Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, is a special place for fans of All Elite Wrestling. Even before the COVID-19 lockdown, the venue housed early episodes of AEW Dynamite in 2019, as well as that year’s Fight for the Fallen event.
Poetically, AEW in Daily’s Place sits as a symbol of hope and perseverance. To some, it’s a simple amphitheater, but to the world of professional wrestling, it represents fighting spirit.
Six years since AEW’s inception, the location has overseen many massive AEW moments. Stories either spanned years or lapsed within their open spaces. Amid the 2025 episodes of Dynamite: Title Tuesday and Collision: Homecoming, it continues to serve as a home for the promotion.
Emotional Impact
From the Spring of 2020 to the Summer of 2021, Tony Khan relegated his wrestling ventures to Daily’s Place. This, in particular, was due to the glaring COVID-19 Lockdown. Since amphitheaters allow for live entertainment within wide spaces amid the natural air, the venue was an ideal place to hold elite graps.
To mask the absence of traditional fans, they’d brought out wrestlers from the locker room to cheer and chant before slowly trickling in local fans. They were even divided by heel and face! The weekly shows and monthly pay-per-views felt a little less lonely; it was as though the roster were telling fans: “Don’t worry, we’ll cheer on your behalf.”
Since this was a formative period for the company, they didn’t have the means to gauge whether what was popular among fans was also hot. But for every Wardlow versus Jake Hager or Cody Rhodes versus Anthony Ogogo, there were classics such as FTR versus Young Bucks and Best Friends versus Santana & Ortiz’s Parking Lot Brawl.
Most notable, however, were the unforgettable moments. Kenny Omega defeated Jon Moxley for the AEW Men’s World Championship and ran with Don Callis to Impact Wrestling. Sting debuted amid a flurry of fake snow to drive Team Taz away from four generations: Arn Anderson, Dustin Rhodes, Cody Rhodes, and Darby Allin—the emotional Brodie Lee Celebration of Life.
Visits Since Lockdown Ended
In 2021, audiences bid farewell to Daily’s Place temporarily with a stacked card at Double or Nothing. Following that, the appearances were a bit more sporadic. Yet, Daily’s Place never ceased to feel like home.
In fact, the memories persisted. If you look around on social media, you might see a GIF now and then of Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley celebrating with Sting and Darby Allin. Perhaps you’ll see a clip of MJF leaving CM Punk bloody while reciting his iconic “greatest trick the devil ever pulled” promo.
More recently, however, it saw a full-circle moment on the October 8, 2025, special episode of Dynamite, Title Tuesday. Fully-fledged AEW Men’s World Champion, Hangman Adam Page, engaged in a war of words with former champ Samoa Joe. Considering his previous rise to World Championship gold, it was a glorious homecoming moment for the cowboy as he recounted his history with the promotion.
Daily’s Place was the same, but he was an older man revisiting the house that had been built for him. It also saw a fantastic match between TBS Champion Mercedes Mone and the debuting Lacey Lane.
Daily’s Place Will Forever Be Iconic
The willingness of AEW to repeatedly revisit Daily’s Place is always appreciated. Not only does it serve as a sort of sports hub for Tony Khan’s Jacksonville athletic ventures, but it’s where we saw AEW begin to burn bright into the inferno we see today.
Having witnessed its lockdown era as a viewer, AEW’s Daily’s Place tenure is nostalgic to me. During a time when I started in wrestling media, I made a lot of friends and bonded through the anticipation of what AEW dared to do. In becoming the hottest pro wrestling product where others shut down or struggled to book without fans, AEW remained in the conversation. This situation would’ve killed most promotions, but not this one.
Unwavering, never relenting. As though beaten down by several heel wrestlers, AEW still found a way to rise. Overpowering like an underdog and spitting in the face of ruthless uncertainty, and daring to tell itself that these conditions weren’t anything more than a passing of the wind. AEW never tapped out, never laid down for the pinfall. Instead, its roster stood tall and exited the lockdown hand in hand with the industry and community.
I understand this sentiment may feel corny to some, but this era is a perfect, yet underrated, piece of COVID-19 Pandemic art. The continual revisits further cement that, yes, Daily’s Place is home.
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Header photo – WikiMedia Creative Commons – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TBS. AEW Collision airs Saturday at 8 pm Eastern on TNT. More AEW content available on their YouTube
