AEW: Chris Jericho & Jim Ross on Importance of AEW’s Upcoming All In Event, More News

Apr 14, 2023

Chris Jericho Comments on AEW’s All In Event at Wembley Stadium Is “Going to be a Cultural Event”

A recent episode of the Battleground Podcast featured Chris Jericho as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Jericho’s thoughts on his belief that AEW’s upcoming All In event at Wembley Stadium will end up being a cultural event.

“From a business standpoint, it was a great move and big time move for Tony Khan to book Wembley. There have been a couple of times over the years; first time in Toronto, ‘Should have booked a stadium.’ First time in Los Angeles, ‘Should have booked a stadium.’ This time, our first time in the UK, ‘Should’ve booked a stadium,’ we do, and of course, people are like, ‘You’re crazy. It’s too big.’ We could have done the O2, which is a great arena, we could have done Craven Cottage, which is the venue Tony owns, I believe, with Fulham. Going to Wembley is like, ‘Hold my beer, check this shit out.’ It’s going to be massive and has the potential to sell even more than what the pundits are expecting because I think it’s going to be a cultural event. The fact is, when something becomes cool, that’s when more people want to go. Not to mention the fact that we have a huge television presence and a huge fanbase in the UK. I’m not guaranteeing it or predicting it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up with 60,000 to 70,000 people in that joint.”

Jericho also recently responded on Twitter over certain critics and people online already proclaiming AEW’s upcoming All In event a failure.

“Makes me laugh when critics already proclaim @aew #AllIn at @wembleystadium a failure. Nobody has ANY idea how many tickets we will sell…except the fact checkers & promoters who’ve done their research. Once again, I expect a shitload of loudmouths to have their mouths SHUT!

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Jim Ross Comments on AEW All In Being in Wembley Stadium Being a Great Move

A recent episode of the Grilling JR podcast featured co-host Jim Ross’ thoughts on AEW’s upcoming AEW branded All In event taking place in Wembley Stadium being a great move for the company.

“Yes, it is. I really admire Tony Khan for being brave enough to be willing to invest serious money in promoting this massive venue. I hope the tickets go well. I like how they’re doing the ticket sales, people are registering, and they’re trying to make it fair for everybody to get a ticket. I don’t think that’ll be a problem. I don’t have any idea what to predict, how many people are gonna be there, I don’t know what the capacity’s gonna be for wrestling. But it’s a great move. It moves our brand from Jacksonville, where the headquarters was, and still is, to London. We’re growing.
I think [Tony] will put together a hell of card. I think, now this is me with my old-school booking hat on, you gotta bring in some new people, like the old days. You’d bring Dusty in, he’d work with so-and-so, Superstar Graham, they’d have a bloodbath. That’s how that worked. You gotta bring some new faces in to these big cards, I think, and we’ll see how it works out. I hope I get booked. I’m excited, I’m ready to roll. That territory’s been really good to me, from World of Sport, ITV. I’ve got a lot of friends there.
I think it’s gonna be great for the company. I hope we make money on it. I think we will, and it’ll give these talents a chance to see going from Daily’s Place to Wembley Stadium. That’s a hell of a journey. So I’m pulling for everybody to have their best preparation, the card to be outstanding. When you gotta book one card and you got this list of names, you gotta wonder how many names are gonna be added to that list that weren’t previously there. I think that’s important, that you can have some new [talent], even if it’s a one-off. So be it. I’m excited about this. It’s my favorite territory outside of the United States.
I’m excited about it. I think it’s great, great for us. It’s great for the wrestling business. You said a very wise thing. ‘High tides raise all ships.’ So I remember back in the day, when McMahon was carving out WrestleMania as this amazing event, the business in Mid South, because of the heightened awareness of pro wrestling, and that was the wrestling that they had available to consume on a live basis, was absolutely unbelievable. So I think if a high tide raises all ships, and we’re one of those ships, our tide’s gonna be raised, and we’re gonna be ready for the increase in how deep the water is. Let’s go, let’s get it on. Let’s put our roster out there to have a spectacular show, where people are not just going, ‘Well, this is another night of TV.’ It ain’t another night of TV. It’s not. It’s special, and it’s only going to happen the first time once, so don’t screw it up.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

AEW News & Notes

In a recent interview with The Best Show podcast, RJ City stated that the reason why he has not wrestled in AEW or the indies since his signing with AEW is not due to him being retired but instead due to him getting paid more to do non-wrestling stuff for the company. City stated “Not retired. I just got paid more to do other things in wrestling that’s not wrestling, not that I won’t. There is an argument that when I wrestle, I’m not wrestling.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

AAW Wrestling recently announced that Rey Fenix will be making an appearance for the company at their Uno Mas event on May 6th in Chicago, Illinois.

Prior to the start of this past Tuesday’s NHL game between the Minnesota Wilda and Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg, Canada, the Jets released a pre-game hype video on Twitter that was narrated by Kenny Omega.

Digital Spy reported that AEW’s All Access series will be officially debuting in the United Kingdom tonight on ITV4 following AEW’s Dynamite show on the network.