This weekend, All Elite Wrestling is back on pay-per-view for Wrestle Dream and the event will take place at the Addition Financial Arena in Tampa. This show will be three weeks after the All Out event in Chicago, and the situation more or less provides reasoning why Tony Khan might’ve been misguided with the decision to continue to add pay-per-views to the line-up. It’s important to keep in mind that monthly PPVs only became the standard within the industry when the business was at a peak with the competition between WWF and WCW in the late-90s . There were different eras when monthly pay-per-views were almost counterproductive to the booking process, mainly in the early-2000s when the “brand exclusive” pay-per-views of Raw and Smackdown exposed a complete lack of depth, especially in terms of star power compared to just a few years earlier during the previously mentioned peak. The Smackdown Tag Team champions of Rene Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki aren’t exactly in the same conversation as the Legion of Doom or The Midnight Express.
Wrestle Dream is almost somewhat of a lame duck pay-per-view, mostly because its relying on a random gimmick match as a substitute for a compelling world title bout. Yes, I understand that three weeks isn’t enough time to build to an intriguing main event contest, but that would be a reason not to run the pay-per-view this month in the first place. Furthermore, several matches were added to the card on this week’s episode of Dynamite so three days undoubtedly isn’t enough time to properly promote them with technically less than one edition of television to tell the audience that it will take place on the show.
Some of the matches that are scheduled, such as Mark Davis vs.Jon Moxley for the Continental championship are too random to really have any cache. Don’t get me wrong, both of those guys can work so you’re probably going to get a solid match from it, but it’s a television match that was added to take up space on the PPV. The four-way for the TBS title is another thrown together match to piece together an already disjointed card. There’s some history to the Chris Jericho vs. Nick Wayne match, but does anyone need to see it on pay-per-view?
I say that Wrestle Dream is a lame duck show because it doesn’t have the sizzle or importance of a show that seems like it will mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Sure, Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher vs. The Young Bucks will be a dazzling spot fest, but does it mean anything in the big picture? The tag titles were just defended in an AEW version of a TLC match a few weeks ago. Even with the athleticism of these four competitors, their bout is going to seem tame compared to the car crash tag bout that is still fresh in the audience’s mind, especially after Adam Copeland revealed on television this week that Christian suffered broken ribs in the ladder match. The bottom line is, anything on Wrestle Dream will seem less than anything that took place at All Out because there was simply not enough time to generate anything that will be deemed “must see” since the storyline build isn’t there.
Along those lines, as I said, the gimmick of the main event is a cover for the fact that Tony Khan didn’t have another credible challenger lined up, which again, is another reason Wrestle Dream didn’t need to be scheduled in 2026. Throwing seven challengers into a match for the championship isn’t stacked, it’s a booking crutch for not having anything better to sell to the fans on short notice. Taking into account the convoluted rules and the amount of wrestlers involved, is there any way that this doesn’t devolve into a sloppy marathon match that will go too long and not mean anything in the long run when Ospreay retains the championship?
I’m not talking about the match quality, although some of that might be hit or miss by Saturday, with the caliber of talent that Tony Khan has on the roster, you know that there will be work rate on an AEW PPV. The point is, was any of this truly sold to the audience?
In short, the answer is no. Keep in mind, Tony Khan might book for the star ratings, but tickets sold and revenue are the numbers that matter on the national level in the pro wrestling business. Reportedly, there are just under 5,000 tickets sold for Wrestle Dream, with a maximum capacity of just over 8,000 seats for the venue, but the set up is expected to be around 5,300 seats by showtime. Remember, that means if the demand was there, the company could move up to 3,000 more tickets, but will downside to disguise any empty sections of the arena.
The live attendance numbers are based on the fact that matches were being made literally this week, which reminds me of when Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight were individually booked in world title matches on short notice in very similar situations to this. That pattern, with Fletcher last year, and Kevin Knight this year shows a pattern that Tony hasn’t noticed the potential pitfalls of a log-jammed pay-per-view schedule. Of course, the economic crunch might also be a factor in the tickets sold so far, especially when you take into account that after the outlandish Ticket Master fees, regardless of the base price, there simply isn’t a “cheap wrestling ticket” in 2026 for the national groups. After that, you have to add parking and maybe a $6 Coca Cola, and you can see why some fans opt to stay home.
That brings the other part of the capitalist equation, is there enough meat on the bone for this to realistically sell on pay-per-view? Yes, I understand that there’s a core demographic of die hard fans that will order any PPV promoted by AEW just based on the initials, but I think that when you run PPVs three weeks apart, you’re chipping into even that group of fans. Spending $100 on pro wrestling in the span of three weeks is a tough task for most consumers. I could be wrong, but I’d guess that lower ticket sales for the show might be a trend that spills over into a lower buy rate for the pay-per-view.
If that ends up being the case, I’d say that it will be the result of a combination of rather lackluster promotional efforts, namely the build or lack there on television, and the current economic situation. Tony can’t do much out the latter, but the former points out a serious flaw in his booking philosophy. Of course, we could say that considering that since All Elite is more of a vanity project than a business venture, any criticism or praise for the organization is moot since money is no object since the results ultimately don’t matter but then there wouldn’t be much discussion about the company. Even if it was an unintended side effect of Tony’s aspirations to be a promoter, the fact is, that with the Khan family’s money involved, All Elite Wrestling is still a player in the industry, albeit to a much lesser degree than it could’ve been when the organization was launched more than seven years ago.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
