MR. TITO: For the AEW Fans Laughing at WWE SummerSlam 2026’s Attendance… Why Do You Ignore AEW’s Poor Numbers Since 2023?
Right now, I’m LAUGHING at diehard online All Elite Wrestling (AEW) marks attacking WWE SummerSlam for drawing around 37,000 for night 1 and about 33,000 for night 2 in Minneapolis, MN. U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings, can hold up to 67,000 but could be expanded to 73,000 for special events when needed. Because WWE SummerSlam couldn’t fill this stadium, about half of the place was tarped off on the main camera side. AEW fans are posting many photos and videos mocking the WWE for failing to fill a football stadium.
Meanwhile, AEW All-In, which is AEW’s top event, has sold 33,000 tickets at Wembley Stadium.
But let’s compare WWE’s 2nd or 3rd event in SummerSlam versus All-In on reasonable terms.
All-In tickets are priced, after conversion, as low as $31 and at maximum, just under $2,000 for the floor.
WWE SummerSlam had it’s cheapest price around $70 (though discounted at the event drew near), but the close floor seats were over $3,000 but the “Elite” level seat ticket packages were selling at $25,000 for both nights ($12,500 per night).
Oh, and WWE SummerSlam sold for 2 nights in Minnesota… AEW All In is at Wembley Stadium, in a British market that is hungry for a big wrestling event and have been begging WWE for Wrestlemania to appear there. Wrestlemania would get Live Aid crowds is it there in England, but until then, English wrestling fans are settling for attending AEW All In.
But we’ve seen a downward spiral of AEW’s #1 event, haven’t we?
– AEW All In 2023 (1st year in Wembley): 72,265 per turnstile, but AEW claims 81,035 tickets were actually sold
– AEW All In 2024 (2nd straight year in Wembley): 46,476 turnstile, but AEW claims 53,385 tickets were actually sold
– AEW All In 2025 (Global Life Field where the Texas Rangers play): 21,973 turnstile, but AEW claims 27,245 tickets were distributed… WAY DOWN here in the United States as the top AEW event!
And now All In 2026, back at Wembley, just over 33,000, still declining each year AEW tries to host events in that massive stadium.
Ehhhhh, and you have the nerve to ridicule WWE SummerSlam’s attendance, despite its HIGHER prices being the main culprit to cause lower WWE attendance?
FACT is that AEW has lower ticket prices, yet being a cheaper option to attend a live wrestling show is NOT drawing fans. When you go beyond AEW All In, there’s a steep drop-off for its next Pay Per Views. For example, AEW Redemption on July 24th only drew 7,107 fans. At best, AEW Pay Per Views could draw up to 15,000 for usual staple events like Double or Nothing but again, this is at lower ticket prices.
AEW fans mocked Wrestlemania 42 for its 50,000 and 55,000 nights, but that’s with absurdly HIGH ticket prices charged by TKO and the stupid high prices to attend anything in Las Vegas. Yet, if you look at WWE’s numbers, they consistently draw 15,000 or more for EVERY PLE while obtaining around 10,000 or more for every RAW show.
WWE outdraws AEW on ticket sales by a WIDE MARGIN despite the absurdly high prices AND the supposed “better quality” of matches that AEW has, according to the heavily biased Wrestling Observer’s joke of a star system.
Seriously, this is a valid question to ask… If AEW has such great matches, why aren’t they drawing larger audiences to events?
Because they don’t have better matches than WWE. No-selling 450 splashes DOES NOT make a great match! Yeah, I saw that utter garbage from the Young Bucks, as one completely no-sold getting hit with a 450 splash from the top rope in order to immediately hit a superkick on someone else. THAT is what Dave Meltzer rates 5-6 stars in his toilet paper of a newsletter!
Let’s go through the numbers to prove a point that AEW is in DISTANT second place right now with the WWE. This isn’t even a competition at this point based on how LOW AEW is drawing on attendance and viewership.
AEW Attendance Numbers – Data courtesy of Wrestlenomics.com’s WrestleTix
AEW Dynamite Average Attendance per quarter:
2021 Q3 6.9K
2021 Q4 5.6K
2022 Q1 5.0K
2022 Q2 6.3K
2022 Q3 5.7K
2022 Q4 4.3K
2023 Q1 5.6K
2023 Q2 5.1K
2023 Q3 4.9K
2023 Q4 4.5K
2024 Q1 4.1K
2024 Q2 3.6K
2024 Q3 3.9K
2024 Q4 3.1K
2025 Q1 2.7K
2025 Q2 3.9K
2025 Q3 2.5K
2025 Q4 3.3K
2026 Q1 3.1K
2026 Q2 3.2K
AEW Collision Average Attendance per quarter:
2023 Q2 6.5K
2023 Q3 4.3K
2023 Q4 3.4K
2024 Q1 3.0K
2024 Q2 3.1K
2024 Q3 2.0K
2024 Q4 2.1K
2025 Q1 3.5K
2025 Q2 2.2K
2025 Q3 1.5K
2025 Q4 2.0K
2026 Q1 2.8K
2026 Q2 2.0K
During 2021 through 2023, could someone tell me what individual was with AEW back then? You know, a massive free agent signing that they convinced to come out of retirement? Oh yeah, CM Punk! The second they kicked him full out of AEW, attendance CRATERED.
AEW Dynamite went from consistently drawing 5,000 or more fans per show (often above 6,000) to now drawing below 3,300 fans per show. Holy cow!
AEW Collision is a complete joke on attendance. Drew when CM Punk was around initially at above 6,000 during 2023 to a terrible 2,000 through the 2nd quarter 2026.
Meanwhile, WWE RAW is drawing strongly since their Netflix deal at about 11,000 or more in attendance while Smackdown fluctuates between 8,000 and 11,000 in recent times. That’s a BIG GAP between what WWE attends on their television shows versus what AEW does on theirs.
Just as there is a BIG GAP on what WWE draws on their PLEs versus and AEW’s Pay Per Views. Go ahead and compare All-In to SummerSlam. Be my guest to compare AEW’s #1 show in a foreign land with pent-up demand versus WWE’s arguable #2 or #3 show in Minnesota (no offense to Minnesota, as it’s a nice place but not a wrestling hot bed). Again, All-In has 33,000 tickets sold versus Wrestlemania pulling in 50,000 one night and 55,000 for the next.
And AGAIN, the difference in ticket prices. WWE sells MORE tickets at HIGHER prices than AEW does with their LOWER prices.
If fewer are attending AEW events, then fewer are buying AEW merchandise, too. AEW doesn’t have a strong online merchant presence, either. WWE blows them out of the water with merchandise sales.
Next, let’s discuss AEW Dynamite VIEWERSHIP, with data courtesy of Gerweck.net who has been compiling reported viewership and ratings data for years from official sources.
4Q-2019 898,333
1Q-2020 883,000
2Q-2020 708,462
3Q-2020 832,929
4Q-2020 817,077
1Q-2021 775,154
2Q-2021 792,769
3Q-2021 1,103,538
4Q-2021 895,769
1Q-2022 1,000,154
2Q-2022 916,231
3Q-2022 998,615
4Q-2022 907,846
1Q-2023 906,538
2Q-2023 855,231
3Q-2023 884,615
4Q-2023 810,692
1Q-2024 810,462
2Q-2024 711,923
3Q-2024 694,615
4Q-2024 588,538
1Q-2025 618,077
2Q-2025 626,923
3Q-2025 610,769
4Q-2025 482,846
1Q-2026 628,250
2Q-2026 635,385
Another reality check, AEW fans. Since 2023, you’ve ben consistently under 800,000 viewers… Heck, since the midway point of 2024, you’ve been UNDER 700,000 average viewers.
And I know what you’ll tell me, “Cable/Satellite subscriptions are down”, blah blah blah blah blah.
True, they are down… But AEW’s attendance is significantly down, too.
They go hand in hand, folks… AEW’s inflection point is that very AEW All In 2023 first event at Wembley. THAT is their peak and consequently, the final show of CM Punk before Tony Khan terminated him.
Viewership, merchandise, and attendance are all DOWN since 2023. Statistical FACT!
And that’s despite signing free agents like Adam Copeland (Edge), Will Ospreay, Mercedes Moné, Kazuchika Okada, Bobby Lashley, & Ricochet since late 2023, while also giving the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega extensions as Executive Vice Presidents (EVPs).
Despite those signings and re-signings, all AEW numbers have declined and remain low.
Despite all of the high star-ratings that AEW mark newsletters give literally every AEW match, it’s not drawing in more viewers nor is it packing buildings. Only the Pay Per View shows draw decent live audiences, at best.
And I love the argument of “AEW is still on Pay Per View”. Really? AEW’s biggest show, AEW All In, draws around 180,000 buys while the rest of the shows draw between 100,000 and 140,000 buys. Like, does everyone realize that 180,000 buys used to be considered a BAD NIGHT for the WWE anytime it happened? We’re talking about those late 2000s ECW brand shows, too… Most of WWE’s shows sold over 200,000, even when they over-saturated the market or when quality began to drop during the 2010s.
At 180,000 buys or less, the Cable or Satellite companies are eating more than half of that.
AEW is currently receiving around $185 million per year for all of their shows airing on Warner Bros. Discovery and the deal runs through the end of 2027, with an option to add on another year to extend it through 2028. However, AEW obtained that deal from a declining Warner Bros. Discovery that has been getting killed by streaming services and was in dire need of live sporting content (well, besides the NBA). Now, AEW faces a real dilemma of the Ellisons buying Warner Bros. to shove into their Skydance/Paramount Global corporation and I wouldn’t be shocked that they shred Tony’s deal and call it a “merger & acquisition” expense to write off for tax relief.
Plus, I theorize that they want RAW on Paramount+ (or what remains when I’m guessing HBO Max merges with it) once Netflix opts out of the RAW deal by the 5th year through 2029 as Netflix wants that afternoon NFL deal that CBS currently has. With the Ellisons paying off these recent mergers, they might have to let the NFL go but could afford signing WWE instead and letting Netflix overpay for the NFL to harm that streaming service.
LOW AEW Dynamite viewership, plus how poorly AEW Collision draws, could ultimately cause AEW to receive the boot off of TBS/TNT and HBO Max especially once this merger completes (and it will, the justice department will enable it).
So yeah, LAUGH IT UP about WWE SummerSlam 2026… There’s a bigger iceberg heading your way, AEW fans. That, and your ship is led by a trust fund baby (though he’s a nice guy) named Tony Khan and completely incompetent fools with the Young Bucks as Executive Vice Presidents no-selling 450 splashes to hit more choreographed superkicks.
As greedy as TKO is and as much meddling as TKO performs, their guys at least have experience in business or wrestling. TKO executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have years of experience running businesses or serving as agents to drum up business. Nick Khan managed so many deals for his client and is an experienced executive that has made WWE grow ten-fold since the late 2010s. Yes, Triple H married into the McMahon family, but he’s been with the WWE since 1995 but has been an executive of WWE since the early 2010s.
AEW is STILL the weaker promotion, by a wide margin, and with zero capability to ever chase the WWE… Unless the WWE comes crashing down to their lower level.
Thus, WWE made more on each night of WWE SummerSlam 2026 than AEW will with their flagship All In event in Wembley despite similar attendance.
FACT is that if WWE slashed their ticket prices at ALL venues, those arenas would be packed because the WWE’s product is desired right now. Put AEW’s prices on WWE events they’d sellout everywhere because demand is still STRONG for the WWE product but things like incomes, strained by high inflation everywhere, are causing fans to second guess attending WWE events at their higher prices.
So, there you go… Your ignorant taunting of tarps at WWE SummerSlam 2026 caused me to write an actual AEW column. Go ahead and attempt to refute my facts.
AEW is in second place and its fans have ZERO credibility to taunt the MUCH LARGER WWE for any reason whatsoever. AEW wishes that it could host a 2-night event that could draw over 30,000, as they struggle to do that with their very top show right now with lower ticket prices.
WWE > AEW by a mile.
And Triple H > Tony Khan on Creative, any day of the week.
WWE Roster > AEW Roster
WWE’s Matches > AEW’s Matches
But WWE can’t draw fans in Minnesota with absurdly high ticket prices. Yeah, you got the WWE right there.
In fact, I DARE AEW to take WWE’s pricing model and see how many fans would actually attend. Let’s see how dedicated AEW’s fans are with stupid high prices to attend events. Let’s see how you really measure-up to the WWE, AEW!
AEW is forever the juvenile promotion that had CM Punk drawing higher attendance and over 1 million viewers to AEW Dynamite, but decided to internally and externally attack him instead of hoisting Punk on their shoulders. WWE has Punk and is thriving with him.
AEW is the inferior wrestling promotion, period, compared to the WWE.
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