AEW Homecoming (2021)
The 2021 Homecoming was the second annual and final Homecoming professional wrestling television special produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The event marked a brief return to AEW's home base of Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, which is where they had produced shows through the majority of the COVID-19 pandemic, and came after the conclusion of AEW's "Welcome Back" tour, which celebrated the company's resumption of live touring. It was held on August 4, 2021, and was broadcast on TNT as a special episode of AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite. This would be the final Homecoming special produced, as despite AEW returning to Daily's Place for future episodes, these have not been branded as Homecoming specials.
| Homecoming | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Promotional poster featuring various AEW wrestlers | |||
| Promotion | All Elite Wrestling | ||
| Date | August 4, 2021 | ||
| City | Jacksonville, Florida | ||
| Venue | Daily's Place | ||
| Attendance | ~3,000[1] | ||
| Homecoming chronology | |||
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| AEW Dynamite special episodes chronology | |||
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Production
Background
On January 1, 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) held the inaugural Homecoming special, which emanated from their home base of Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida as a special episode of Dynamite.[2] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began effecting the industry in mid-March 2020, AEW held the majority of their programs from Daily's Place;[3] these events were originally held without fans, but the company began running shows at 10–15% capacity in August, before eventually running full capacity shows in May 2021.[4] Also in May, AEW announced that they would be returning to live touring, beginning with a special episode of Dynamite titled Road Rager on July 7.[5] Road Rager was also the first of a four-week span of special Dynamite episodes as part of AEW's "Welcome Back" tour, which continued with the two-part Fyter Fest on July 14 and 21 and concluded with Fight for the Fallen on July 28.[6][7] In early July, AEW scheduled a second Homecoming episode to be held after the conclusion of the "Welcome Back" tour, briefly returning AEW to Daily's Place on August 4. The event was promoted as the final event to be held at Daily's Place for Summer 2021.[8][9][10]
Storylines
Homecoming featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[11] Storylines were produced on AEW's weekly television program, Dynamite, the supplementary online streaming shows, Dark and Elevation, and The Young Bucks' YouTube series Being The Elite.
Reception
Television ratings
Homecoming averaged 1,102,000 television viewers on TNT, with a 0.46 rating in AEW's key demographic.[12]
Results
| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times[13] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Jericho defeated Juventud Guerrera | Singles match[14] Jericho had to perform a top rope maneuver to win.[15] | 9:55 | ||
| 2 | Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, and Darby Allin (with Sting) defeated 2.0 (Matt Lee and Jeff Parker) and Daniel Garcia | Six-man tag team match[16] | 10:11 | ||
| 3 | Christian Cage defeated The Blade (with The Bunny) | Singles match[14] | 10:14 | ||
| 4 | Miro (c) defeated Lee Johnson (with Dustin Rhodes) | Singles match for the AEW TNT Championship[14] | 9:48 | ||
| 5 | "Legit" Leyla Hirsch defeated The Bunny | NWA World Women's Championship Eliminator Match The winner became the #1 contender to the NWA World Women's Championship | 8:19 | ||
| 6 | Malakai Black defeated Cody Rhodes | Singles match[14] | 5:09 | ||
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See also
References
- Dave Meltzer [@davemeltzerWON] (August 5, 2021). "Tonight will be the second largest crowd since COVID for AEW in Jacksonville. Right now they are at 1600 paid and another nearly 1,000 a special guests, 600 kids through community outreach and the Wounded Warrior promotion" (Tweet). Retrieved August 5, 2021 – via Twitter.
- Powell, Jason (October 28, 2019). "AEW announces New Year's Day event". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 23, 2019.
- Mealey, Jason (13 March 2020). "AEW moves show from Rochester to Jacksonville due to coronavirus". News4Jax.com. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- Johnson, Mike (May 5, 2021). "Double or Nothing 2021 PPV notes". PWInsider. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
- Heydorn, Zack (May 10, 2021). "AEW announces a return to touring starting in July (w/ Heydorn's Analysis)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
- Nason, Josh (June 11, 2021). "AEW ANNOUNCES DATES FOR FYTER FEST, FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN, ROAD RAGER". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
- Casey, Connor (June 11, 2021). "AEW Announces Welcome Back Tour for AEW Dynamite's July Episodes". ComicBook. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- "AEW Dynamite Homecoming". All Elite Wrestling. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- Boone, Matt (July 2, 2021). "AEW Touts Dynamite: Homecoming This August In Jacksonville As "Last #DUUUVAL Show Of The Summer"". EWrestling. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- All Elite Wrestling [@AEW] (July 2, 2021). "Experience another special #AEW moment @dailysplace #AEWDynamite returns to Jacksonville, FL Wednesday August 4 for our last #DUUUVAL show of the summer! Tickets go on-sale Friday, July 9 10am AEWTIX.COM Ticketmaster.com" (Tweet). Retrieved July 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
- Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- Wilen, Jerome (August 5, 2021). "AEW Dynamite Ratings: Viewership tops 1 million for the the [sic] fourth straight week". Fightful. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
- Barnett, Jake (August 4, 2021). "8/4 AEW Dynamite results: Barnett's live review of "Homecoming" with Malakai Black vs. Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera, Miro vs. Lee Johnson for the TNT Title, The Bunny vs. Leyla Hirsch for a shot at the NWA Women's Title, Christian Cage vs. The Blade". Retrieved August 4, 2021.
- Powell, Jason (July 29, 2021). "AEW Dynamite preview: The "Homecoming" lineup for Wednesday's TNT show". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
- Otterson, Joe (July 30, 2021). "AEW Draws Domino's Ire for Ad Placement During Chris Jericho-Nick Gage No DQ Match". Yahoo! News. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
After his match with Gage, MJF announced that Jericho will next have to face his old rival Juventud Guerrera with the stipulation that Jericho must win with a top rope maneuver to move on to the fourth labour.
- All Elite Wrestling [@AEW] (August 3, 2021). "2.0 (Matt Lee & Jeff Parker) have arrived in #AEW, & aren't wasting any time! They've aligned with Daniel Garcia & challenged 3 of the top names in AEW @JonMoxley, @MadKing1981 & @DarbyAllin! GM @TonyKhan has just sanctioned this match for #AEWDynamite TOMORROW night Live on TNT!" (Tweet). Retrieved August 3, 2021 – via Twitter.