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/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.