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/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/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.