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All Elite Wrestling plans Wembley return after sold-out debut event (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by Emperor to c/SquaredCircle@kbin.social

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/1809048

More than 80,000 fans gathered at Wembley Stadium to watch pro-wrestlers including Saraya, MJF and Will Ospreay.

The event was a rare opportunity for British fans to see a live event of this size - the last major US wrestling show at Wembley was 1992's Summerslam.

Co-founder Tony Khan said the event was a "huge milestone" for AEW, which was set up in 2019 as a rival to WWE.

...

Saraya, whose full name is Saraya Jade Bevis, grew up in Norfolk and claimed victory as the AEW Women's Champion.

The 31-year-old and her wrestling family inspired the film Fighting With My Family.

"The fact that it's Wembley Stadium in my home country, it was the most amazing experience of my whole life," she said.

...

The rivalry between the two organisations runs deep and Tony is keen to emphasise that the 81,035 tickets sold is more than the higher estimates of 80,000 when WWE, then WWF, brought Summerslam to the UK more than 30 years ago.

"This is the first time, on record, we could find any [event] that has sold over 81,000 tickets," he says.

He confirmed the event would return to Wembley in 2024.

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[–] JelloBrains@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get this show was special, and really think if they wanted to it could become their version of a two-night WrestleMania, All In (Night 1), and All Out (Night 2), and really do great business. I just don't want them to keep doing the same places, it feels sometimes like they do this in the US and now some of those locations don't seem as special and the crowds don't seem as great. But that's just like my opinion man.

[–] Emperor 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd like them to come.up North next time they are in the UK but I think one problem is they've now got themselves caught on the hype train and will want to boast about selling more tickets which, in the UK, means Wembley as it has a 92k capacity. They'd likely sell out Old Trafford but that's "only" 74k.

[–] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As someone who lives considerably further north than Manchester, and would love some shows in the actual north (haha), the reality is Wembley is considerably easier to get to, both for people in the UK and outside it.

What I hope they do is tour, for a week or more, around All In, and do Dynamite, etc, at different, smaller, venues.

[–] Emperor 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that'd be good.

[–] TellumSiege@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

That would be great. Hopefully this first visit was more of a practice run in a new market and next year they do just that.