AEW Taking Cost-Cutting Measures

Tony Khan is reportedly tightening the AEW purse strings.

On July 20th, AEW will begin a run of five shows at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The residency will also see Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor take place inside the stadium which holds 2,500 fans.

The announcement was initially greeted with much fanfare, but a report on the decision warned AEW Collision ticket sales could collapse by running the same venue five weeks in a row.

Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that the residency is a cost-cutting measure.

The one thing we’ve noticed is that there has been cost-cutting. Granted, the talent roster is larger than they need and the cuts from a roster standpoint did make sense. But the Arlington tapings for Collision, which is an experiment regarding doing residential instead of constantly touring tapings, is cost cutting. It also simplifies things.

And AEW wasn’t doing huge Saturday night gates so this an experiment which is best viewed when it’s over and whether it is best to try and do it more often, or never again. Some have talked of noticing cutbacks in production as well

Several AEW Talents Depart

The report comes after Arn Anderson, Mark Henry, and Jake Hager all left the company. While none of the trio were released, they didn’t get their contracts renewed as they hadn’t been used on television in prominent positions.

In recent days, Ethan Page has become the latest start to jump from AEW to WWE after making his debut on the May 28th episode of NXT. Page made an instant impact by attacking NXT Champion Trick Williams. A match between the pair is set to headline NXT Battleground on June 9th.

Page left AEW on May 2nd, having first attempted to get out of his contract as far back as February.