CALGARY – With over 100,000 people on the grounds for the world famous Calgary Stampede, it’s a sad sign that the July 10th AEW Dynamite and Collision taping drew approximately 5,000 people to the Scotiabank Saddledome, a significant drop from the company’s debut last year during Stampede Week. Despite the smaller size, the audience was all in for an excellent Dynamite broadcast.
The show started with QT Marshall taking on a local wrestler going by the name of Scorpius. Marshall gave a lot to the 19-year-old before defeating him with a diamond cutter.
The crowd came alive for the opening segment of AEW Dynamite featuring Will Ospreay. One of the downsides about being a market that only gets a visit from the big companies once a year, is that when the bigger names only do interviews or don’t wrestle at all, it is disappointing for fans. Ospreay, Swerve Strickland and MJF have never wrestled in Calgary, and that was again the case.
On the other hand, Bryan Danielson’s match was likely his final bout in Calgary, as his full-time career wraps up later this year. Hangman Page debuted in Calgary and the duo was tasked with making a match as a worthy follow-up to their trio of clashes in 2021 and 2022. They succeeded, taking fans on a roller-coaster. Would Hangman advance to continue his blood feud with Strickland, or would Danielson achieve his goal of main eventing the biggest show of the year for the title? Fans chanting “this is awesome” were correct. Danielson’s win was deserving in the Owen Hart Cup, and having his name associated with the memory of Owen Hart is fitting, Hart was an influence on Danielson and they both are recognized as two of the best wrestlers ever.
Chris Jericho may also have had his final match in Calgary. In 2023, he didn’t appear at all in the city he started his career in, and hasn’t been in Calgary since a WWE House Show in October 2016. (Interesting side note, that show also featured current AEW stars PAC, Mercedes Moné, Claudio Castignoli and Big Bill under their WWE gimmicks.) The initial reaction was that of a hometown boy returning, but that changed as Jericho embraced his swarmy Learning Tree character. The use of horseshoes in a Stampede Street Fight was clever. When the fight headed backstage the fans watched the final moments on the big screen as Jericho took Samoa Joe out of action to film the next season of Twisted Metal.
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Tomohiro Ishii vs. PAC was another excellent match that featured the debuts of Fletcher and Ishii in Calgary. It was non-stop action and a mix of the aggressive hits of Claudio and Ishii and the high flying of Fletcher and PAC. PAC’s win received a big pop.
Want to get heat in Calgary? Say or do anything that mocks The Hart Family. Mercedes Moné’s promo invoked Bret Hart’s “Best there is” catchphrase and immediately made her the biggest heel in the building, switching Britt Baker to the hero when she interrupted Moné’s latest celebration.
Initially it seemed like an odd choice to wrap up the program with the women’s Owen Hart Cup final between last year’s winner Willow Nightingale and Mariah May. The outcome was never in question -– May wrestling her mentor Toni Storm in her home city of London was the obvious route -– but May’s sudden and brutal attack on Storm took the crowd by surprise. Luther, who is from Calgary, got to have a moment in his hometown going through a table, and the final image of May standing over a bloodied Storm will stand out for the fans for a long time.
From an in-ring standpoint AEW is two for two in Calgary. In 2023, the nearly hour-long battle of FTR versus Jay White and Juice Robinson and this year’s Danielson versus Hangman Page will be on the list of best televised matches in the Saddledome.
Will AEW and the Calgary Stampede’s partnership continue for a third year? That remains to be seen. Other than WWE and the old days of Stampede Wrestling, no major promotion has regularly run Calgary; WCW, TNA, Ring of Honor, AWA, ECW and other promotions have rarely ventured outside of Toronto, other than a brief BC WCW tour in 2000. To have another company run at the big arena as an alternative is fantastic for fans, it would just be nice to see it more often.
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