If you are among the 80,000-plus fans who will be attending AEW All In at London’s Wembley Stadium this Sunday, don’t worry: You’ll be able to buy t-shirts and other merch for your favorite AEW wrestlers.
That reassurance was delivered by AEW CEO, GM and Head of Creative Tony Khan during his appearance this week on CNBC’s Street Signs.
More than 80k tickets have been sold for Sunday's AEW All In rumble at Wembley Stadium. CEO Tony Khan has big plans to capitalize on that success from streaming to video games. And find out which streaming platform is his favorite.@willkoulouris @tonykhan #AEWdynamite #FulhamFC pic.twitter.com/BMJ3DJuCSk
— CNBC's Street Signs (@StreetSignsCNBC) August 22, 2023
“There are great new revenue streams opening up to us,” Khan said to Street Signs. “The video game space is very exciting. We’ve got great action figures. T-shirt sales are going to be through the roof when we go to Wembley Stadium. I’m bringing a lot of shirts, I can assure you.”
His comments appeared to be directed toward speculation that the company, because of its inexperience in running big stadium shows or its reliance on Chicago-based Pro Wrestling Tees as its official merchandise partner, would be unable to meet the massive demand expected at Wembley.
That note of concern was sounded by Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer last month when he was a guest on McGuire on Wrestling. His thought was that AEW simply wouldn’t have the inventory or the number of outlets open to serve such a large crowd.
“They should do $2.5 million or more in merchandise, and I don’t think they will, because I don’t think they’ll have the selection to do it, and I don’t think that they’ll have enough stands,” Meltzer said. “The lines will be too ridiculous. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what they should do.”
Presumably, Khan won’t actually be bringing the t-shirt inventory to Wembley himself, as amusing as that mental image is.
I know what he means, but I'm envisioning Tony Khan checking suitcase after suitcase after suitcase at the airport as he heads over to London, each one just crammed with t-shirts, and it makes me laugh. So my headcanon is set, thank you very much. https://t.co/SlwinZZkdN
— Kyle Sparks | Bodyslam | LoveWrestlingCA (@kyleksparks) August 22, 2023
It’s possible we’ll learn more about AEW’s merch plans this week, as Khan will have a media conference call on Tuesday afternoon. AEW All In is set to kick off with the Zero Hour pre-show at noon ET/9 a.m. PT this Sunday, Aug. 27, with the main card starting one hour later.