This weekend sets the stage for a packed few nights of professional wrestling. WWE’s slate features WWE SmackDown on Friday, NXT Great American Bash, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Evolution 2025, and Monday Night Raw to cap things off. AEW is set with All In on Saturday. It’s another episode of WWE trying to counter program AEW, an embarrassing practice that doesn’t help anyone involved.
WWE is the biggest promotion in professional wrestling. In many ways, business is booming and the company continues to find itself hitting record-breaking revenue and profit figures. Instead of focusing on the product to deliver fans the content that keeps them tuned in and spending money, WWE is going out of its way to counter program All Elite Wrestling in an attempt to suck all the oxygen, time, and money out of conversation when it comes to professional wrestling during a big weekend for AEW.
What’s the point of that practice? Why throw together three events on the same weekend as AEW’s biggest PPV? Tony Khan and company announced All In more than a year ago, so it is clear what WWE is trying to do. But the bigger question is whether or not the strategy is truly effective.
One metric to use is ticket sales. WrestleTix tracks are available and distributed tickets for all major events and WWE is having a tough time moving tickets this weekend. Saturday Night’s Main Event has 1,784 available tickets of a total 12,785 setup. Great American Bash has 179 available tickets of a total setup of 772 seats. WWE Evolution is a big red flag as that event has 1,578 tickets available of a total setup of 6,652 seats. That show is being watched closely as it is happening at the same time as a Beyonce concert basically right across the street.
AEW All In has 3,251 tickets available of a total setup of 23,740. From a sheer number standpoint, it is clear which promotion is moving more seats for their planned shows over the weekend. But on the other side of the coin, there’s the perception of these shows, along with fan interest and reception.
WWE has programmed against AEW in the past when the latter has major PPV events. What has typically happened is that AEW “owns” the conversation space because of the higher-quality in-ring product that happens over the weekend. Let it be clear, the majority of the best wrestling set to go down this weekend will happen in an AEW ring. WWE and its presentation of in-ring action typically cannot compete with what AEW puts on each week, and that is more transparent when looking at PPVs versus PLEs.
At the end of the weekend, there’s a lot of professional wrestling to consume. Hardcore fans will take the time to watch all they can, while casuals will catch what interests them. WWE may not consider AEW “competition” but their actions speak otherwise. Especially this weekend, but find a way to consume what you enjoy.