WWE Night of Champions 2025: Should it get postponed?

So WWE is still moving forward with their Saudi shows this weekend, even with everything currently going on in the Middle East. From what I’ve read so far, most people in the IWC and several dirt sheet writers—myself included—are urging them to reconsider. But I started to ask myself if I was right to feel that way, since I don’t have the same intel that WWE has access to right now.

Here’s what we know as of now: Israel started a war with Iran over Iran allegedly having nuclear weapons. In response, Iran began bombing Israel. Then, former President Trump—I’m calling him a dictator here, because he certainly isn’t acting presidential—decided on his own to nuke Iran, which led to Iran attacking American forces in Qatar. Now, it seems like a ceasefire was agreed upon, even though neither side appears to be fully aware they’ve agreed to anything.

Meanwhile, in WWE-land, production staff are mostly already in Saudi Arabia getting everything set up. Outside of five staff members who were briefly stuck in Qatar, everyone else has been working as usual.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Triple H held a meeting with the talent and staff last night, asking everyone whether they were comfortable going. And aside from Styles and Mysterio—and sorry, I don’t buy the “Dominik’s injured” excuse—it seems like everyone was okay with the decision. So why should we, as fans, criticize them for that?

The other side of this is the business aspect. Do we know how much it actually costs WWE to put on a show like this? No, we don’t. We only hear how much they’re getting paid for these Saudi events, but a good chunk of that money goes into production and talent payouts. In the end, they probably spend at least one-third of that payout just to make the show happen. If they postponed or canceled, they’d be losing not just the Saudi payday, but also their own money—since production staff have already been working since Saturday.

I’m not a businessman, but if I were, I’d absolutely take that into consideration. And again, I’d be gathering all the intel I could about safety before making a final call.

At the end of the day, there’s no clear right or wrong decision here. We don’t know the full story—we’re just basing our opinions on news reports and what dirt sheet writers like Meltzer and Alvarez are saying. We don’t have access to WWE’s internal intel. So if they go ahead with the show, good for them—let’s hope they’re right and nobody gets hurt. If they decide to pivot and do a Thunderdome-style show instead, that’s awesome too. It’s their decision, and it’s our choice whether or not to watch.

In my last column, I talked about how TNA could realistically be competition for AEW in a few years. As I predicted, some AEW fans took me to task—especially over my last point about attendance being close to AEW’s numbers for TV tapings.

So since they went out of their way to dig up TNA’s numbers, I went out of my way to gather some data on AEW’s upcoming shows to see if my assessment was off.

Here are the ticket sales numbers for AEW shows from June 21 to September 20. These numbers come directly from the Wrestling Observer as of June 20, so you know they’re accurate:

June 21 (Collision taping): 1,634 tickets sold

June 25 (Dynamite & Collision): 1,837 tickets sold

July 2 (Collision & Dynamite): 3,266 tickets sold

July 9 (Dynamite): 1,388 tickets sold

July 10 (Collision): 1,156 tickets sold

All In Texas: 17,502 tickets sold

July 16 (Dynamite): 971 tickets sold

July 17 (Collision): 755 tickets sold

August 6 (Dynamite): 914 tickets sold

August 13 (Dynamite): 814 tickets sold

August 14 (Collision): 711 tickets sold

August 20 (Dynamite in Scotland): 5,193 tickets sold

Forbidden Door (England): 11,919 tickets sold

All Out (Toronto): 7,961 tickets sold

Now, for those of you who actually read my columns instead of just trying to poke holes in them, I clearly stated that TNA isn’t close to competing with AEW when it comes to pay-per-view numbers. These numbers back that up—even though AEW’s PPV sales are down year-over-year, they’re still far ahead of TNA’s.

But let’s look at those TV taping numbers. Outside of the July 2 taping and the Scotland show, most of these events are on par with—or even below—what TNA is currently doing in terms of attendance for both TV and PPVs. So yeah, I’d say I was mostly right in that part of my previous column. At least in North America, TNA and AEW are running neck-and-neck in terms of ticket sales, especially considering both companies are using similar-sized venues in similar markets.

Also, while moving over 17,000 tickets for All In is impressive, when you compare it to the numbers from last year or the year before, it’s a bit disappointing. It shows how much AEW’s popularity has dipped in the U.S. compared to the U.K., which still seems highly enthusiastic about the AEW product.

So I just wanted to put these numbers out there to show I wasn’t making things up when I said TNA and AEW are closer than some people think in terms of attendance—at least for TV tapings. AEW still has a big advantage when it comes to PPVs, and I acknowledged that. But the point I was making was about TV numbers, and on that front, TNA is catching up.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which company is doing better—we’re not in a competition. But AEW fans need to stop being so defensive anytime someone criticizes the product. The proof is out there now, and we as fans have data to back up what we’re saying.

So on that note, like I always say: just celebrate wrestling. Enjoy what you love and stop being so toxic about it. Life’s too short to get this worked up over something as silly as pro wrestling.