Today marks one year to the day that All Elite Wrestling was officially unveiled to the world of professional wrestling. Prior to the start of AEW, there was an event held at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois called All In. The success of this event really changed the world of pro wrestling forever. Not since the days of WCW has there been a show with 10,000 plus fans that was not a WWE show. TNA Wrestling or as it is now known today as Impact Wrestling almost had it but was short 2,000 fans from achieving this goal several years ago.
Since the launch of AEW and their first official event Double or Nothing which took place on May 25, 2019, in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. AEW has taken the wrestling world by storm and proving that there definitely is an audience out there looking for an alternative. Double or Nothing is estimated at somewhere between 98,500 and 113,000 pay-per-view buys worldwide. This number is huge considering that since 2014, the number one wrestling company in the world WWE has stopped the traditional monthly pay-per-view format in favor of building a subscription base for their WWE Network. Before the launch of the network, WWE was seeing a big drop in pay-per-view buys. For AEW to get a similar number of pay-per-view buys to what WWE was getting prior to the launch of the network says a lot for the new promotion.
All Elite Wrestling has had a tremendous first year. From landing a huge TV deal in the united states with TNT to signing some of the best pro wrestlers out there from all different promotions and from the independents. One of the biggest signees was Jon Moxley formally WWE's Dean Ambrose. He made his debut at the inaugural event Double or Nothing in Las Vegas attacking one of AEW's biggest stars Kenny Omega. AEW also got a lot of former Impact Wrestling talent such as The Lucha Bros, LAX which now go as Proud & Powerful, Allie, & Awesome Kong. From the independent wrestling scene, some of the best signings have been Darby Allin, the team of Private Party, the team of The Best Friends, Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt, & in our opinion the best signing from the independents MJF.
Just before the debut of AEW Dynamite on TNT, AEW held its ALL Out pay-per-view at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois. During this event, the very first AEW World Champion was crowned. At AEW's first event Double or Nothing, the winner of the Buy-In Casino Battle Royal would face the winner of Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega which was the main event for Double or Nothing. Hangman Adam Page won the Casino, Battle Royal. Chris Jericho defeated Kenny Omega. A week after Double or Nothing, the inaugural AEW World Championship match between Chris Jericho and Adam Page was confirmed for AEW's event, All Out, on August 31, 2019. At All Out, Jericho defeated Page to become the first-ever AEW World Champion.
On October 2nd, 2019 AEW Dynamite made its tv debut on TNT. What really made AEW stand out where other wrestling promotions have not before them is that their tv show is live every Wednesday. While taping several episodes at once makes more sense financially AEW took a different approach. Also, their decision on holding their events in big arenas instead of smaller venues really helps their product look legit. It's also no surprise that with the debut of AEW Dynamite on TNT that the WWE took some precautionary measures to fight back. WWE NXT is going head to head with AEW Dynamite by airing live every Wednesday also at the same time slot as AEW Dynamite. During the first 7 weeks going directly against NXT, AEW Dynamite won every single week.
Now exactly one year later AEW Dynamite is going to air live from Jacksonville Florida which also happens to be their Homecoming edition show. Jacksonville Florida is the exact location where the first press conference was held announcing the debut of All Elite Wrestling. 2020 is going to prove to be a big year for them. AEW will go down as the rebels who believed in themselves and ultimately did "Change The World".