AEW’s most recent pay-per-view event, ‘All In’ took place at the end of August. Tony Khan had previously announced that the total number of fans in attendance for AEW All In was much higher than WrestleMania 32, which took place at the same venue. This made is one of the company’s only PPVs that has toppled a WWE record. However, this was recently debunked by the U.K. government.
Despite being introduced to the wrestling world only 4 years ago, AEW has broken several records. Tony Khan’s promotion has provided a solid competition to WWE, with several superstars crossing over to AEW, namely Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, Samoa Joe, Matt and Jeff Hardy, Claudio Castagnoli. The promotion is highly regarded as WWE’s only legitimate competitor.
Turnstile count puts AEW All In’s record in jeopardy
AEW All In was by far the most successful event of the promotion. It was reported to have over 80,000 fans in attendance, which was higher than the attendance for WrestleMania 32 that took place at the same venue i.e., Wembley Stadium in London.
Fans and superstars alike celebrated this achievement. However, their celebration was ruined by a recent report by the UK government, which disproved AEW All In’s record.
Local Government Says AEW All In's Turnstile Count Was 72,265 https://t.co/XODRBgnMVN
— Fightful Wrestling (@Fightful) September 13, 2023
According to a Freedom of Information request posted on the website WhatDoTheyKnow, the turnstile count for AEW All In was 72,265. This means that the number of fans that passed through the turnstiles in Wembley Stadium at the pay-per-view were much lower than expected.
In fact, it was originally reported that the paid attendance for All In was estimated around 81,035. But in reality, the actual attendance for the event is much lower than WWE’s WrestleMania 32, which had somewhere around 80,000 people.
It might be possible that AEW did in fact sell out 81,035 tickets for the event. But according to the statistical data provided by the UK government, the actual attendance was way lower than what was initially reported. It was later reported by Wrestlenomics that the company has a “drop count”, which is estimated around 80% to 90% of the total tickets distributed. This would make sense, considering the 72,265-turnstile count is around 89% of the originally stated count.
Despite this, AEW All In was a massive financial success. Dave Meltzer has also stated that while WWE would have a tough time beating this attendance for their upcoming shows, they still hold the record for the largest paid attendance for WrestleMania 32.
AEW Dynamite attendance plummets
AEW has been struggling with attendance count for their weekly show, Dynamite for several months now. This week’s show was one of the lowest attended shows in the company’s history.
Rough night for AEW in terms of attendance. Looks to be one of if not the smallest non-pandemic crowd for Dynamite. Photo via @theclodwalrus https://t.co/22Q2GiO9aA pic.twitter.com/UdOY5rnDxx
— NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW news (@nodqdotcom) September 14, 2023
Although Dynamite featured several top stars and thrilling matches, such as the Grand Slam World Title Eliminator Tournament between Samoa Joe and Roderick Strong, there was a poor crowd turnout for the show. The low attendance was glaringly obvious throughout the show, with some fans sharing pictures of the empty arena.
Despite having a strong attendance at AEW All In few weeks ago, the company is struggling with their weekly shows. Hopefully things improve for the promotion in the near future.
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