Posted on 8/04/126 by Bob Magee
All Elite Wrestling will bring its WrestleDream pay-per-view
event to Addition Financial Arena on Oct. 17, AEW officials
told the Orlando Sentinel exclusively.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public Aug. 10, with
some presales and premium seats available beginning Tuesday
at 10 a.m.
The show marks AEW’s first pay-per-view in Orlando since
December 2024’s Worlds End, where Jon Moxley retained his
world championship and Kazuchika Okada won the Continental
Classic. Moxley and Okada are still among the biggest stars
of the roster, which is led by current world champion and
Orlando resident Kenny Omega.
AEW, based in Jacksonville, has grown into one of the
world’s top pro-wrestling brands since its founding in 2019,
with weekly shows on TBS and TNT and successful events in
London, Mexico and locations all over the world.
AEW owner/CEO Tony Khan conceived the original WrestleDream
in 2023 as a tribute to a legendary Japanese wrestler. It
has since become an annual traveling event.
“I was inspired by pro wrestling’s greatest dreamer, Antonio
Inoki,” Khan told the Sentinel last week. “One year after he
passed, I founded the show and it’s one of my favorite times
of the year. It’s featured some of my favorite moments in
AEW.”
For Khan, the son of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan,
operating a pro-wrestling brand has been his dream since
childhood. He has always been a diehard fan, watching
promotions around the country and the world before getting
the chance to run his own promotion at age 36.
As Khan noted, AEW has presented more events in Florida than
anywhere else, including the AEW Dark streaming show at
Universal Orlando from 2021 to 2023. But pro wrestling in
Florida has its own long history, dating back to the days of
the Eddie Graham Sports Complex on North Econlockhatchee
Trail in east Orlando.
Khan said his greatest Florida wrestling memory was a 1986
match in that now-demolished building.
“One of the matches that I was so excited to see as a young
fan trading tapes of wrestling on the internet, when I was
in junior high, was Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham from the
Battle of the Belts in Orlando,” Khan said. “That’s just one
of so many great matches and rivalries in Florida, and we’re
glad to add to that history.”
Premium seating for AEW WrestleDream at UCF’s Addition
Financial Arena goes on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m., with other
presales Aug. 6-9. For more access to presale tickets, visit
allelitewrestling.com/aew-insider.
jreddick@orlandosentinel.com