Chris Jericho On AEW Picking Different New York Venue Than WWE

AEW is coming to New York for the first time ever. That big show in Queens will mean a lot for many members of the AEW roster, but the venue and location was carefully chosen.

New York is notoriously known as WWE territory. When Chris Jericho spoke to the New York Daily News, he revealed the company’s strategy when picking their New York venue. They wanted to do things differently than WWE has in the past. This helped push them toward the unique tennis venue.

“We’ve expanded to a lot of people that are just excited to see a different style of wrestling after being fed the same dish for 20 years plus. One of the reasons why AEW’s done so well is we’re different from WWE and that’s obvious. We do things differently than the way they do it. They’re a huge successful company, especially in the New York market. That’s a WWE stronghold.

“But there are a lot of people who are excited to see things done a little bit differently and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re making our debut in New York City in a stadium WWE’s never been in. I’m sure we could have gone to the Garden or done the Barclays Center, but those do have a WWE brush on them. Let’s go somewhere else and make it our New York market arena. Let’s go to Arthur Ashe Stadium and that now becomes an AEW stronghold in the middle of New York, which is a McMahon country.”

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A nearby airport could also supply some extra noise and atmosphere for those AEW fans packing the house for Dynamite Grand Slam. It will certainly be a unique event as AEW brings their show to New York fans for the first time ever.

AEW had plans to make it to many different locations in 2020. They were supposed to play Rochester, New York days after the pandemic forced them into Daily’s Place. We will have to see how long it takes to make it to London as they planned for Fyter Fest last year, but they will certainly make their way there as soon as they possibly can.

Are you making your way to AEW’s New York event? Sound off in the comments!