Charlie Ramone takes fans behind the scenes of AEW Stadium Stampede.
Every wrestling promotion needs a prop guy. On his Something to Wrestle podcast, Bruce Prichard has talked about WWE’s Richie Posner, who he calls the “Magic Man.” Many NWA legends have spoken about Klondike Bill and what he was able to do for the Jim Crockett territory, including the construction of the original War Games cage.
In All Elite Wrestling, their go-to guy for props and “magic” is Charlie Ramone. From gimmicking the now-infamous Shawn Spears steel chair to creating a mask for Anna Jay, that never needed to be used in the first place, to working on several cinematic matches during the pandemic, Charlie Ramone has become a reliable member of the AEW family.
Speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Ramone opens up about his memories of helping put together Stadium Stampede and all of the work that goes into it. Also, he reveals why his favorite moment from this year's Stampede was something that didn't happen.
"If I had to really give a proper share of credit for Stadium Stampede, I would say, Chris Dispenza, and Jess Palumbo [deserve credit also]. The three of us, I wouldn't be able to succeed at all if it weren't for those two, Chris Dispenza being the guy who essentially builds so much of our stuff. Our stage came from Chris Dispenza, a lot of the larger props. If you see somebody go through a case or anything like that, that's Chris Dispenza. Just does an amazing job at getting talent to tell a story in a video, the right way. She has such good experience doing that. So when I work with those two -- Stadium Stampede, working with Chris, working with all these large characters, sometimes can be tough and two kinds of corral them and get them to do what they're supposed to be doing, it's not that easy. So that's where I have to come in. Thankfully, Chris and I have a very good relationship.”
He continued, “Stadium Stampede, from start to finish, was kind of done on the fly. When you're working with those stunt coordinators, they're coming up with everything on the fly, they're looking at their surroundings and saying yes, you could hit this, you can use that a bunch of guys throw them into there. So a lot of it was written without advance notice. So that means if we do that, again, we definitely have to have a good game plan going in. So it doesn't become a day-and-a-half endeavor and we can map that out.”
Regarding his favorite parts of Stadium Stampede, Ramone says he's happy that the Inner Circle did not get their wish and receive clearance to enter the match by repelling down from helicopters. Charlie also says that the experience of transitioning the match from taped to live and seeing the reaction of the audience was a special moment that he will never forget.
“I actually have two. One was the fact that the Inner Circle wanted to repel down from helicopters. So my favorite part of the opening is that it didn't happen because that scared the heck out of me. The liability with that, I didn't want to deal with any of that. Chris [Jericho] made the request and I tried my hardest to facilitate that, and it just didn't come to fruition, thank goodness. So that's actually one of my favorite parts is that it didn't happen.
“But I would say that live portion of it, to go up there, to be working security, and making sure everything went smoothly. To watch them in such a closed setting and listen to those fans. I could hear every single one of them behind me. You're hearing comments like, ‘This is crazy. I can't believe this is happening’. This was the first time back for so many people and it was a packed house. That was one of those moments that I'll never forget. That was a really cool moment just to see it all come out. I know the boys wanted to work their asses off and put on a hell of a show and I could hear the results of it right behind us. It was great.”
Now, AEW has resumed live touring completely and their next show will feature another first time ever for the promotion, a Coffin Match between Darby Allin and Ethan Page. Learn more here.
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