On October 2, 2019, All Elite Wrestling marked its inaugural episode of “AEW Dynamite” from the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. As confirmed by AEW CEO Tony Khan, though, the milestone almost took place in a more popular venue.

Amidst the tapings for the December 24 edition of “Dynamite” in Hammerstein Ballroom, Khan addressed the audience in attendance, who suggested the idea of AEW running a show at another New York City venue, Madison Square Garden. It was then that Khan revealed that the company was actually slated to host the first ever “Dynamite” from MSG, known as “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” before plans fell through.

“The first episode of Dynamite was actually originally going to be there [at MSG],” Khan said (via fan footage). “They called me, they offered me the date and they said, ‘Would you like to do the first episode of Dynamite here?’ The people who called me don’t work there anymore, but it was over six years ago. They called me and they said, ‘Do you want to do the first episode of Dynamite here?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I really would. It would be great.’ Then they called me a couple months later and they said, ‘We don’t want you anymore. We don’t want you to do the first Dynamite here anymore because it would really upset somebody’ … So I told them, ‘You really made me feel like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football here.'”

The “somebody” in reference is WWE, which has regularly rivaled AEW since Khan, Cody Rhodes, and others announced its launch in January 2019. With WWE preventing “Dynamite” from debuting in MSG, AEW executives then settled on Washington D.C. as the host site for the occasion. Former WWE star Chris Jericho main-evented the inaugural broadcast in a trios victory over Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, with Mike Santana and Ortiz by his side.