All Elite Wrestling Announcer Excalibur was recently a guest on The Sports Bubble, where he talked about a number of topics, including the landscape of the industry right now due to the COVID-19 situation and running AEW shows without fans. Who currently are the people in the stands that makes up the crowd during Dynamite and more.
Below are the highlights from the interview:
On the landscape of the industry right now due to the COVID-19 situation and running AEW shows without fans:
“Nobody is happy about it, this is just the reality and there’s absolutely nothing to be done. It’s so much better to be wrestling in front of 50 people than no people. Before that massive taping in Georgia, we were in Jacksonville and we did it with absolutely no crowd — and it is bizarre. As an announcer I could hear my voice echoing around the building.”
On the people who currently are in the stands that makes up the crowd during Dynamite:
“We have the wrestlers who are not wrestling on the episode sitting at ringside. AEW is owned by the Khan Family, the Khan family also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars, so we are recording our shows in the Daily’s Place Amphitheater, which is adjacent to the football stadium in Jacksonville. The Jags employees, friends, and family, they fill out the rest of the crowd. There are basically 50 people that are in the audience — they’re all spaced out.”
On the COVID-19 screening process and safety measures at AEW shows at Daily’s Place:
“The way it works is if you are coming backstage, if you are coming in contact with an employee, whether you are a wrestler, a lighting guy, a pyro guy, a rigger, or catering, or security, you get a blood test and temperature check, everyday that you’re coming into the building. If you are sitting in the crowd, they are kept apart from everybody else there in the upper bowl area. Those people do health surveys and temperature checks.”
You can check out Excalibur’s comments in the video below:
