Did All Elite Wrestling hit a grand slam in Australia?
Of course, as with most things in the sports entertainment business, the answer truly depends on your prospective. With as polarizing as the All Elite product is, with the core fan base willing to die on the hill that somehow star ratings eclipse viewership and ticket sales, and critics that attempt to do their own high spots in an attempt to avoid giving the company any credit, it’s rare that there’s an impartial viewpoint expressed about the Khan-owned organization.
The narrative over the past five years has been fascinating to watch unfold, as the evil corporate empire, and we didn’t know quite how evil Vince McMahon (allegedly) was, had completely soured most of the pro wrestling audience with stagnant programming for several years. At the time, TNA was on the Pursuit Channel with ice fishing as its lead-in programming, and McMahon was set on getting the fans to accept Roman Reigns as the next John Cena. It’s amazing that Roman eventually reached the desired position from the office as the top guy when he was allowed to evolved organically as a performer through a heel run, isn’t it?
Pro wrestling, especially by the mid-2010s, had become more of a viewing pattern out of habit than anything else, and most of the cliche booking from McMahon was a chore to watch rather than an entertaining viewing experience. Sure, independent groups like Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring Of Honor had some of their best years, in terms of popularity for their respective brands, but that was on a much smaller scale. Those that were aware of those independent options found them as an alternative to the bland main stream pro wrestling available at the time.
However, most fans followed the national pro wrestling product, which was the WWE by a large margin because of TNA’s almost nonexistent distribution at the time, with the hope that there would be an upswing in the momentum and thus quality of the product.
Ultimately, that set the stage for the demand and the launch of an alternative product at the major league level. Obviously, one of the many barriers to entry of the sports entertainment industry is, the massive amount of capital needed to fund the start of a product, which in itself doesn’t guarantee distribution as far as a television deal or ticket sales for a national touring schedule as a part of a weekly live broadcast.
It’s not surprising that television executives are much more willing to listen to someone from the family that owns an NFL franchise than a random promoter that might’ve started on the independent level. Tony Khan had the passion and the funding to launch a new wrestling promotion in 2019 that TBS was willing to give a prime time slot to on its line-up. That’s a very rare set pf circumstances, which is why All Elite Wrestling, for all of its rightfully criticisms, is still the best chance the business has for competition, and thus a healthy industry.
Ironically, that’s also why the ups and downs of the past five years are extremely frustrating because the missed opportunities won’t be there again for Tony Khan to make a different decision. Make no mistake about it, if All Elite fizzles out, even if it stays in business, it would set the industry back at least two decades.
That’s why the way that the narrative around the company within at least half of its existence has been as intriguing as it has been frustrating. In some respects, the roles have flipped as far as the perception of the organizations. Vince McMahon was exiled in disgrace, and the WWE has done an exponentially better job in recent years of serving its audience than it had done for most of the latter portion of McMahon’s tenure as the boss. Triple H’s reign of doom throughout the early-2000s when he absolutely used his place in the McMahon family tree to keep a top spot in the company, isn’t remembered for how flat it was at the time. Instead, Triple H is viewed as the head of the company that can appreciate the pure talent that Vince often overlooked and gives the fans more of the product that they support in the arena, which is probably why ticket sales have been consistently strong, despite the higher prices during an uncertain economy.
On the flip side, Tony Khan’s pettiness on social media, his self-serving and cringe worthy appearances on the completely unnecessary post-show press conferences, and the general direction or lack thereof of his product has revealed that his goal wasn’t so much to spark the industry, but rather a vanity project so that he could play promoter in real-life the way that he did years earlier when he booked E-fed storylines on the internet.
By all accounts, Tony Khan is genuinely a great guy that cares about his roster, which is legitimately wonderful, but as I’ve said many times, that doesn’t automatically make him a qualified or successful promoter. Outside of being from a billionaire family that can fund the project for him, what made Tony Khan qualified to run a national promotion? If he wanted to play promoter, running independent cards would’ve been a lot cheaper, but as we’ve seen from the way that he runs AEW, money is no object to Tony so the point is moot.
That’s why in some ways, the fans have soured on the concept of All Elite, because the good will of supporting the cause to change the industry was eroded when the fans realized that on some level that the same support indulges Tony’s self-serving goal to play Vince McMahon. It was a lot easier for the audience to support the original premise of AEW than it is to pay for tickets to the often slapstick programming that is usually seen now.
It should be noted that Grand Slam was originally slated to be held in a stadium, but dismal ticket sales forced the event to be moved to a significantly smaller building. Instead of a potential pay-per-view, the show was an episode of Collision, the secondary program of the All Elite line-up. Fan footage surfaced online of Tony Khan actually being booed by the crowd prior to the start of the taping, which is at least some level of proof of fan dissatisfaction.
The show was very much a reflection of the company itself, it had some very solid hits along with some very misguided misses. The upcoming Moxley/Cope main event at Revolution is more or less a title match that nobody asked for, and the continuous path of the Moxley faction steamrolling everyone without any point or direction is still a very tedious viewing experience. The Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay tag team is still a total misuse of both of their skills. That being said, Toni Storm winning the AEW Women’s championship from Mariah May in her home country was very well done, as the angle had a logical payoff, giving the hometown baby face the championship victory, and the storyline established Mariah May as a credible heel after the early portion of her stint in the company was just as a sidekick. An ankle injury when Buddy Matthews entered the ring before the match started probably hampered the quality of the match with Kazuchika Okada, but again, the hometown baby face challenging for a championship is an easy and effective selling point.
According to The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, the event raked in a $1.3 million gate, proving that there was a demand for the brand in the country. Meltzer also noted that the organization completely sold out of merchandise in the arena. This is where All Elite Wrestling, very similar to the narrative around the company as a whole, continues to shoot itself in the foot. The fact that the company drew $1.3 million in ticket sales is great news, but the much bigger story was that they initially had to move the show from the stadium due to lack of ticket sales, with the reason that it was the bigger story being that sluggish ticket sales domestically in smaller buildings have been an issue for the promotion. Furthermore, selling out of merchandise is usually a good thing, but was this a case of overwhelming demand, or did the organization just not prepare properly? Aside from some empty buildings, one of the other gripes about live events in the United States was the lack of merchandise available, with only a few t-shirt designs stocked at the merchandise stands.
All Elite announced a return to Australia for next year, but despite the success at the gate, will there be the same demand in 2026? Keep in mind, this was AEW’s first ever event in Australia, and we’ve already seen the diminishing returns in the UK from when they set an attendance record in 2023, but then saw a decline of 30,000 tickets sold for Wembley Stadium last year.
The biggest takeaway from the event in Australia is probably that the company did well, but not nearly as well as they could’ve done, which is almost the same statement that can be made about the prospects of the entire project when discussed in hindsight after it was launched in 2019. As mentioned, clearly, there was a demand for AEW in the country, as they drew more than a million dollars, but it’s never good optics when a company has to down size an event because of a lack of ticket sales. Furthermore, the fans in attendance were willing to spend cash on merchandise, but how much money did the promotion leave on the table if there was enough in stock for everything that fans could’ve bought at the event? Obviously, it remains to be seen if the demand for the product will remain the same next year, but it will be interesting to see if there are diminishing returns in the international markets the way that there was a decline in ticket sales in the United States.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
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