JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — All Elite Wrestling, once the darling of the Internet Wrestling Community, has received heavy scrutiny in recent months for its creative direction and now appears to need help filling the stands in its hometown.
Action News Jax has obtained an internal City of Jacksonville email from the Military Affairs and Veterans Department which says they are “looking for 50 people per night to attend as ‘fillers.’”
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The Jacksonville-based promotion, which is owned by Jaguars owner Shad Khan and operated by his son, President and CEO Tony Khan, is holding two shows this week at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville - Dynamite on Wednesday, April 24, and Rampage/Collision on Saturday, April 27.
Daily’s Place has a listed capacity of 5,500, but according to WrestleTix, it is only set up for 2,459 fans on Wednesday and still has 325 available tickets. Several AEW shows have recently been half-empty, with an average of 2,000 to 3,500 fans in attendance.
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Tony Khan has taken criticism from online Wrestling media for a number of booking decisions in recent months, including the airing on April 10 of the infamous backstage fight last September between CM Punk and Jack Perry at the All In Pay-per-view. It resulted in Punk being fired and eventually landing with AEW’s biggest competitor, WWE. Punk, who has also publicly thrown shots at Khan’s leadership, was set to be one of the headliners at WrestleMania 40 before suffering a triceps injury at the Royal Rumble.
Critics also point to the departure of former AEW star and Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes, who helped the promotion get off the ground in 2019 but left in 2022 under mysterious circumstances, as a turning point. Rhodes subsequently joined WWE and embarked on one of the top storylines in recent memory, which culminated in Rhodes being crowned WWE World Champion at WrestleMania 40. WWE, which historically has struggled with its creative direction, is thriving inside and outside the ring by pulling in record revenue under the leadership of Paul “Triple H” Levesque as the Chief Content Officer.
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Action News Jax Ben Becker reached out to Tony Khan about the “fillers” request by the city for both shows and is waiting to hear back.
ZipRecruiter, which did not place a listing for the AEW event, gives this definition of a “Seat Filler:”
“As a seat filler, your job is to occupy empty seats at award shows, sporting events, and other special performances. Your responsibilities are to sit in unsold seats, fill the area most likely to be on camera, and otherwise follow any directions provided by staff. Seat fillers are frequently chosen to match the intended audience of events. For example, a daytime talk show focused on young, professional adults may prefer younger audience members. The main role of this job is to fit in with the rest of the crowd and avoid distracting from any official guests. Seat filler jobs vary in length but are rarely longer than eight hours per day.”
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