AEW Leaves Anti-ICE Chants Unedited on Taped Grand Slam Australia Broadcast

The “F*** ICE” chants didn’t just echo through Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney — they made it to national television untouched.

During AEW Grand Slam Australia on February 14, 2026, fans loudly chanted “F*** ICE” during the in-ring introductions for MJF vs. Brody King before the main event even began. The chant filled the arena as the cameras rolled, shifting attention from the competitors to the crowd reaction.

But here’s where things escalated. Grand Slam Australia was not a live U.S. broadcast. AEW had more than 12 hours between the event taking place in Sydney and the show airing later on TNT and streaming on MAX. Despite that window, the chants were not edited out of the taped broadcast. They aired clearly as the match was kicking off.

The decision immediately became a talking point online. This isn’t the first time the chant has surfaced. On the February 4 episode of AEW Dynamite in Las Vegas, similar chants broke out ahead of MJF’s main event segment.

Now, with the chants appearing at multiple AEW events — both in the United States and internationally — and making it onto a taped broadcast without censorship, the company’s approach is drawing even more scrutiny. The fact that AEW chose not to mute or sweeten the audio, despite having ample time to do so, suggests the promotion is either comfortable letting crowd reactions stand as they are or unwilling to interfere with the authenticity of the moment. Either way, once it aired on TNT and MAX, the conversation exploded.

Some fans argue that wrestling crowds have always expressed themselves freely and that editing chants would feel artificial. Others believe allowing explicit anti-ICE chants to air unfiltered on a taped national broadcast crosses a line and invites unnecessary controversy.

Should AEW have edited out the chants before the taped broadcast aired, or was leaving them in the right call to preserve authenticity? Let us know what you think in the comments below.