Dave Meltzer Says There’s Signs Of Life Despite AEW Issues

Dave Meltzer has insisted that there a positive signs despite a recent downturn in business for AEW.

Analysts have suggested that enthusiasm for AEW has cooled after an initial rush of support for an alternative to the WWE product, but prominent wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer believes that people are premature for writing off the Jacksonville-based promotion.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer emphasised that it was not all doom and gloom for the company and highlighted a strong walk up attendance at a recent show as a promising sign:

“Some people really want to jump on the AEW is doing bad, and they’re cold. There’s been some signs of life.

And even the show I was at last night, it was not a great show as far as like compared to like, say, the first times and everything like that, and it wasn’t like loaded with great matches, but it was not a cold promotion.

For Oakland, for the building they’re in, and how much that building usually has been drawing for WWE. They did pretty well. They did a great walk-up, which is a really interesting thing because they’ve been weak in advance sales, and maybe that’s because of the high prices, but maybe people just kind of are just kind of waiting till the end, figuring they’ll get a better ticket deal at the end.

But whatever it was, and in some of these cities, they’ve really started to ramp up local promotion like [Powerhouse] Hobbs did a lot of media here the last couple of days. So it was actually the second biggest walk-up for an AEW television show in history. It beat out the [CM] Punk show in Chicago.

They only ended up with 4500 in the building, but I mean, it was tracking to do maybe in the threes. It did not feel like a cold promotion. I mean, it’s not a hot promotion.”

Can AEW Repeat Wembley Success?

Undoubtedly one of the highlights in AEW history was packing London’s Wembley Stadium on 27th August 2023 for AEW All In.

The company registered a record breaking attendance that night and are keen to match, or even better, those numbers when they return to the English capital in August 2024.

With the ticket on-sale date fast approaching, Tony Khan has already announced that Bryan Danielson will be a key part of All In 2024.

H/T: WrestlingNews.co for the above transcription