What seemed to be another false wrestling rumor was true after all. AEW will run its first U.S. stadium show next year. All In comes to the Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday, July 12, 2025. It will be the first pro wrestling show held in the home of MLB’s Texas Rangers. Globe Life Field opened in 2020 and holds 40,300 people at capacity.
Saturday’s episode of Collision will wrap up AEW’s five-week residency at Arlington’s Esports Stadium (it’s not a stadium). Tony Khan denied the rumors of a stadium show in Texas last month, saying it’s an exciting idea, but it’s not something he’d do anytime soon.
All In will return to London in 2026. AEW’s flagship pay-per-view will emanate for the second consecutive time at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, August 25. The headline bouts feature Swerve Strickland defending the AEW World Championship against Bryan Danielson, and MJF puts the American Championship on the line against Will Ospreay.
Can AEW fill a stadium in the United States with 40,000 people? Can they draw a respectable number if the show isn’t a sellout? It was the first question on everyone’s mind when they heard the news. AEW has struggled with TV ratings and at the box office lately. While the shows have improved recently, a long stretch of bad shows has seemingly eroded consumer confidence.
Some feel that AEW has no business doing a stadium show as they’ve been unable to draw 1000 people at their Arlington residency. However, five weeks of Collision and ROH shows on a Saturday night from a cold product is a tough sell.
Last year, AEW set a new sales record for a wrestling show with All In, selling 81,035 tickets. However, only 72,265 people attended, which prevented the company from breaking the all-time attendance record, causing controversy. These two milestones were supposed to go hand in hand, leading to questions about the legitimacy of the reported numbers.
According to WrestleTix, this year’s Wembley show distributed 45,158 tickets, over 35,000 fewer than last year. That is a big drop-off when you factor in low TV ratings that continue to decline and live attendance that barely breaks 3,500 people. Looking at AEW’s annual Grand Slam event in New York’s Arthur Ashe Stadium, attendance has decreased yearly, with the upcoming edition posting record-low numbers.
AEW Grand Slam attendance:
2021: 20,177
2022: 13,800
2023: 11,000
2024: 3,548 have been distributed (credit WrestleTix.com)
Arthur Ashe on September 25 is set up for 4,806 people. Even Tony Khan knows how much AEW has cooled off if he’s only distributing a few tickets for the 20,000-seat tennis stadium show, with over 1,200 tickets still available. The decrease in attendance begs the question of why AEW is even running Arthur Ashe this year. Some will chalk it up to ego, while others will blame Tony Khan’s sentimentality for tradition or, in harsh terms, call him a mark.
Diehard fans will often take any criticism that doesn’t paint AEW in an angelic light as a declaration of war. To the All Elite faithful, AEW is the way they’ve always wanted pro wrestling to be. Yes, the first big show usually draws well, with subsequent offerings drawing fewer people until they find an even flow as the bleeding eventually stops.
AEW’s bleeding hasn’t stopped.
Firsts only happen once, and AEW will make All In a destination event encouraging travel to the Lone Star state next year. Two events, however, on both sides of the date could hurt All In’s bottom line. WrestleMania 41 will be two nights, April 19 and April 20, in Las Vegas, and Vegas is an expensive town. While details for SummerSlam in 2025 haven’t been announced, 2026 will officially be a two-night event held in Minnesota on August 1 and August 2.
SummerSlam this year was held on August 3, the earliest the event has ever occurred. What if WWE not only makes next year’s SummerSlam a two-night event but also shifts the date even earlier in the summer to late July? 2025 becomes the inaugural two-night “biggest party of the summer,” making it more difficult for AEW to succeed in Texas. While such a move by WWE would force fans to choose one or the other, it is a decision they’d have no qualms about making.
I’m as critical as anyone when it comes to AEW. It’s not because I want them to fail. It’s because I want to see them succeed. The wrestling business is far better off for having more than one major wrestling promotion. No one should want to see AEW fail, but they make it difficult to cheer for them for too many reasons to list here. A U.S. stadium show occurs when business is nowhere near the red.
Promotionally, All In 2026 is equivalent to someone saying a lot without saying anything at all. Even if business stays the same for the nextin eleven months and AEW draws a sellout, it won’t improve the company’s perception. Wrestling fans know Tony Khan likes to do things big, whether or not it makes sense. Right now, a Texas stadium show is just more of the same with AEW.
RingsideLogic.com 