All Elite Wrestling

[The Thread Killer]

So they just announced All Out is going to be in Toronto in September at the Scotiabank Arena. You can seat around 18,000 people in that arena for Pro Wrestling but it depends how they configure the place, of course. They have only sold about 15,000 tickets for All In Texas, and that’s a stadium show, so I assume they will be draping off part of the arena for All Out.

I guess that All Out being in September means Tony Khan figured out that doing All In and All Out on consecutive weekends isn’t going to work, especially if you don’t offer some sort of discount for people who purchase both shows.

I have a buddy who really wants to go, but I don’t live in Toronto anymore, I’m a few hours outside the city now, plus there’s no way I will be able to afford a ticket anyways. Last time they ran Toronto, the tickets were $1,200. They finally came down a few days before the show because they didn’t sell out, but I honestly can’t be bothered. I think my days of going to Live Pro Wrestling shows are over, for a variety of reasons.

EDIT: Oh shit…I just saw somebody mention online that the fact that they are doing the show in Toronto could indicate that this is where they are planning on having the big Cope & Christian vs. FTR match finally. That makes sense.

[El-P]

4 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

Last time they ran Toronto, the tickets were $1,200. 

Seriously, what the fuck ?

I checked the Forbidden Door tickets. Again. I *could* go. But I'm not sure I wanna spend hundreds of euros for a wrestling shows, no matter how great it might be, not even counting the transport and hotel and food and shit in London. I wouldn't mind take some walks in London again, last time I was there was.... eons ago. But fuuuuck this is so ridiculously expensive.

I'm guessing in Toronto they will go full Cope/Christian doing something important, like the tag-team championship against FTR.

[The Thread Killer]

The tickets for All Out in Toronto are now on sale. They are opening around 8,000 seats for this show. From the seating map, it looks like they are going to block off about 1/3 of the arena with the stage. They have already sold 5,600 seats with about 2,400 still available.

The cheapest seats are going for $52.00 so obviously Tony Khan learned his lesson last time around. (Which I would hope he would have considering that last AEW Canadian tour was a total disaster as far as ticket sales. There was that Collision taping in Hamilton where they sold less than 1000 seats in Copps Colliseum.)

I am guessing that if (as speculated) this is the show where Copeland and Christian reunite, they will have no issue selling the rest of those tickets, provided they announce the card well enough in advance and do some local publicity (which is never a guarantee with AEW) because those two guys are so well known here.

[The Thread Killer]

They are now up to over 16,000 tickets sold for All In: Texas. I guess that’s a decent number for them, but I kind of hope they get up to at least 20,000 by July. Even though that’s a respectable amount of tickets sold, this is pretty much their tentpole event this year, and in a big stadium, even that many people might look a little bit sparse, depending on how they have a place configured. I remember those stadium shows that World Class and the AWA used to run, especially the ones in baseball stadiums, and they always looked kind of sad to me. Not to mention you have to worry about the acoustics with an outdoor show.

[El-P]

The fact Beast Mortos is actually a lawyer now and he and Mercedes Moné are dating is funny as hell.

That picture. Pro-wrestling only.

[The Thread Killer]

So apparently the Observer has released ticket sales updates on some upcoming AEW shows. Looking at the figures, it’s really sad at how badly AEW has pretty much killed the Chicago market. This is the place that was essentially the launching pad for their entire promotion, and they could always count on a sold out house packed with rabid fans.

They have tickets on sale right now for an episode of Dynamite that is happening in Chicago in less than a month, and as of right now they have sold 971 tickets. They are taping Collision in Chicago the next night, and they have sold a grand total of 755 tickets for that event.

I’m sure they are running the event in some sort of smaller venue than they used to. I’m sure they will move more tickets closer to the date of the show, and I’m sure they will paper the crowd with giveaways and free promo tickets if it comes to that, but when you consider how hot Chicago used to be for AEW, it’s pretty crazy when you look at how far they have fallen.

I don’t know if it’s because of the whole CM Punk fiasco, or just because they oversaturated that market and kept going back to the well way too many times, but it’s really sad to see.

[PhilTLL]

On 6/6/2025 at 12:36 PM, The Thread Killer said:

 I remember those stadium shows that World Class and the AWA used to run, especially the ones in baseball stadiums, and they always looked kind of sad to me. Not to mention you have to worry about the acoustics with an outdoor show.

Globe Life Field is a baseball stadium, but one with a retractable roof that won't be open in mid-July. They actually advertise (a lot) that it's 72F at all times. And it had major design considerations for non-baseball events. The configuration on TicketMaster right now is a large floor setup with the ring around second base/shallow center, the stage in right field, and then the seating decks are open between ~first and third base. Add in a few lighting tricks, and it should look like any other show.

[Phil Schneider]

My new book AEW: Way of the Blade is now live on Amazon

 

Match write ups, art, and interviews with Moxley, Danielson, Kingston, MJF, Darby, Britt Baker and more

 

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Blade-AEW-Phil-Schneider/dp/1734945982?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.f8euaq9N2yRz__rZFsEwuixGHJfd89YZ_yeL-sUh9Mo.Gg0qJ7rAvw0kBQ4BW3Hdd5DyxXCPCXCuoL5alKJT_hk&qid=1751723069&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=hybridshoot-20&linkId=e704673dddacd9a6de0f88ca734b34c7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

[Sweet Brown Koko]

Awesome! I will definitely be getting this!

[Jmare007]

13 hours ago, Phil Schneider said:

My new book AEW: Way of the Blade is now live on Amazon

 

Match write ups, art, and interviews with Moxley, Danielson, Kingston, MJF, Darby, Britt Baker and more

 

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Blade-AEW-Phil-Schneider/dp/1734945982?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.f8euaq9N2yRz__rZFsEwuixGHJfd89YZ_yeL-sUh9Mo.Gg0qJ7rAvw0kBQ4BW3Hdd5DyxXCPCXCuoL5alKJT_hk&qid=1751723069&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=hybridshoot-20&linkId=e704673dddacd9a6de0f88ca734b34c7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Got this one of Friday. Dope fucking read Phil, I had to keep some matches in the backburner to not read it all in one sit. The interviews you got from Danielson, Mox, MJF, Barreta and TK made it pretty special, as you never heard them talk about these matches anywhere in this kind of level. 

[Phil Schneider]

Thanks! I have really been branching out to doing more interviews in the last couple of years especially for The Ringer and Yahoo and I am really happy with how the interviews for this book turned out.

[El-P]

Longest match ever on Twitch for cancer benefit, by Evil Uno's Mystery Wrestling :

https://www.twitch.tv/eviluno

(as I type this, Stu Grayson is in the ring and Orange is guest announcing !)

[El-P]

Of course Hey! EW with Thekla is awesome.

"See, all I know about Austria is... "

"Hitler !"

(gotta love she dropped some Falco too)

[El-P]

As far as Jericho basically not coming back. Well. He was super instrumental to start the promotion and was super fun for a while. And as someone who was much less harsh on him around here than most, his last year or so was flop after flop. He's 54 and not getting better now. WWE fanboys are gonna act like he's the greatest thing ever when he shows back up (It would be hilarious if it ends up with CM Punk having to eat even more shit though). Honestly, it's kinda whatever. The fact AEW had such a great year thus far and really peaked again while he was gone shows how they have outgrown him. Of course nothing is confirmed yet, but the fact he was nowhere around at All In and stuff like Big Bill and Bryan Keith not coming out as the Learning Tree anymore are kinda telling.

[Robert S]

On 8/20/2025 at 2:16 AM, El-P said:

Of course Hey! EW with Thekla is awesome.

"See, all I know about Austria is... "

"Hitler !"

(gotta love she dropped some Falco too)

"If you called yourself the pedophile killer (...) you would have plenty of opponents [in this business]." - that's a great line

[JRH]

While AEW does a good job marketing to the 18-49 crowd, they could also work well with marketing to a younger audience too (especially with WWE pricing out of the range of casuals and families). Wrestling always does well with kids, and there are plenty of AEW stars who have kid appeal (Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, Bandito, Hologram, Mark Briscoe, Willow Nightingale, even Luchasaurus once they finally turn him back face), so maybe they could have some merchandise aimed at kids (no matter how much they claimed they were marketing to older teens or adults, both WWF and WCW had merch for kids during the NWO/Attitude era). I'm not saying to go full on PG, just appeal to even more fans.

[Stiva]

6 hours ago, El-P said:

As far as Jericho basically not coming back. Well. He was super instrumental to start the promotion and was super fun for a while. And as someone who was much less harsh on him around here than most, his last year or so was flop after flop. He's 54 and not getting better now. WWE fanboys are gonna act like he's the greatest thing ever when he shows back up (It would be hilarious if it ends up with CM Punk having to eat even more shit though). Honestly, it's kinda whatever. The fact AEW had such a great year thus far and really peaked again while he was gone shows how they have outgrown him. Of course nothing is confirmed yet, but the fact he was nowhere around at All In and stuff like Big Bill and Bryan Keith not coming out as the Learning Tree anymore are kinda telling.

TK should make Jericho do the job for Big Bill on the way out. The whole works; full squash, he snaps Floyd the bat over his knee, rips his jacket in half. Really kill off AEW Jericho

[Blehschmidt]

Jericho (and TK) absolutely fucked Big Bill and Bryan Keith leaving the way he did. The pop that was building for that turn was going to be massive and then just leaving to zero comeuppance left the two of them looking like a couple of asshats not to mention them being left totally directionless.

[El-P]

Yeah Jericho absolutely should show up once, get killed by Bill and Keith, and ride into the sunset if he's leaving.

If not, well these two at the very least deserve a rightful push as a tag team.

[sek69]

Jericho leaving is kind of a mixed bag to me. Clearly they don't need him in AEW anymore, and he was quickly getting go away heat with the fans, but having an OG AEW guy (which like it  or not he is) jump to WWE is going to be a blow to the company perception wise. He absolutely should put over Big Bill and Keith on the way out if he's leaving, but I don't see Jericho going for that if he's headed back to WWE. 

Also my favorite moment of the last week or so was after the stuff with Yesca and Demoncito at Triplemania, the backstage interview person asked Harley Cameron where her Mini Mone was, and she just looked right into the camera and deadpanned "no one's doing puppets anymore". I blast-laughed at that.  

[C.S.]

5 hours ago, sek69 said:

He absolutely should put over Big Bill and Keith on the way out if he's leaving, but I don't see Jericho going for that if he's headed back to WWE. 

I don't see why he'd be against it. His WWE return would not be diminished one iota if he lost to Big Bill and Keith. Very few WWE fans would know about it, and not a single one who does would give even 1/5th of a shit.

[strobogo]

13 hours ago, sek69 said:

Jericho leaving is kind of a mixed bag to me. Clearly they don't need him in AEW anymore, and he was quickly getting go away heat with the fans, but having an OG AEW guy (which like it  or not he is) jump to WWE is going to be a blow to the company perception wise. He absolutely should put over Big Bill and Keith on the way out if he's leaving, but I don't see Jericho going for that if he's headed back to WWE. 

Also my favorite moment of the last week or so was after the stuff with Yesca and Demoncito at Triplemania, the backstage interview person asked Harley Cameron where her Mini Mone was, and she just looked right into the camera and deadpanned "no one's doing puppets anymore". I blast-laughed at that.  

I don't think Jericho going back to WWE means anything for the perception of AEW. At all. It's not like a Kenny or even Mox leaving for WWE. I wouldn't even say it's as big perception thing as the Lucha Bros, possibly even Starks leaving, because...Jericho at some point was always going to go back to WWE for HOF and WM/Saudi pay day, and should have the last two contracts but was able to work TK into no doubt overpaying him to underdeliver and be an albatross on TV by floating he would be open to going back to WWE. I don't think it hurts AEW in any way at all to lose Jericho at this stage.

[El-P]

Yeah, Jericho leaving in 2026 at 54 is not gonna be a perception issue in the current landscape. Three years ago ? Sure. Now, he's just gonna be another old guy going back for a fat paycheck and a shitty retirement in WWE. The funny thing is gonna be the online discourse about him though, all of a sudden he'll be the greatest icon ever and still a great wrestler and looking better than he had in years and shit. You know it's going to happen.

[Tetsujin]

It's gonna be hilarious when they use his retirement match at Saturday Night Main Event 2028 against Jey Uso to counter program the sickest All In London in Wembley Stadium card ever.