The “Tag Team Appreciation” themed edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 featured the largest attendance inside Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
150 “invited spectators” were reportedly among those in attendance at this week’s AEW Dynamite show, which had a noticeably larger crowd for the AEW on TNT television broadcast than they have in several months.
Former WWE Backstage On FS1 news correspondent and host of “The Satin Sheet” segment on the program, Ryan Satin, was first to report the news at ProWrestlingSheet.com that the crowd for the 8/12 episode of AEW Dynamite featured double the amount of fans allowed to attend than in the past few months.
The report stated that AEW has put in place a new COVID-19 protocol which included Jacksonville having full security outside the Daily’s Place amphitheater that were putting the spectators through metal detectors and assisting with mandatory temperature checks, as well as sporadically checking that fans were wearing their required face-masks throughout the duration of the event.
It was noted that nearly 150 fans at the show were purposely seated further away than usual from the other fans that were sitting closer to the ring during the show, as those were the fans that had gone through more extensive COVID-19 testing prior to the start of the show.
Additionally, the “invited spectators” were seated in every other row, leaving an empty row between each that were filled with fans as a way of adding space between people to ensure proper social-distancing measures were in place.
Longtime Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer confirmed the news in a report written by Josh Nason at F4WOnline.com on Thursday afternoon.
Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye), a longtime pro wrestling fan, wrote on Twitter about attending the show with her husband, claiming that she got in to the event through a “non-wrestling related connection.”
After the conclusion of the AEW taping, Davin shared video footage that she recorded in her seat during the live AEW on TNT television broadcast on Wednesday evening that showed the aforementioned Jacksonville security doing random face-mask checks during the show.
Featured below is the video of the face-mask check by security inside the Daily’s Place amphitheater in Jacksonville, FL., as well as multiple photos of the most heavily attended episode of the show since the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
For those who missed the show, check out the top five moments video embedded below courtesy of the official AEW YouTube channel, and read our detailed recap by Wrestling-Edge reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone) via this week’s AEW Dynamite results August 12: Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy II.
Parties were grouped together and socially distanced between each group. They had it planned out beforehand because they had to know who was coming. Do not let the camera angle fool you. I felt very safe and so did my husband. #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/dZiHXXgetF
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) August 13, 2020
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) August 13, 2020
They had people monitoring and correcting people’s mask-wearing all night. Here is mask patrol getting in my shot lol pic.twitter.com/qVxRnuup14
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) August 13, 2020
#AEWDynamite gonna be LIT pic.twitter.com/tCd0IKavfU
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) August 12, 2020
For those wondering: no. They don’t allow fans. I happen to have a very non-wrestling-related connection that happened to get me this opportunity. It’s still a closed set! pic.twitter.com/dDRJ6EVBFx
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) August 12, 2020
Follow Wrestling-Edge reporter Matt Boone on Twitter @MattBoone1984.
