PHILADELPHIA — If absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps the opposite is also true. When AEW Dynamite went live on Wednesday night from The Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University, it was in front of a noticeably lighter crowd than the last time the show came to Philly.

Then again, said show was just over five months ago.

There’s definitely a law of diminishing returns when it comes to how often pro wrestling promotions can hold events in the same venues, and with only a few years of operation under its belt, AEW is still feeling its way through some of these things. Maybe Dynamite and Rampage simply hadn’t been gone long enough to make this particular show a must-see for fans in the area.

AEW had something else working against it on this particular night: Mother Nature. Though the weather was fine in the Philadelphia area, Hurricane Ian was menacing the company’s home state of Florida. Tony Khan had already informed talent that if anyone needed to miss the show because of travel or family concerns, they had his blessing.

Several wrestlers reportedly were forced to cancel plans to participate, leading to some changes to Dynamite. It felt just a slight bit off, or at least different than the usual. Instead of the match that kicks off most Wednesday broadcasts, there was an extended in-ring bit with the Jericho Appreciation Society, one that felt like one of the longer non-wrestling opens in Dynamite history.

Another segment featured recent AEW debutant Saraya calling out the entire women’s division, or a good chunk of it anyway. That one led somewhere, namely an interim women’s title match between Toni Storm and Serena Deeb with the other women as lumberjacks, but it still seemed a bit disjointed. And there was additional filler, like a squash match for Ricky Starks.

Despite a number of hurdles, though, Dynamite didn’t have a less enthusiastic crowd, even if it was smaller. Philadelphia has long been a hotbed of the east coast wrestling scene, and it sounded that way again on Wednesday. With few exceptions, the fans reacted to pretty much everything offered and seemed pleased by the end of the night.

Some random observations from section 114, row K:

• Masterful as ever at trolling fans, MJF appeared on a pre-recorded video that played (several times in a row) before Dynamite went live, singing “Meet the Mets.” He also riled up the crowd in person during his segment of the show, and it’ll be interesting to see how Wheeler Yuta, who can go in the ring but is a ways behind MJF in terms of mic skills, might get a rub from working against him.
• Khan got a mix of boos and cheers when he spoke to the crowd immediately before Dynamite, but that appeared to be mostly due to his role with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who play the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend.
• “We want pizza” chants were a recurring theme all the way until the end of Dynamite thanks to the Jericho Appreciation Society having some pies, but not sharing them, to open the show. Also, poor Luigi Primo got KOed by Daniel Garcia and carried out by Sammy Guevara like a sack of potatoes.
• Juice Robinson had a nice match with Jon Moxley, but the crowd definitely tailed off in the middle, and it didn’t seem like everyone knew who Juice was.
• Hangman Adam Page remains very popular, starting from the time his music hits. The live crowd was definitely into his staredown with Moxley.
• Jamie Hayter is incredibly over right now, getting such a loud face reaction at one point that it was hard for Britt Baker to talk over it. She’s set to be a breakout star whenever AEW decides to push start on her inevitable face turn.
• Bandido was more warmly received than Robinson as a “visitor” to AEW, but that was likely because of his history with ROH and the fact that he was the face in the main event. Putting him in a big spot for the TV audience was a nice touch, however, because he is terrific.
• No spoilers for AEW Rampage, but The Acclaimed was on the show, and being there in person during the run they’re on right now is definitely special.