When AEW announced last year that it was looking to make its UK debut in 2023, CEO and GM Tony Khan fielded a number of questions about what that might look like. While he wasn’t quite ready to answer them at the time, the thinking was that AEW was getting its ducks in a row for something big.
During AEW Dynamite this week, the world learned exactly how big. AEW: All In London at Wembley Stadium will mark the company’s first trip to the UK with a huge show in one of the world’s truly iconic sporting venues on Sunday, Aug. 27.
AEW’s first ever event outside North America (the company held its first shows in Canada just last fall) will also be the first wrestling event at Wembley in more than three decades.
Why such a grandiose introduction in the UK? As noted in the press release announcing All In London, AEW has seen rapid growth in UK TV viewership over the last 16 months, particularly among the coveted 16-34 male demographic. There are also several notable wrestlers on the roster from the UK, topped off by AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter.
“The UK is one of the most important markets in professional wrestling, and AEW is coming in hot as the number one wrestling company in the UK on television,” Khan said in the release. “We want our debut in London to be epic in scale, and there’s no better venue than Wembley Stadium to deliver what I know will be one of the greatest events in AEW’s history.”
Wembley is massive – it can hold up to 90,000 fans for soccer matches – so it will be interesting to see what success looks like in terms of ticket sales in a stadium that size. It’s also unclear if All In is replacing All Out, the pay-per-view it usually stages on Labor Day weekend.
The general ticket sale for All In London will be Monday, May 5 at 9 a.m. BST through Ticketmaster UK. Fans who don’t want to wait that long can pre-register for early access at ticketmaster.co.uk/AEWWembley.