A suspicious duffel bag put the Broadmoor World Arena into a brief lockdown after last Saturday’s AEW Collision, though by Tony Schiavone’s account it was over almost as soon as it started.
Schiavone, who called the show alongside Nigel McGuinness and Paul Wight, described what happened on his What Happened When podcast.
“I did not get stuck at all because what happened was, when the show was over, one of the security guys came up to me and says, there’s a lockdown. Do not exit through the fans, go straight through the exit. We just went, okay.”
The show had gone off the air with Eddie Kingston still in the ring.
“Eddie Kingston was in the middle of the ring saying hello to the fans and everything after the show was out. We walked back. As soon as I got through the curtains, the security guy looked at his phone and said, lockdown’s over.”
Schiavone said the explanation he got afterwards was underwhelming.
“Talking to security, it was a duffel bag that someone thought could be something. But somebody’s been watching too many Jason Bourne movies or something. There’s nothing to it.”
The instruction changed only one thing about his night. The commentary team normally leaves through the crowd, and on this occasion were sent straight out the back instead.
There has been a suggestion in some quarters that the lockdown had a more commercial explanation, with fans held in the building so that the Ring of Honor tapings scheduled to follow Collision would have a crowd. That has been rejected by people who were there, with the account being that it was a man in a hoodie carrying a duffel bag and nothing more.
Collision came from the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado, airing on TNT and HBO Max. WrestleTix reported 2,010 tickets distributed for the show.
It was the first night of the Continental Cup, a new tournament distinct from the Continental Classic in that there are no brackets and each round is drawn at random. Claudio Castagnoli beat Ace Austin, Orange Cassidy beat Matt Sydal, and Kingston beat Jake Doyle in the first-round matches. Elsewhere on the card, the Brawling Birds beat Viva Van and VertVixen, the Rascalz beat Aaron Solo and Steven Fuerte, CMLL World Women’s Champion Persephone teamed with Hikaru Shida to beat TBS Champion Maya World and Hyan, and the Death Riders beat Jack Perry and the Bang Bang Gang after interference from The Dogs.
Schiavone also used the broadcast to pay tribute to Dory Funk Jr., who died on August 4 in Ocala, Florida, at the age of 85, running through his career on air.
Security scares of this kind are not unheard of around wrestling shows and are almost always resolved without incident. AEW has not commented publicly on the lockdown, and no arrests or injuries have been reported. It is good to know that security measures that are in place are being used the way they’re designed, and even if there is a scare, it’s better to be cautious than not and have something horrific happen.
The company runs All In at Wembley Stadium on August 30, followed by All Out at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates on September 26, WrestleDream at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando on October 17, and Full Gear at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix on November 14.
Schiavone has been AEW’s lead commentator since the company launched in 2019, having previously been the voice of WCW through the Monday Night War. He hosts What Happened When alongside Conrad Thompson that comes out every week on various podcast platforms and his YouTube channel.
