Published: 2 hours ago by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: 2 hours ago by Dave Adamson
Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.
AEW/WWE
With AEW All Out and WWE Worlds Collide both taking place on September 26, the battle for Chicago is just over one week away.
For AEW All Out, the show takes place at Now Arena, while WWE Worlds Collide emanates from Allstate Arena, both in the Chicago, Illinois, area.
Tony Khan has previously spoken about WWE counterprogramming AEW events, with September 26 being an indicator of that being the case.
While reports have emerged indicating confusion as to how or when WWE Worlds Collide will be broadcast, one thing is for sure: both shows are happening, but what can fans expect?
Championships On The Line
AEW All Out has seven matches announced so far, with titles on the line in five of them and Will Ospreay defending the World Championship against Jon Moxley as the likely main event.
WWE Worlds Collide, by contrast, has five matches announced, with the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship being the only one to feature a title.
The CM Punk Factor
A Chicago native, CM Punk is loved in the city, and WWE knows this, hence his role at Worlds Collide, where he’ll be teaming with El Grande Americano & Rey Mysterio to take on Dominik Mysterio, JD McDonagh & Omos.
For AEW, they don’t have a star as loved as Punk in Chicago, but they do have one thing going that Worlds Collide does not…
The Prime Pay-Per-View Factor
Of the matches announced so far, only two don’t directly feature titles, being number-one contender matches for the Women’s World Championship and World Tag Team Championship.
For AEW, All Out is clearly a strong pay-per-view in their calendar, while WWE Worlds Collide is a crossover show that, at the time of writing, features one championship match and an AAA one at that. Not to diminish the Mexico-based promotion, but without a WWE championship on the lineup, fans of Raw and SmackDown may be put off by what’s on offer, even if popular stars such as Pun, Dominik and Rey Mysterio, El Grande Americano and Roxanne Perez are among those on the show.
Worlds Collide Goes It Alone
WWE Worlds Collide last year took place on June 7, the same day as Money in the Bank, attaching it to one of the main PLEs on the company calendar.
This year, Worlds Collide isn’t running alongside any other WWE PLE or special in the same weekend, serving as a standalone experience for the fans.
The Measure Of Success
The measure of success for any event isn’t the ratings that any wrestling match gets, no matter who issues those out into the world.
Among the tangible measures are whether the venue sells out, how much the show brings in and how much money is taken through merchandise sales. Of course, ticket price comes into the amount that the show takes; it’s easy to take a good chunk of cash from fewer people when you’re charging them all more.
Now Arena has a capacity of 10,543, while Allstate Arena can comfortably hold up to 22,000. WrestleTix has recently reported that 9,216 tickets have been distributed for AEW All Out, with a previous post stating 10,834 tickets had been distributed for Worlds Collide. “Tickets distributed” includes those sold as well as those issued as comps.
Regardless of where interest is, September 26 will be quite the night of professional wrestling action for fans of both companies.
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