported 9,957 on-hand.

The new number two is now Dynasty, which reportedly sold 9,136 tickets distributed at showtime.

Rogers Arena wasn’t an overly friendly venue for Canadian wrestlers on Sunday though, with Winnipeg’s Kenny Omega, the Ontario team of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage and Winnipeg’s Chris Jericho all suffering defeats.

But Sunday marked the surprise return of North Delta’s Kyle O’Reilly, as he was revealed as the mystery partner for Roderick Strong and Orange Cassidy in the AEW trios title match against Clark Connors, David Finlay and Gabe Kidd. O’Reilly scored the submission win on Connors to help his team win the match and capture the title.

O’Reilly was out with an injury since November. He said it was an emotional title win in front of so many friends and family.

“It feels really good,” he said. “This building here is was my very first show in 1998 – my dad brought me here. We sat in the very last row and I knew in that moment that this was something I was going to do. To come back here is an extremely special full circle moment for me.”

Making it even more challenging was that O’Reilly’s father wasn’t able to see him win on Sunday. He revealed on social media that his father passed away on March 27.

“I always felt a little bad that he wasn’t able to see me win a big match like this one,” he said. “But everything my father and mother went through, it’s not about winning – they fought till the end and that’s the lesson they passed down to me. It’s not about the destination, it’s always about the journey and you always get up in the morning and keep going.”

AEW CEO Tony Khan hinted that he may bring the promotion back to Vancouver in the near future and praised Canadian fans.

“There’s so many great wrestling towns and great history throughout Canada,” he said. “I want to bring huge events to Canada, both TV and pay-per-view. This country is one of the greatest places in the world for wrestling. There’s just a real love and appetite for wrestling.”

Khan also stated that AEW will continue its partnership with the Canadian-based Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. That promotion announced a TV deal with TSN beginning in July. Khan confirmed AEW and sister promotion ROH will be involved in those shows. He stated it will be a similar partnership that his promotion has with Mexico’s CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

“I’m sending a lot of talent to help Scott [D’Amore of MLPW],” he explained. “Having different partnerships all over the world where we can send wrestlers and have AEW representation – I think is a really good thing. I like what Scott’s doing and I try to support it.”

SHOW RESULTS:

• Maxwell Jacob Friedman pinned Kenny Omega at 38:52 to retain the AEW world title

• Kyle O’Reilly, Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong defeated Clark Connors, David Finlay and Gabe Kidd at 10:00 to win the AEW trios titles

• Jon Moxley pinned Will Ospreay at 18:17 to retain the AEW continental title

• Thekla defeated Jamie Hayter at 16:36 to retain the AEW women’s title

• Kevin Knight won the casino gauntlet at 22:40 to win the AEW TNT title

• Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler beat Christian Cage and Adam Copeland at 21:12 to retain the AEW tag team titles

• Darby Allin pinned Andrade El Idolo at 16:32

• Ricochet defeated Chris Jericho at 19:15

• Matt and Nick Jackson beat Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita at 20:12

For more on the show, visit allelitewrestling.com.