News

Tony Khan Boasts About 7-Figure PPV Success

By TJR Staff • Published 29th June 2022
Tony Khan at Full Gear

AEW President Tony Khan has revealed just how big a success Forbidden Door was, touting impressive ticket sales and PPV buys.

On June 26th, all eyes were on the United Centre in Chicago for the much-anticipated inter-promotional Forbidden Door pay-per-view that saw AEW’s finest squaring off with the top stars of NJPW.

The main event of a spectacular night of wrestling saw Jon Moxley defeat NJPW’s Ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi, to become the Interim AEW World Champion. Elsewhere, there were big wins for Will Ospreay, FTR, and Thunder Rosa while Claudio Castagnoli made his long-awaited return to the ring as Zack Sabre Jr.’s mystery opponent.

At the post-show media scrum, Tony Khan revealed that besides the wrestlers and the fans watching the event, the biggest winners could well be the companies themselves. Khan also spoke on the dollar amount generated from tickets as well as the number of pay-per-view buys.

“The show was a big success. We had ticket sales of over $1.1 million. I think it will be within literally thousands, just behind Double or Nothing, but right there, both over $1.1 million live ticket sales. The pay-per-view, I said if we hit 100,00 worldwide buys, I would feel it’s a big success and I feel very comfortable now, based on the early digital numbers, saying we did 100,000 buys and more. I feel great about that.”

Now, Tony Khan taken to social media to confirm the pay-per-view projections, claiming that Forbidden Door brought in a staggering $5 million from fans watching at home.

“Thank you to everyone, especially wrestling fans around the world, who made last Sunday’s #ForbiddenDoor event a hit, with >$1 million in ticket sales + >$5 million on ppv! We’re back for Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite on @TBSNetwork @ 8pm ET/7pm CT/8pm PT #BloodAndGuts TOMORROW!”

H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.