With this week’s episode of Dynamite in the books, All Elite Wrestling is headed toward its second Wembley stadium show this weekend. Last year, with the demand that the European market had for live events, AEW sold over 80,000 tickets for their London debut. It was also the same night that CM punk and Jack Perry got into a backstage scuffle, leading to the firing of the real-life Phil Brooks, and it further added to the criticism that the promotion wasn’t organized or run in a truly professional manner.
Some of that, as recently just a few weeks ago, with the reported backstage confrontation between Britt Baker and MJF’s girlfriend, Alica Atout is still a part of the narrative of the organization.
In the time since their debut in Wembley, AEW has seen its share of negative publicity, as well as questions about the true potential of the upstart organization that was started by the Khan family five years ago. Since the last time All Elite was in London, CM punk made a shocking return to the WWE and almost immediately became one of the biggest stars in the company. Jade Cargill made a successful debut for the WWE, and while she’s still somewhat of a project, she was perceived as a bigger star in a matter of weeks in the WWE than she was during a few years under the All Elite banner. Ethan Page, a talented athlete that got completely lost in the shuffle for three years in AEW, is the current NXT champion. Finally, Cody Rhodes ascended to the top spot of the WWE when the audience soured on him in All Elite Wrestling just two years earlier.
From the All Elite side, Tony Khan continued to sign a slew of talent, including Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay to the roster. Furthermore, he signed the former Sasha Banks, Mercedes Mone. All things considered, Ospreay is probably the only new acquisition that has truly shown any glimpse of being worth the investment. As spectacular as Kazuchika Okada was during his New Japan tenure, he’s either unmotivated without an angle of any importance or he’s just coasting on his reputation to collect some easy money in the latter portion of his career. Okada worked a very physical style for several years in his native country, but the bottom line is, he was paid top dollar to relocate to the United States to be full-time with AEW so the reality of if the company will see a realistic return on the investment of the contract should be taken into account. Outside of a tremendous pay-per-view bout against Pac, the week-to-week presentation from Okada has been underwhelming.
Will Ospreay is one of the best of his generation and by the time he hangs up his boots, the potential is there for him to be known as one of the greatest of all time. That remains to be seen, simply because injuries can greatly hinder the trajectory of a career, but assuming that Ospreay can stay healthy, AEW has an all-time great performer on its roster for the prime of his career. Mercedes Mone is on the other end of the spectrum in some ways. She started her career very popular in the WWE before she walked out of the company a few years ago. The online speculation was that Sasha Banks was difficult to work with and perhaps that’s why she chose to work for AEW instead of WWE when she resurfaced from a broken ankle that she suffered during a New Japan show. Ironically, Mercedes was in attendance at Wembley Stadium last year. To say that her current stint in AEW fell short of expectations would be understatement, at least in my view. Don’t give me wrong, if Mercedes can talk up her value and then cash in big money working for Tony then good for her, that’s the entire point of the business, but that doesn’t change the fact that her impact on AEW by any metric hasn’t been equal to her hefty contract. Mercedes’ promos sounded flat and uninspiring. The die hard AEW audience has already branded her a flop, and that essentially is what cast her in a heel role for the current feud.
Of course, the disjointed and slapstick direction of the product continues to erode the ratings on an almost weekly basis.
So it goes without saying that since the last Wembley Stadium show, the WWE has done exponentially better, then All Elite in ratings, attendance, and revenue.
However, don’t get me wrong. This is not an attempt to pile on to Tony Khan. As I’ve said many times before, the existence of All Elite is critical for the overall success of the pro wrestling industry. If AEW folded, which it won’t, it would set the business back at least another decade. Nobody, not the fans, not the talent, and even not the WWE themselves would truly benefit from their being only one national organization.
That being said, what exactly happened to flip this dynamic?
Unfortunately, using Wembley as a benchmark, it illustrates how mistakes and mismanagement can affect not only the goodwill with the audience, but also the overall perception of the potential of the organization. Regardless of what side of the argument someone was on for the CM Punk/Young Bucks debacle, it gave the impression that perhaps All Elite was being run on nepotism, rather than to spark the industry. Keep in mind, the fans rallied behind the concept of AEW and thus were willing to invest their hard earned money into the organization through ticket sales and pay-per-view buys because they wanted to see an alternative be successful, especially with the amount of dissatisfaction around the WWE at the time. When Punk scorched the earth at the press conference, it gave a glimpse behind-the-scenes that perhaps The Young Bucks wanted to start AEW to benefit themselves and their friends rather than to change the business as they had claimed when the project launched.
The cringe worthy two-hour press conferences, where Tony Khan got the chance to sit next to and hug his favorite wrestlers also gave the impression that maybe Tony wanted to be friends with the talent using his family’s money rather than change the dynamics of the stale industry. It undoubtedly eroded the goodwill that AEW had with the audience, and once the novelty of a new product wore off, All Elite would have to sink or swim on its own merits. As we’ve seen, that scenario yielded mixed results.
The reason that Wembley stadium is a benchmark for All Elite Wrestling is because that last year before CM punk left, The devil reveal was completely underwhelming, and MJF’s world title reign was also completely lackluster as it was hindered by the silly storyline with Adam Cole, the stadium had 80,000 fans in attendance. Reportedly, there are just above 50,000 tickets sold for this year. Obviously, selling 50,000 tickets is a great draw, but there were 30,000 more fans that were willing to spend money on tickets just last year, so clearly the decrease translates into a level of dissatisfaction with the product. As of now, All in is be scheduled for Texas next year, which would imply that this weekend’s Wembley show might be their final stadium event in London for the foreseeable future.
Perception is reality in many respects, and if fans don’t see AEW as an organization with a bright future or one that can shape the direction of the industry, they might be more hesitant to spend their cash on the product. The difference in ticket sales for Wembley reflects the overall lack of enthusiasm and quality control within AEW programming. Perhaps, if Tony Khan wanted to repeat 80,000 tickets sold in London, he would fully utilize Will Ospreay and book him to win the AEW World Championship in the stadium. Regardless of the quality of the Wembley show this weekend, the problems that have plagued AEW can’t be solved with one spectacular show, one major free agent signing, or one great rating for television.
Ultimately, the ticket sales and the sluggish ratings as compared to last year prove that the lack of decisions made to fully utilize the assets on the roster yield diminishing returns for the company.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
