Outdoor shows, yay or nay?

[JRH]

What do you think of shows held in outdoor venues? I personally love them as they give the shows a unique look. While I've never really been to an outdoor show (aside from an indy show held as part of a state fair way back in the day), it's neat to see shows in the sun, as well as when sunset hits. That said, I can understand how ones that are held in hot weather could negatively affect the wrestlers (especially if they wrestle in bodysuits or shirts, meaning they could get really hot and tired during the match).

[sek69]

Outdoor venues are great visually, but they can pose a challenge for the wrestlers. There's been more than one AAA show where the ropes got wet and caused chaos, like what happened when AEW was doing pandemic shows outside. 

[The Thread Killer]

I have been to a couple small Indy shows outside during the summer, but they were under a tent canopy. They were fine. I have heard that outdoor shows are bad for crowd noise because the cheers just go up and the sound disappears…but those Indy shows were so small it wouldn’t have mattered.

The most notable outdoor show I went to was the infamous “Big Event” which had somewhere around 60 -70,000 in attendance. I had floor seats on the aisle, and all I remember was that it was crazy cold. It was the end of August but I still remember freezing my butt off, I was shivering. I am glad I went, but that was what…36 years ago? You wouldn’t catch me dead in a crowd like that now, no matter who was on the card.

[sek69]

One of the coolest shows I ever attended was a JCP house show here in like 1987 or so where they opened the roof of the Civic/Mellon Arena here which didn't happen very often.

[Johnny Sorrow]

My second ROH show was the " tent show" in 2004. It was supposed to be in the National Guard building but Bush. Instead I was in the second row and got to see the debut of Generation Next, Punk drop a ring bell on Steamboat after a tag match that went into the field behind the building, and Joe beat Homicide in the main event. At the time online weirdo fans at DoI were shitting on it, but it was incredible. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

And I love the WWE open stadium shows that they do when the sun is still out. It looks more important and special to me.

[Alucard]

I love it for the unique atmosphere. My favorite thing about the WCW Road Wild shows. 

Bash at the Beach 95 is another that comes to mind that brings amazing visuals. 

[sek69]

WCW had a lot of great outdoor shows, plus the spring break Nitros were always fun.

[Dav'oh]

Twelve rows from the back of the top tier at the 100,000 seat MCG, and the wrestlers were smaller than my thumbnail. I watched the whole show on the video screens. So, great for saying, "I was there", not so great as a viewing experience. 

[brockobama]

I think it very much depends. The weather is obviously one concern but it goes further than just temperature and precipitation, as wind can be an issue both in the ring and especially the higher up you go. Nothing worse than gale force winds drowning out what little sound you could be hearing up in the cheap seats. Visibility is also a factor beyond a certain point, as it is in huge indoor arenas too. I remember having difficulty following the ball when I used to work Purdue home games and Ross-Ade isn't particularly big as far as college football stadiums are concerned. I sort of can't imagine what it's like for the top few levels of a WrestleMania crowd.

That's another thing, the nature of the crowd. You get a big enough group of people together and there's real volatility in terms of interests and responses. How many times have we seen perfectly enjoyable matches on Mania undercards or Dome shows that got no reaction because 40,000 people were just there for the main event? (Or the spectacle of the event itself, a whole other can of worms.) The outdoor setting only worsens this, as the sound going straight up even more than in an indoor arena makes it harder for disinterested fans to get into a match because of the reaction of others around them. You can win over a huge indoor crowd but it seems damn near impossible to win over a huge outdoor audience.

Also there's an added level of unpredictability with an outdoor show. Very easy for the production crew to cut from one shot to another only for a wrestler to shift slightly in the ring and suddenly the full force of the sun is shining into the camera. Same goes for the wind suddenly blowing someone's hair in their face at a key moment. The weather shifting on a minute to minute basis can be a real nightmare and does impact the viewing experience to some degree, at least with some shows. I don't mind when cloud coverage is a factor in the Zona23 junkyard but when the color temperature of the image on an overly-polished WWE show changes suddenly it feels real weird, throws the entire aesthetic off. And that's my last point, that the aesthetics of an outdoor venue itself can make or break a show. I love when AEW runs Daily's Place because it looks incredible but I find Raymond James Stadium bland on the inside and ugly on the outside. The appearance of the arena is all the more noticeable when you're running in broad daylight.

So yeah, it depends. There are outdoor shows I like and a lot that I would've preferred to stay indoors. If you can get all the little nuances right it makes for magic but it's real hard and not entirely in your hands.

 

 

[Jimmy Redman]

17 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

Twelve rows from the back of the top tier at the 100,000 seat MCG, and the wrestlers were smaller than my thumbnail. I watched the whole show on the video screens. So, great for saying, "I was there", not so great as a viewing experience. 

I wasn't as high up as you, I think in the tier below, but same issue because the G is humongous. Still I had a bird's eye view of a 5 star crowd fight on the floor.

I agree the biggest issue with these stadiums is the crowd noise evaporating. 

I guess its the trade off to getting the amazing visuals of a crowd that large and the setting sun.