AEW/ROH star Brian Cage appeared on the Hitting the Turnbuckle podcast to discuss various topics, including the company’s decision to hold events in smaller venues.
Cage said, “We’ve done some smaller shows, as far as bigger arena shows but they’re like a little smaller. So they’re scaled down, where you can get more of a sold-out capacity and then, two, when it’s more filled, the crowd is more lively. It just is. The more space you have — it could be 6,000 people regardless, but if there’s 6,000 people in a 7,000-seat arena and 6,000 people in a 10,000-seat arena, the six in the seven is gonna be louder, just because they’re all contained.”
On the smaller venues having a more intimate style:
“They’re all next to each other, they all feed off of each other’s energy… Now when it comes to the smaller, smaller venues, like the (Aragon) Ballroom that they did and a few different residencies, they have a cool look and a cool setup and there’s some convenience sake for ‘em but, ultimately, this is just my opinion personally, I prefer it in the normal arenas, so you’re not in the same place the whole time because you kind of start to kill the town… And again, it’s just for me.”
On the illusion of being in a bigger arena:
“There’s more an illusion that you’re on a bigger stage in the bigger arenas, even though it’s still on TV, it’s still being watched by all the same amount of people… It just creates the illusion that it’s bigger than what it could be like when we’re doing some of the smaller shows at the residencies, and even then, those can still be fun and okay… I don’t like it as much because I don’t like performing in the same place over and over and over and over again because again, it loses the mystique and just kind of feels more, you know, paint-by-numbers, so to speak, and again, that’s just me.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
