AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
I've written in this blog about the unending wrestling wars
over the last 29 years, with WWF/E vs. WCW, WWE vs. ECW and
the indies, and finally WWE and AEW.
Since AEW launched back in 2019, both AEW and WWE engaged in
the “Wednesday Night Wars” for two years, with the opening
battle won by AEW, when they chased NXT back to Tuesday
nights in 2021. WWE has continued the battle running head-
to-head with AEW in major markets and forcing venues to sign
blackout periods before AEW can run venues. WWE engaged in
predatory scheduling of TV specials, PPV and PLEs, most
notably on ALL IN Texas weekend last year when they ran two
shows on ALL IN Saturday and a PLE on Sunday.
The blog has reported on the tribalism, the social/wrestling
media wars fought by social media, podcasters, and allied
wrestling media, the dirty tricks, stealing of storylines,
stealing talent and on and on...all the while claiming that
their opposition ISN'T actually opposition. More on that
later.
Now there's a public acknowledgement by WWE that AEW
actually IS competition, with the admission that WWE employs
people to watch AEW. During a Q&A session last week on
Fightful Select, TC of WrestleVotes reported that particular
WWE employees based in Stamford are assigned to watch
Dynamite, Collision and PPVs, and report to WWE analytics
and executive teams; adding that some of these staff members
are well-versed in AEW merchandise, such as action figures,
which can be found in WWE office spaces.
While it's hardly a shock that businesses watch what
competitors do, it's rare that there's actual admission of
it by WWE. Back in the day, Vince McMahon on WWE TV referred
to talent coming from Jim Crockett Promotions or World Class
Championship Wrestling as from a "small, regional
promotion". Under Paul Levesque, RAW and Smackdown sees
Michael Cole and Corey Graves to acknowledge talent history
in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH as well as
AAA (prior to its outright purchase). As for AEW, not so
much.
In a semi-related story that came out Thursday, Brandon
Thurston of Wrestlenomics reported in a POST Wrestling story
that court documents in the ongoing TKO shareholder lawsuit
revealed that a company called Base 10, headed by AEW
President Tony Khan, bid $6.9 billion for WWE during its
2023 sale process. The information was published by Base 10
was incorporated in 2014 and lists Tony Khan as its sole
owner, with the address registered at the stadium of the
Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL team owned by his father.
There were three other bidders for WWE, including Liberty
Media (the owners of Formula 1), a private equity firm named
KKR, and the eventual winners, Endeavor Base 10's offer was
the lowest offer. All parties except Base 10 were given
additional and non-public information about WWE during the
sale process, likely because of their superior offers.
WWE shareholders are suing because they feel that Endeavor
was pre-selected as the winning bid by Vince McMahon to
maintain his control of WWE, a, instead of the others which
could have led in a higher payout. Both Liberty Media and
KKR offers were similar to Endeavor's and could have
surpassed the McMahon-supported winning bid.
Postwrestling.com reports the bid placed by Tony Khan's
group was $6.9 billion. Other bids included KKR ($8.0–$8.7
billion), Liberty Media ($8.5–$8.9 billion), and Endeavor
($8.5 billion). The report also stated that the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia never made any offers to purchase WWE, despite
numerous rumors at the time.
Can you IMAGINE the wailing and handwringing if Tony Khan's
group had actually managed to purchase WWE? Can you imagine
how suddenly the pro-WWE social media, podcasters, and
allied wrestling media would suddenly have concerns about
one person and company dominating professional wrestling;
which never botherred them from 2001-2023(yes, they'd be
right, but watching them complain would be fun). Better
still, can you imagine how different the last three years in
wrestling would have been?
Wrestling Observer Radio noted last Thursday that early
indications suggest Sunday’s Revolution PPV did well in
terms of buy rate, impioved upon last year's Revolution and
was AEW’s best since ALL IN TEXAS last summer, meaning
Revolution did 140,000-180,000 buys.
To conclude, while it's the home stretch of Wrestlemania
season, it's also ALL IN season; as tickets for AEW’s
biggest show of the year went on sale to the general public
last Friday morning at Ticketmaster.co.uk. ALL IN takes
place on Sunday, August 30 at the Summer Bank Holiday at
London’s Wembley Stadium .
With ALL IN season, comes the yearly battle of the ALL IN
attendance figure. The original ALL IN in 2023, AEW drew a
paid attendance of 81,035. Suddenly online, there was a new
criterion for what constituted attendance. For WWE-aligned
social media, podcasters, and allied wrestling media, there
was suddenly a magic new thing called: turnstile count. The
figure for paid tickets and/or tickets distributed is
suddenly irrelevant. Why? Because in 2023 AEW couldn't be
allowed to have the highest ticket sales for any
professional wrestling show in recorded history. Instead,
this media found a local government figure that quoted a
"turnstile count" of 72,265. That number was less than the
more recently accepted attendance figure for Wrestlemania 3:
78,000 (instead of the originally claimed and debunked
93,173), thus allowing WWE to "maintain the record".
Meanwhile, guess who doesn't use "turnstile counts"?
NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, MLS, NWSL, English Premier
League, PGA, concert promoters, and anyone else on planet
Earth, including WWE.
The last ALL IN at Wembley Stadium in London had a paid
attendance of 53,393 in 2024, headlined by Swerve Strickland
vs Bryan Danielson for the AEW World title in a title vs
career match. But a known-pro WWE website already
understated the paid attendance for THAT ALL IN by 7,000. So
it'll be happening again this year, with fake numbers being
posted by pro-WWE podcasters, hysterical thumbnails on AEW
going out of business, and on and on. Meanwhile, speaking of
ALL IN attendance, the first day ticket sales for ALL IN
2026 was 19,883. That's with no matches or even talent
announced.
