AEW taped its Grand Slam: Australia special in Brisbane, Australia, on Saturday, with it airing hours later on TNT.
Initially scheduled for the 52,000-seat Suncorp Stadium, the event was moved to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre due to reportedly slow ticket sales. AEW CEO Tony Khan has stated that this was always intended to be a TV special.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted the event was AEW’s third-highest gate in company history and did at least $1.3 million gate.
Well, it should be Melbourne or Sydney [when they return in 2026]. You know, they’ll draw… they’ll draw better in those cities. I mean, I think that, like, you go to, like, Rod Laver Arena, and, you know, I mean, you probably… you know, if it’s in a year, because you said 2026, so it’s not even going to be this year. So, if they go in, you know, in 2026 to Melbourne or Sydney for the first time, I think that being established, they’ll at least be able to, you know… I think in those markets, you know, get 15,000 people, and it’s, you know, a big gate. I mean, this was the third-biggest gate in the history of the company. I didn’t get the final number, but, you know, they’d passed… they were… they were at 1.3 million, at least, on Thursday, two days ahead. For AEW, that’s fantastic. In the end, the show was a big success. It was not a big enough success to be a stadium show. But that’s… it’s a big ask. You know, I mean, AEW is not a stadium product. You know, it really isn’t. Most wrestling companies aren’t stadium products. Very few, really, if you think about it. And most wrestling stadium shows, historically, you know… Do 15, 20,000. I think if they’d stayed at the stadium, if they did 11,000 here, maybe they could have done 13, 14,000 at the stadium. Wouldn’t have looked as good. But that’s… that’s still, like, for a WWE stadium show historically, is fine, especially for Brisbane. You know, it’s like, I’m sure I… I’d have to look it up. But, I mean, it’s probably… I mean, it was the biggest gate ever in Brisbane, Australia, for wrestling. And it’s probably the biggest attendance in years and years and years. I think WWE… I know WWE did 11,000 many, many years ago, you know, for a show. But, I mean, you look at it, like, you know, Hogan and Flair did 2,600 in that… I think it was in that same building, actually. The show was a success. It wasn’t the success that they had hoped for it to be, obviously, but it’s still a success.
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