Many thought the era of the PPV event in professional wrestling was over. WWE would introduce the WWE Network in the early 2010’s, killing off their PPV business in favour of offering fans all major events for a monthly cost.
However, this wouldn’t work for smaller companies, and those without a backlog of events to sweeten the deal. When Tony Khan started All Elite Wrestling, he would use the traditional PPV format – marking four marquee events, Double Or Nothing, All Out, Full Gear & Revolution.
Those events remain – but the list has grown, and Khan is now eyeing twelve PPV events a year. Right now, Tony Khan is on track to running 10 PPV events in 2023. This is split between AEW and Ring of Honor – with AEW having run 5 and ROH having run 2, with 3 left in the schedule.
The Number Don’t Lie – And They Spell Success For Tony Khan On PPV
AEW Revolution would start their PPV year on March 5th, and had a reported buy rate of 145,000 – with 9000 fans in attendance. This is a standard number for an AEW PPV.
Up next was ROH Supercard of Honor on March 31st, which got a buy rate of 25,000 with 4,500 fans in attendance. AEW Double Or Nothing would come on May 28th, getting a buy rate of 140,000 and 10,550 fans in attendance.
Working alongside New Japan Pro Wrestling – we’d also get AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, marking AEW’s PPV debut in Canada on June 25th. With 14,000 fans in attendance, and the buy rate being kept vague – it’s a harder show to judge. Tony Khan had stated it was higher than Double or Nothing, it’s marked as another PPV success.
ROH Death Before Dishonor on July 21st would match the standard set by Supercard of Honor, with exact numbers unavailable, but Khan calling it ‘one of the most successful shows in ROH history’. We can expect one more ROH PPV around December with Final Battle 2023.
There is one show that stands above all else in AEW – and it was one of their most recent. AEW All In 2023 marked their UK debut, with 81,035 fans packed into Wembley Stadium, and with close to 200,000 reported PPV buys.
Making things even more impressive is AEW All Out came just one week later, with over 100,000 PPV buys – marking the biggest week in company history. These shows came on August 28th and September 3rd.
Hitting The Magic Number Of Twelve
What this tells us, is Tony Khan is consistently hitting his goals for PPV events – and things are only improving. AEW has two announced PPV events left for 2023, those being WrestleDream on October 1st and Full Gear on November 18th. Add in Final Battle around December – and that will potentially start a PPV schedule of one per month.
2024 could see Khan finally hit the number of twelve PPV events in a year. Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast would tweet out the following earlier today about AEW in 2024.
“I feel confident to say that AEW will be on Max in 2024 and AEW will expand its PPV Schedule to 12 a year.”
While it would be a big jump for AEW to go from seven to twelve PPV events – having four from ROH and eight from AEW would be simple. January & February were the only months in 2023 without a PPV event – which is the space for Khan to expand into. MAX meanwhile hoped to air All In – but the capability to live stream a sports event wasn’t in place yet, with that remaining a key goal.
Can Khan support this many major events in a year? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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