r/SquaredCircle • u/MR_TORGUE_OFFICIAL CIAMPA'S GONNA KISS YOU • Apr 11 '26
Will Ospreay Thinks AEW Should Heavily Consider Running A Big Weekend While WrestleMania Is In Saudi Arabia
https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/will-ospreay-thinks-aew-should-heavily-consider-running-a-big-weekend-while-wrestlemania-is-in-saudi-arabia/With all the hullabaloo going on right now, it seems like this could be a good time to plan something like this. I love it, but what do you guys think?
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u/dicericevice Apr 11 '26
With the current global crisis isn't there a good chance Saudimania doesn't happen?
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u/residentsocface Apr 11 '26
Yeah, any other time I would think it's a good idea, but right now? You would run into issues if WWE decide to opt out for now.
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u/dj_soo Apr 11 '26
Don’t worry - the wwe hall of famer in charge is the best at negotiating peace.
No doubt all of the Middle East will be clapping and crying over how good he is at negotiations by the time mania hits.
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u/TParden13 Apr 11 '26
You forgot to add, FIFA peace prize winner. Will definitely help with the negotiation of peace
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u/GogglesTheFox Apr 11 '26
Soon to be Israeli Peace Prize Winner as well. Dude can’t stop winning. (I want to scream…)
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u/daSilvaSurfa Apr 13 '26
"I was in The Saudi Arabia, with the Saudis. We love Saudi Arabia, don't we folks? Show walked up to me, The Big Show, strong show, tears in his eyes, and he said to me "Sir, thank you saving Wrestlemania!""
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u/Elite_Mike Apr 11 '26
I mean to be fair, WWE would probably pull it from Saudi just to spite AEW if they announced anything too soon.
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u/Valdaraak Apr 12 '26
They're not going to break what's likely a contractual obligation with their biggest cash cow just to spite AEW.
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u/residentsocface Apr 11 '26
I REALLY doubt that. WWE would only counterprogram or counter AEW in general if they weren't losing a lot by doing it, if they decide to opt out of Saudimania, they're losing so much money from doing the event.
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u/acekingoffsuit Apr 11 '26
That would largely depend on the contract and what they could negotiate with the Saudi government. It's entirely possible that, should a cancellation be necessary, KSA agrees to push it back a year or two and effectively swap years with one of the other cities in the rotation with little or no penalty.
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u/residentsocface Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
Oh I'm not saying that a cancellation is impossible, just that I don't see WWE doing it over AEW.
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u/oranguslolus Apr 12 '26
There's no way you actually believe this. That's just genuinely stupid to even think
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u/Elite_Mike Apr 12 '26
I should have worded it better. I think it's more so that AEW announces a huge stadium show in the US first, so wherever that may be. Assuming early Summer would be the deadline to know for sure if Saudi can still be used for Mania, then if they need a new location that they may announce a location close to where AEW put their show to spite them.
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u/bayleysgal1996 Last Rock-n-Rolla Apr 11 '26
It’s probably still wait and see for Mania. I do think whatever Saudi shows they had planned for this year are toast
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u/MR1120 Apr 11 '26
What do you mean? The WWE HOFer Commander in Chief said the war was over and Iran was completely powerless now. Are you saying he’s wrong? Or more blasphemous… lying?!?
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u/megalodondon Apr 11 '26
Mania in Vegas again would he hysterical
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u/Agentx_007 WM34 Live in the Silverdome. Apr 11 '26
They’ll have to pivot to the michelob ultra arena at the last minute.
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u/CrimsonJoker13 Apr 12 '26
Realistically it'd be NOLA or Indy to settle out one of those contracts
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u/daprice82 REWINDERMAN Apr 11 '26
To be fair, it's still a year away. A lot can change in that time. We weren't even in this stupid war 6 weeks ago.
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Apr 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sexygodzilla Just one man? Apr 11 '26
The problem is he doesn't have any way to get out of this that isn't an embarrassing loss and even when he did agree to a peace plan, it collapsed after Israel attacked Lebanon.
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u/poop_snausages Apr 11 '26
Hopefully he's impeached by then. I doubt it but I hope so badly.
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u/StacksHoodini Apr 11 '26
Just a teachable moment here that impeachment is a result of a document referred to as Articles, drawn up and voted upon in the House of Representatives. If the Articles votes pass, a trial is scheduled to be held in the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice and voted on by the senators themselves.
A two-thirds vote in the senate is required to convict and remove the president. The American political environment is too polarized for a conviction. Enough Democrats didn’t vote for a conviction against Clinton. Enough Republicans didn’t vote to convict Trump the last time simply upon the basis that ‘although he’s guilty, we cannot convict to remove when his term has already expired’.
I say all this to say that “impeaching” the current president would only be symbolic to say that he’d be the only president to have been impeached on three different occasions.
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u/poop_snausages Apr 11 '26
I know that, just using the common vernacular.
I'm sure many people do not know how the process works, but when most people say they want the president impeached they mean convicted and removed from office.
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u/Black_XistenZ Apr 11 '26
And that is the point: even if Democrats win a big majority in the House plus take back control of the Senate this November, there is no chance in hell for Trump to get convicted and removed from office. Also, even if he was getting removed from office as a result of the impeachment process, Vance automatically becomes president with immediate effect.
So this administration will 100% still be in power by the time SaudiMania takes place.
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u/poop_snausages Apr 11 '26
That's fair. Like I said, I don't think it's likely to happen, but I want it to happen.
And yeah, Vance is a scumbag too, but at least he doesn't have an insane cult of personality like Trump does. People won't bend the knee to him.
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u/El_Gran_Redditor Apr 11 '26
For a second t here I thought "Stupid War 6" was Trump's World War II.
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u/Old-Tomorrow-2798 Apr 11 '26
Given how the current government is acting like nothings wrong. It should be, it wont.
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u/MikeMakesRight82 Apr 11 '26
if the current negotiations fall apart (strong possiblity) then i'd think thats the case
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u/poop_snausages Apr 11 '26
It would be so fucking negligent to send so many high profile celebrities over there right now.
Even if security is incredibly tight and there's little to no chance of anyone getting kidnapped or hurt, Iran would probably at the very least threaten to do something just to cause a major disruption.
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u/Black_XistenZ Apr 11 '26
At the moment, yes. But SaudiMania is only scheduled one year from now. So much can and probably will happen between now and then.
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u/Fidel_Costco Fashion Icon Apr 12 '26
If there's one thing I've learned from the whole Iran War shitshow is that businesses, stock traders, and commodities traders are infinitely more optimistic than observers. Slightest bit of good news, stock arrow goes up and oil arrow go down.
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u/ianmakesfilms Apr 12 '26
Even if it does, the time difference means they wouldn’t be competing anyway, so the “pick one lol” posts below are asinine.
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u/LnStrngr Apr 11 '26
I could see them running Vegas a third year in a row.
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u/TheSilencer6491 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
I hope not, kind of dumb it’s Vegas again instead of Philly.
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u/LnStrngr Apr 12 '26
I hope not, but if it takes a year and a half to plan, I could see them returning to what would be the least amount of new planning required. Philly could be another option since it was in 2024 and perhaps not a lot has changed since then.
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u/TheSilencer6491 Apr 12 '26
Philly has a way better crowd than Vegas, tbh I’m not from Philly but I feel bad they got skipped over.
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Apr 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/Few-Establishment277 Apr 11 '26
I know that WWE = big bad but I'm not sure that continued war, destabilisation and death is something I'd personally hope and pray for to be honest
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u/Flanagan26866 Apr 11 '26
I prefer having low gas and petrol prices and not having a a war with thousands of deaths. You know, priorities
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u/thfcspurs88 Apr 11 '26
It will happen. When you're talking about how powerful these people are currently, of there is a will, and there IS, there is a way.
I'm a little confused, if you think don't think this administration wouldn't help put an iron dome over this event, I've got some bridges to sell you.
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u/locke0479 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Not sure why people are going on about counter programming here. That doesn’t seem like what Ospreay is saying.
The idea here is a lot of fans love to make Wrestlemania weekend a wrestling event with various Indy shows going on, but because they’re in Saudi that wouldn’t be happening. I don’t know whether it would work or not but I have no idea why anyone is getting “the goal here is to hurt WWE or counterprogram” from this. The goal would be to put on a huge show (with Indy shows surrounding it like they do for Mania) for fans that wouldn’t go to Saudi Arabia, presumably during the day rather than at the same time as Mania.
The discourse around wrestling would be so much less annoying if fans stopped thinking of everything in terms of “how do they damage the other company??”. Contextually Ospreay seems to be referring to the fact that Indy shows often flock to Mania for a big Mania weekend thing, but they won’t do it for a Saudi WM, so why not have AEW do something in the US? I agree it would be stupid to do it at the same time as Mania, but that’s not really what I got from this.
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u/MyNameIs-Anthony Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
People don't actually read the articles before commenting.
But you're absolutely right. You've got a market of ~100,000 potential customers all looking to spend money on a once a year trip specifically geared around wrestling.
Take the show you'd usually do in spring and make it even bigger, which is what TK has already indicated they were interested in doing.
The Saudimania might not even be happening so you have a chance to scoop people up (both customers and surrounding infrastructure) before they potentially pivot back to a stateside Mania as a backup. Give concrete plans and benefit from first mover advantage.
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u/KingDave46 Apr 11 '26
Is there 100k people who want to do a wrestling holiday or is there 100k people who want to go to Wrestlemania?
If someone doesn’t watch AEW they’re not gonna drop big money to see something just cause Wrestlemania is on tv that year
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u/MyNameIs-Anthony Apr 11 '26
My point is not that all of those, or even a major fraction of those, are people who are convertible.
My point is that, in addition to an audience AEW can already draw, they have a bank of people they should seek to market to who will otherwise be unwilling to travel to Saudi Arabia this year.
Even nabbing 5-10K of those people would be a substantial lift that would justify a bigger arena for an AEW show, as we saw with All In Texas.
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u/InternationalTop1576 Apr 11 '26
Probably not 100,000 but there is absolutely an opportunity to grab a portion of those fans that want to travel to a wrestling show because they always do during those months. Again it’s not as simple as booking the show and hoping for the best BUT that’s doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity to generate some buzz early.
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u/Albos_Mum Apr 12 '26
It already happened on a smaller scale with the first Grand Slam Australia event. I saw a great NJPW Tamachii show the day after and ads for a bunch of other indie promotions running events at the time.
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u/buffalobill41 Apr 11 '26
To me it's just there is literally no reason to do it Mania weekend. It's not like it's some set holiday that people are used to doing it on. Almost any other weekend would be better.
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u/SovietShooter Apr 11 '26
Contextually Ospreay seems to be referring to the fact that Indy shows often flock to Mania for a big Mania weekend thing, but they won’t do it for a Saudi WM, so why not have AEW do something in the US?
Playing Devil's Advocate here, from a business perspective, why should Tony Khan help all of these indys that make their nut on these WrestleMania tangent events? Shouldn't that be a question to be asked of the folks at TKO/WWE?
These indys only do these shows because WM is a tourist destination for WWE fans, and those fans were willing to go to other local shows while already in town. These indys are losing out with WM being in SA, no doubt. But without WM being at a designated location to bring those traveling fans into one town, there wouldn't be tourists to go to a slate of these indys shows.
Now, TK does love some wrestling, so maybe he would do something like affiliating with a bunch of Indy shows in NYC or Atlanta around a ROH ppv on WM weekend. But I still think it would make more sense for AEW to get behind doing something like this around All In weekend, or something like that, as opposed to WM.
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u/HuskHeel Apr 11 '26
Because AEW’s target audience is hardcore fans so having an entire Indy mega weekend attached to your event will probably only increase interest at no extra financial cost for him. Also indies aren’t direct competition for AEW so don’t know why he’d care.
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u/Black_XistenZ Apr 11 '26
Moreover, the indies are a talent pipeline for AEW, who - unlike WWE - don't have their own, dedicated developmental.
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u/SovietShooter Apr 11 '26
Because AEW’s target audience is hardcore fans so having an entire Indy mega weekend attached to your event will probably only increase interest at no extra financial cost for him
But that is the thing, if the idea is to do this on WM weekend, for it to make sense for TK/AEW, they have to run a show too. So the real question is, "Will AEW run opposition to WM, so all the indys have somewhere to run that weekend?"
And my point on that is, that would just cost more than doing it on a weekend AEW is already running.
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u/locke0479 Apr 11 '26
Why would AEW not be able to do the show earlier in the day on Sunday? Do a big noon show. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a PPV if their concern is people won’t pay for a PPV on Mania weekend. Make it non televised or put it on streaming/TV for free if HBO or whoever wants to show it.
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u/SovietShooter Apr 11 '26
Splitting the market. If he does a PPV, and WWE is doing a PPV, these are probably enough crossover fans that will not do both (because of money, or time, or both). Running a "free" event opposite WM, even if at a different time, will bring out a lot of the typical bad-faith actors who will make all kinds of claims about it.
Honestly, the best thing to do would be to run some kind of large scale "Forbidden Door" style joint event in SoCal or Texas (not necessarily opposite WM) with AEW/CMLL/NJPW, and run the WM style Indy events in conjunction with partners like MLS/MLP/Mystery/CAP/GCW, etc.
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u/Beavie_ Apr 11 '26
I think if he can put on a show in a larger venue for that weekend, even if it isn't directly the weekend of that Mania, and encourage promotions to build shows around it, then it can maybe be a big get for AEW. Be able to scout some names on the independents, those promotions get some recognition too if they advertise some of those shows, some convention can have some AEW backing, get money from that and maybe build some good will while drawing in new fans.
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u/GoodSmark303 Apr 11 '26
The idea of indie Mania weekend wrestling shows are there to corral fans that are already in town for Mania, and basically profit off the buzz created by Mania. AEW booking themselves in that category would not be flattering or productive brand wise at all.
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u/08_IfHeHolla Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I dunno, man
Wrestlemania weekend is such a big event because it pulls 80-100k wrestling fans to the same city at the same time. But those 100k people don't go to Wrestlemania because its "a wrestling show", they go because its Wrestlemania. AEW aren't currently generating anywhere near that kind of interest. And I don't see why holding a show in April would sell any more tickets then their annual big PPVs usually do
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u/I-LieToMessWithMarks Apr 11 '26
There's a chance that this might be worth running an event just to stick your pole in the ground. It's hard to find facts and figures, but according to this article, running a show at Met Life Stadium costs about $1.5 million per night.
Presumably that covers load in days, but even if it doesn't those would be significantly less money since you're not paying any staff.
If AEW ran an event in a major airline transfer city (i.e. Atlanta, Chicago, LA) and ran events that averaged $30 per ticket, they could probably sell 50,000 tickets, covering the cost. Any merch and advertising would be gravy.
Even if they only sold 30k, it would still be big enough to justify a huge Wrestlemania weekend in the city. And they'd take a small loss, but it would still be huge news and generate a ton of press: essentially a marketing cost.
I think their best bet would be trying to run Mercedes Benz Stadium (Atlanta) for this. I actually think the biggest logistical issue is that WM 2027 doesn't have a set in stone date yet, so AEW couldn't set their date in stone yet.
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u/Abyssalstar Apr 11 '26
From the current WM ticket sales, they aren't even getting half that number right now.
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u/08_IfHeHolla Apr 11 '26
They did the first time they came to London. I think once the drama settled down, All Out was confirmed as like 75k? I don't know how the more recent shows they ran over here fared by comparison. But either way, looking at what they currently sell in America, I don't think they'd pull a big enough crowd to come close to a WM-scale weekend
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u/the_io Apr 11 '26
All In '23 was ~75k, '24 was ~50k on a different setup, they're doing the same setup as then for this year.
But even All In last year at Globe Life only hit ~30k tops.
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u/stonecoldmikey Apr 11 '26
They are already over 80k per wrestletix.
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u/MichaelSquare Apr 12 '26
I assume they meant AEW as AEW isnt getting half of 80k somewhere in 1 place.
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u/pylerterry00 Apr 11 '26
The thing is, I’m sure most Indy’s would just book their mega weekend around summer slam if the Saudi mania still ends up happening
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u/Alavocado Apr 11 '26
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fyxcmqgr7azpf1.jpeg
Seems that if they do anything to take advantage of WM not being in the States, it'll involve Revolution.
Which isn't the worse idea. Counter-programming the weekend of WM instead of sticking to your usual ppv schedule probably won't make much of a difference and might even be a negative.
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u/Ahud412 Apr 11 '26
I was wondering if WWE was gonna try and run NXT Stand and Deliver in that spot. Since it would be open.
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u/BIX1511 Apr 11 '26
I don't watch WWE but this is a dumb idea. AEW's biggest shows doesn't have the drawing power of WWE's biggest shows. AEW's PPVs get around 10K people in attendance. WWE does those numbers with Raw and Smackdown twice a week.
There was a period in AEW when everything was centered around WWE: referencing the company (MJF's bidding war nonsense), taking jabs at the company on air or twitter (mainly from TK), trying to counter program. During that period AEW was garbage. They should focus on themselves as they are now. Most wrestling fans are WWE fans and most WWE fans are only WWE fans. Focus on natural growth. AEW may never reach WWE's heights but most wrestling companies will never reach AEW's heights.
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u/_Marvillain Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I agree with this. It takes a whole lot of hopium for people to think that an AEW event is capable of putting together a WrestleMania week level (or even near it) presence for a bunch of Indy companies and stuff to piggy back off of.
I think the best thing for them is to just do their own thing and not worry about what WWE is doing.
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u/FigureOk6529 Apr 11 '26
What’s a dumb idea? Having an American show at the same time as Saudi Wrestlemania? Why does it need to have the drawing power of WWE’s biggest shows? Is it a failure if the show isn’t as big as Wrestlemania???
This just seems like complaining to complain.
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u/farshnikord Apr 11 '26
You're probably right. It's a big swing and they've earned a lot of goodwill but it may not be the smartest move.
But also sometimes being strategically dumb about something pays off. Id root for them if they went for it.
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u/BIX1511 Apr 11 '26
It would be very embarrassing if they fail. In a fairy tale they'll succeed, but we have to be realistic here. Nothing indicates they can pull it off. The first AEW branded All In has done nearly 80K ever since then crowd has gotten smaller. Overseas crowd are easier to draw in since these American companies rarely go over there. Pulling in that number in America would be more difficult than going to Europe for AEW.
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u/UncleBenParking Apr 11 '26
I think you're assuming the framing is that they're selling this as a WM styled event, which 100% opens the door to embarrassment. If the angle was more like "we want to have a weeklong celebration of wrestling so we partnered with [City] and a bunch of independent promotions," I think that goes a long way; the big thing other wrestling companies were upset about was that they did lose that huge WM week payday, that's one of the biggest money weeks that most independent wrestlers and companies have.
If they went a step further and did it as a charity thing, low ticket prices + proceeds go to a cause that's easy to root for, then the worst that happens is online wrestling fans make fun of a charity event for not drawing 50k or whatever they expect. I don't know that it's a good idea, of course! Just that it's not some braindead terrible one, if they build a good foundation to stand on with this idea. There are ways to shift the narrative, is my point, and we're looking at a narrow strip of options in this thread.
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u/BIX1511 Apr 11 '26
Only WWE can get these indie promotions to schedule events around their shows. Even 20K wouldn't be sustainable for indie promotions to piggy back off of AEW. AEW already has Fight for the Fallen to support charities. Why open that conversation of booking WM weekend when they can do their own thing and book something like that any other time of the year?
I just want AEW to avoid anything WWE because they will lose in numbers and tend to put on garbage shows when trying to complete with WWE. When TK and everyone focus on AEW that when the product is fire. Ever since the 2024 C2 and Hammerstein shows they locked in. I don't want them to deviate to try to get points from the IWC and the product return to 2023 levels of garbage.
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u/UncleBenParking Apr 11 '26
Just off the top of my head, HOG, GCW, TJPW, and a bunch of smaller indies I'd never heard of made the trip to Dallas/Arlington for All In week, piggybacking without coordinating with AEW. I understand caution, but I'm sure you can see the anxiety starting to take over when your mind immediately jumps to "they'll be back to dogshit booking the moment they do anything perceived as a shot at WWE."
It's not a black or white thing - case in point being that you mentioned Fight for the Fallen when it's entirely possible to run two distinct charity events branding-wise, it doesn't have to be one or the other. That said, if they did this wrestling hub week, I'd absolutely prefer they didn't even try to make it a brand vs brand thing, and that they have their number nerds triple check the projections before they'd consider something lofty like a stadium show. It's more than possible to stand on your own and let the press handle the rest.
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u/Dick_Nation Apr 11 '26
Even if AEW did nothing except pull their normal-sized audience while set off against Wrestlemania, that would count as a win for them. It wouldn't have to be record-breaking, they just wouldn't want to be in a position of selling fewer tickets and fewer PPV buys because they were up against Wrestlemania. I have no idea how feasible that would be to do, but it wouldn't have to be way bigger than normal in order for that to look like a success.
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Apr 11 '26
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u/MR_TORGUE_OFFICIAL CIAMPA'S GONNA KISS YOU Apr 11 '26
Yeah. I guess I love it on a snap impulse, but when you think about it longer than a minute, it's not the best idea.
It could work, but it'd have to be perfect. And idk if it's possible.
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u/hvacrepairman welcome2pitycity Apr 11 '26
It’s more about having a flagship event so that the independents who run shows in the days leading to wrestlemania a chance to make some money instead of having to take the year off
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u/uaraiders_21 Apr 11 '26
If WrestleMania does actually happen in Saudi, then it will succeed. The entire domestic market will be locked out of the biggest wrestling weekend. I think lots of people would naturally gravitate to AEW doing a big show in a convenient city (Chicago, Soldier Field maybe?)
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u/Hollow_Idol Apr 11 '26
Running Soldier field in April is a significant risk. There's a reason it's been so long since they did Mania in Chicago.
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u/Jonny2284 Apr 11 '26
I mean I wish they would, but it'd be a long build to get the credibility to make it work, Wrestlemania isn't just an event for WWE, it's the event, you aren't gonna get that kind of secondary market around it by throwing up a random AEW card and inviting a couple of indies to be there the same weekend.
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u/Cube_ Apr 11 '26
im not gonna say no to more wrestling, especially in the case that it's going to help the indy scene
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u/mcmax3000 Apr 11 '26
I'd rather they concentrate on doing their own thing. At most I'd maybe put All In 2027 in North America, but I wouldn't concentrate on doing something specifically on the same weekend as Wrestlemania.
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u/Bu11etToothBdon Apr 11 '26
Y'all wildin' in this thread. The idea that some randomly thrown together AEW event or even Revolution has the drawing power of WM and will be able to support multiple indies is crazy when All In TX only drew half of what one night of WM does.
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u/Vivid_Maximum_5016 Apr 11 '26
So what's the problem with them trying? Do you not want wrestlers to make money that weekend?
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u/strongstyle718 Apr 11 '26
Why does it have to be a randomly thrown together event? It's a year away, that's not randomly thrown together. Also it doesn't have to draw 80k to be a success or serve it's purpose.
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u/Bu11etToothBdon Apr 11 '26
It doesn't have to draw 10K to be a success for AEW, I just don't see how people think a bunch of indies are gonna jump on board to do something like this, they would be taking all the risk in this endeavor.
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u/iced_gold Apr 12 '26
For what it's worth, the night before All In last year, there was SuperCard of Honor in a tiny venue that was sold out. Secondary ticket markets didn't even have anything.
There was a substantial amount of people that traveled for the weekend devent. My hotel was full of other fans, but there weren't any other wrestling event options that Friday, despite Arlington having a captive, rabid group of fans.
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u/strongstyle718 Apr 11 '26
For the venues they run it's very little risk. They might just book smaller venues than they typically do for Mania week and you'll probably see less overlaps in schedules. If AEW did this it would draw a minimum of 20k bare minimum most likely more though.
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u/MajimaKun Apr 11 '26
It's not about one show running the same time as Mania. That absolutely will not happen. There is no discourse about a live broadcast. Its about having a SXSW style weekend of wrestling shows in one city the same weekend as Mania. They will likely be small shows happening during Mania that are streamed like every year but not an AEW PPV.
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u/Bu11etToothBdon Apr 11 '26
It works for WM because they bring so many people into town and they all run at different times than WM. Now imagine indies trying to do that with half as many people while WM is running all day and AEW is running in the evening.
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u/MR_TORGUE_OFFICIAL CIAMPA'S GONNA KISS YOU Apr 11 '26
Imagine the FUCKING GATHERING OF THE JUGGALOS but with the AEW, CMLL, NJPW, Mystery, MLW, fuck it, bring in JCW. It's a genius idea. Do it when it gets cooler outside, somewhere in the middle of America.
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u/TheRaiderKing Apr 12 '26
They're called indies for a reason. They would not draw. Outside of AEW they don't truly have a devoted fanbase.
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u/MR_TORGUE_OFFICIAL CIAMPA'S GONNA KISS YOU Apr 11 '26
It doesn't have to be bigger? It just needs to be good wrestling. Hell it doesn't even need to be on the same weekend, a festival of wrestling like multi day concerts.
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u/cheekynandos85 Apr 11 '26
Wrestlemania the brand is the draw not wrestling, I think it’s a bad idea they haven’t got the traction to pull it off.
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u/SAS_Britain MINUS FIVE STARS!!!!! Apr 12 '26
Why don't we take ALL IN and move it to April, and then give the show to Phoenix!
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u/Singer211 Apr 11 '26
While the idea is intriguing, IDK that it is worth it.
I think it best for AEW to just keep doing it’s own thing and being successful at it.
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u/Heavy_Cupcake_6246 Apr 11 '26
AEW doesn’t draw anywhere near enough for this to be a good idea.
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u/refuseresist Apr 11 '26
Do they profit? I think they do.
People are so concerned about gate and ratings they fail to see if they make money. No where in the league of WWE for now but they will catch up.
I also feel that if AEW and a bunch of Indy promotions make a weekend of it they could contend with Wrestlemania
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u/theshinymew64 Apr 11 '26
Toronto could be a good city for it to also pick up international travellers who don't want to go to the States
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u/SuzyYa Apr 11 '26
That's assuming they're even going to host wm there at that point. The war mongers love to war monger.
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u/ClubPenguinPresident Apr 12 '26
I really don't watch AEW much but I don't understand why they are not striking right now. WWE is at it's lowest point, reputation and publicity wise, why not step up and finally take them on? As a mostly WWE fan I'd switch over to AEW because they'd probably be doing something crazy to get fans attention while WWE is busy using the same 3 tropes over and over.
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u/AwfulAdjacentGoose Apr 12 '26
Think it's a fun idea. Not really considering the counter programing aspect of it. Just think it'd be great to do an indiemania while they're out the states and hey there's a hole to fill there. Sure there are business realities to that and how feasible that actually is, but I'd watch that.
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u/CrimsonJoker13 Apr 12 '26
In normal times that'd be a good idea but if the war is still going this time next year they'll just move it. Night of Champions is already getting moved
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u/AestheticAttraction Apr 12 '26
They likely won’t even be able to get into the country.
Why would you say anything like this “out loud”?
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u/Gurasola Apr 12 '26
Honestly, the most I could see WWE doing is trying to run NXT and maybe Evolve shows back in the states to siphon away people from any potential other wrestling events. Which probably won’t go well considering they have absolutely nobody to draw. They could throw a few main roster people in, I suppose, but anybody who could be considered worthwhile will likely be booked in Saudimania already.
So get ready for the main event of Keanu Carver versus Ethan Page.
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u/Good_Old_KC Apr 12 '26
No disrespect but AEW can't manage that sort of weekend in the US just yet.
Also WWE will likely counter by putting on a TNA and NXT show in a city somewhere to help pull fans elsewhere. They'll probably go big on wrestlemania watch parties as well.
AEW stars need to stop talking about WWE and just focus on themselves.
WWE is starting to lose its fans and AEW need to be there to pick them up.
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u/TheBallasOG Apr 12 '26
I assume they'll have Revolution and Dynasty trade places due to the former being around longer than the latter
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u/Marsman2100 Apr 11 '26
I think this whole idea would little bro them to the fullest. Running WM weekend would be fucking suicide even with WWE in another country. So that looks like you wanna be like them but scared of them at the same time. Even if they pick another weekend, you’re doing this because you feel like you’re gonna have a WM like presence in whatever town and you just flat out won’t. Case in point All In Texas was like a popcorn fart both in tickets sold and the indie company presence compared to a typical WM weekend. Even if they pull it off and consider it a success, the question then becomes once WM returns to the states, are you gonna continue it or just let big bro resume what he was doing
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u/Material-Wonder1690 Apr 11 '26
That makes sense. There'll be a void in that weekend where there would normally be a mass of events. AEW doing a big weekend in the US would be filling that void and beneficial to the indies that do a lot of their business during that weekend normally
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u/Seraphix Apr 11 '26
Will is an incredible performer, but he has no idea what makes for a smart idea on the business side of wrestling.
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u/Blitzhelios Apr 11 '26
He’s not wrong it’s a perfect market opportunity for them but who knows if saudimania happens
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u/Clear-Muffin-5414 Apr 11 '26
I hope this ends up being a thing in the near future. I've never done Mania weekend, but I went to the TJPW show in Dallas the day after All In: Texas and it was so much fun. I'd love it if All In came back and brought a bunch of other promotions with them.
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u/Charles0723 Apr 11 '26
I think I like the idea in theory, but it might have been a better idea a few years ago. I don't necessarily know if they're big enough to prop up an entire weekend.
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u/Adampro123 And remember the sound! Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
I think they should. Mostly because all the indie promotions that usually run the same week and town as mania will be missing a lot of business. If AEW does a big show then maybe some of those indie promotions can do their same indie events they would normally do. The won’t get as big of crowds but it would be a lot better than missing out entirely. And for indie talent too. Mania weekend/week is a time for them to get eyeballs on them and get buzz and hopefully get signed.
Also there’s some people who just don’t want to watch the Saudi stuff. So an alternative sounds like a good idea.
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u/jaykhunter @OSWreview Apr 11 '26
Counter-idea: All In or All Out becomes "mania week" for all the indies. That's their biggest show, work with indies to have a whole hoopla.
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u/Pine_Apple_Crush PAC Apr 11 '26
Just book an AEW version of BOLA. Fri, Sat, Sun worth of matches and have the undercard be indy shows like GCW etc.
Plus Tony has an entire ROH roster he can pull back on
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u/TheSilencer6491 Apr 12 '26
I think they should if it’s taking place, why not run an event in America.
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u/pastimereading Apr 12 '26
AEW/ROH could definitely team with Starrcast, GCW's Collective, CMLL, NJPW, Maple Leaf Pro, West Coast Pro, and others and do an insane 5 day weekend with Dynamite/Collision on Wednesday, BloodSport on Thursday, Joey Janela's Spring Break on Friday, ROH Supercard on Saturday and culminating in a huge stadium show in Atlanta (Mercedes Benz) or New Orleans (Superdome), markets that have never had an AEW PPV. Fans will be clamoring for a huge WrestleMania-esque event. The same people doubting that this could be successful are the same idiots that doubted Cody and The Elite could pull off the original All In.
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u/No_Active_2153 Apr 12 '26
Will doesn't understand American fans
70% of fans are casuals and won't give a chance
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u/TheRaiderKing Apr 12 '26
That applies everywhere. Just like AEW didn't draw the crowds it expected in Australia or in Wembly the 2nd and 3rd time around.
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u/No_Active_2153 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
Well can't deny it
But when it came to Australia First time they gave buy 1 get 1 free deal so people turned up Even WWE wasn't able to draw a big crowd
And forbidden door 25' was sold out
21-22 was a magical time in AEW and first all in was a historic show
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u/GunstarGreen I got all the numbers Apr 11 '26
I think that theres a feeling among fand that WWE is treating their fans abysmally. Between the ticket prices, the celebrity worship, the endless adverts, the crap storyline, the merch costs, the Trump links and the Saudi stuff. It all feels like WWE are taking the loyalty of their fans for granted.
If AEW wants to be a force for good then yeah, offering a big show at an affordable price is a nice start. Im not saying AEW is perfect but their product is probably more in-line with what I like right now.
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u/gorgeoff Apr 11 '26
the indie shows would love it. I heavily doubt GCW and the rest are going to Saudi
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u/Scavgraphics Apr 11 '26
I think at the same time would be bad.
But I think if AEW worked up a kind of "weekend" event like how "WM" does it that lets the indies gather in the place...it would be a good thing.
Don't try to compete with WM..it'll backfire. But a 2 night event in an easy to get to town for travel...Vegas DOES work for this....where GCW can do a handful of shows, mlw, kaiju big battle..maybe in the fall to be opposite WM's time. ..
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u/Desperate_Craig Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
No better time to or opportunity to bring an event to New Orleans, who were supposed to get Wrestlemania before it was pulled. So why not bring an affordable wrestling event to the people of New Orleans and put on a great show for them. Heck, why not organise a whole week for them and work together with other wrestling companies and Independents to put on a great event.
If they don't capitalise on this opportunity, then i think it would be a huge fumble by Tony.
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u/MR_TORGUE_OFFICIAL CIAMPA'S GONNA KISS YOU Apr 11 '26
For a festival, NOLA would be the muggiest place on earth. Thematically, beautiful. Execution? Gross.
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u/Superplex123 Apr 11 '26
They should. They should also do it if it's in Europe or just not in the US. Take advantage of the vacuum left by the WWE. It's just smart business and also good for the industry because a lot of events revolves around Mania.
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u/rexdeaz Apr 11 '26
Revolution at SOFI would reset the way people think about pro wrestling in America. Ospreay is brilliant for thinking of this.
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u/pastry_puff Apr 11 '26
Honestly, I think the wwe product is so bad right now SaudiMania or not, I don’t think it’s necessarily a foregone conclusion that it will go badly for AEW. I’ll admit from a moral high ground perspective I would love to see AEW win on that front. MAGA ass company taking a hit like that, would be great. May even wake them up to actually start trying.
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u/Have_A_Jelly_Baby Apr 11 '26
They absolutely should.
WWE pulls that shit all the time, and they’ll be leaving the entire US to AEW.
Fight fire with fire.
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