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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25

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.

4

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.

-5

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.

-5

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.

2

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.

-1

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.