AEW has officially announced the hiring of a new chief operating officer in addition to the responsibilities of the role.
The hiring of Kosha Irby was first reported in January 2024 by Fightful as AEW continued to fill roles opened by the departure of other employees like former vice president & chief marketing officer Rafael Morffi and former chief marketing & merchandising officer Dana Massie.
Irby is the first named COO in AEW history as the company builds out a C-suite in addition to new vice presidents like Jennifer Pepperman who was brought on last month as their vp of content development.
Irby has a background in wrestling, having worked for WWE from 2011-2017 as their regional director of live events. He was working as the chief marketing officer for Clemson University’s athletic department.
His responsibilities include the oversight of “all strategic planning and execution of Live Events, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Licensing, Consumer Products and other major lines of business for the company.”
Josh Nason’s Punch-Out returns with another AEW investors call episode, focusing on the fourth quarter of AEW business in 2023.
As always, Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics returns to lend his thoughts, numbers, and an exclusive PDF for Wrestlenomics subscribers of some the numbers we discuss.
If you’re new, here’s the inspiration:
Roughly a month after every financial quarter ends, publicly traded companies like TKO (aka WWE & UFC) hold a quarterly call for investors and analysts where they announce how they did financially along with specific numbers.
I had the idea that as viewers and media, we spend a lot of time investing thoughts and words about wrestling’s top challenger brand to WWE so why not do something similar with the information we have available to us?
On this episode, Brandon and I use perspective to talk about:
AEW’s first quarter to feature three PPVs
The year-over-year declines in viewership
Thoughts and discussion about AEW’s ticket sales issues
All In 2 tickets go on sale
The PR disaster that was Tony Khan’s post-Worlds End response to the Chris Jericho situation
Quotable quotes, notable signings & departures, a forecast of things we’re interested in, and more.
As expected, Sting’s retirement match helped last Sunday’s AEW Revolution do big business at the box office.
Venues Now reported Wednesday that the sold out pay-per-view from Greensboro, North Carolina’s Greensboro Coliseum brought in more than $1 million in gate revenue with an attendance of 16,118.
Scott Johnson, the coliseum’s deputy director, stated the average ticket price was $55. No breakdown of paid vs. comp tickets was reported.
Venues Now also reported that gross merchandise sales brought in nearly $349,000 with an average spend of $21.64 — numbers Johnson said were in line with concerts. Additionally, over $306,000 was spent on concessions which doesn’t include suites.
Johnson said the Coliseum generally books four wrestling shows a year, split between AEW and WWE, that all do “tremendously well.”
AEW’s live gate record is for last August’s All In from London’s Wembley Stadium which generated over $10 million according to AEW head Tony Khan, followed by last June’s Forbidden Door which did nearly $1.2 million in Toronto, Canada.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including AEW business, a big year in terms of gross income, Kevin Sullivan getting released, Britt Baker, the ratings report, a RAW with some very good wrestling throughout the show, mailbag and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: AEW business, Kevin Sullivan (production) released
12:29: Britt Baker, Jeff Hardy tweets; Bandido update
22:04: Ratings
25:15: World Tag League update, Kazuchika Okada a free agent in 2024
AEW All In from London’s Wembley Stadium wasn’t just a hit at the box office, but on pay-per-view as well.
In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer provided some context and specifics regarding Tony Khan’s statements that the PPV is trending toward the second-most purchased PPV in company history.
Meltzer said the current estimates for both streaming and linear buys put All In between 20-30% higher than recent shows which have been in the 140,000 buy range.
“If those numbers hold up, that would indicate 168,000 to 184,000. A lot is dependent upon late buys which are a high percentage for pro wrestling these days,” he wrote.
Meltzer noted that those late buys will place it anywhere from second to fourth all-time for AEW.
AEW’s most-purchased PPV of all time is 2021’s All Out which generated 215,000 buys thanks to the return of CM Punk. March 2022’s Revolution brought in 175,000 buys while May 2022’s Double or Nothing did 165,000.
With three PPVs left to go on this year’s calendar (as far as what has been announced), All In is the company’s most purchased of this year, beating Revolution, Double or Nothing and Forbidden Door.
The final gate revenue has not been revealed, but is said to be over $10 million. Meltzer also noted that merchandise for the day was in the $1.4 million range.
The show was a first in several ways for AEW which included them running an afternoon PPV for the first time in addition to their first show overseas.
More than 81,000 fans were in attendance and the second All In was already announced for next August in the same venue.
The “Better Than You Bay Bay” t-shirt introduced during the current MJF/Adam Cole storyline has been a major hit in terms of sales for AEW.
According to Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the new shirt has sold more than any other AEW shirt for the current year. It’s also the second highest-grossing shirt for the year behind an MJF button down that has a higher price point.
The shirt was introduced on Dynamite several weeks ago by MJF to a reluctant Cole, and the two opponents turned teammates in the Blind Eliminator tag team tournament have now become friends as part of the story.
The two first wrestled against each other in a mid-June Dynamite title eliminator bout that went to a 30-minute draw. After being paired up in the tournament against their wishes, they defeated The Butcher & Matt Menard in the quarterfinals, Big Bill & Brian Cage in the semifinals and then Sammy Guevara & Daniel Garcia in the finals on this past Wednesday’s Dynamite.
With the win, they earned a title shot against AEW Tag Team Champions FTR on the Saturday, July 29th Collision.
AEW has announced a streaming deal, but not the one North American fans have been waiting for.
The company has signed a multi-year deal with TelevisaUnivision to bring AEW’s weekly TV programming and other content to the premium tier of the ViX streaming service, available throughout Mexico and some Latin America and Caribbean countries.
ViX is described as “the first large-scale streaming service to exclusively serve the Spanish-speaking world.”
Starting Wednesday, Dynamite, Rampage and Collision will all stream live on the service at the same time they air in North America. The press release did not specifically indicate if those would be with Spanish language commentary.
The deal also includes the quarterly Battle of the Belts series and pay-per-views 30 days after they initially happen. Additionally, all episodes of AEW Dark and AEW Dark Elevation are available with Spanish language commentary.
The press release did not indicate whether subscribers will have access to past episodes of Dynamite, Rampage and Collision.
Company head Tony Khan tweeted that Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door at Toronto, Canada’s Scotiabank Arena has broken the company’s live gate record at “about” $1.2 million USD.
Khan also said it’s one of the top three biggest live gates in the history of wrestling in Canada. That list is topped by WWE WrestleMania X8 at Toronto’s SkyDome that generated more than $3.9 million USD followed by WWE WrestleMania VI at the SkyDome that generated $3.4 million USD.
The company live gate record will be short-lived due to August’s All In at London’s Wembley Stadium which currently sits at $8.3 million due to more than 66,000 sold tickets.
AEW’s previous streak of four straight million dollar gates for pay-per-views ran from 2022’s Double or Nothing through 2022’s Full Gear, ending with March’s Revolution in San Francisco which Khan said did over $800,000.
Tonight #ForbiddenDoor in Toronto is officially the biggest live gate in @AEW history at about $1.2 million (USD), and it's one of the top 3 biggest live gates in the history of pro wrestling in Canada!
Last Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing is estimated to finish between 130,000-135,000 pay-per-view buys by our Dave Meltzer’s best estimates.
That number could increase depending on the amount of late buys which helped bolster the final numbers for March’s Revolution PPV thanks to the buzz for top matches like the MJF vs. Bryan Danielson Iron Man bout. Based on the “ridiculous number” of late buys that show did, Meltzer didn’t see Double or Nothing matching that.
As first noted by Meltzer on Wednesday’s Wrestling Observer Radio and then again in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, both streaming buys through BR and FITE and linear buys were similar or virtually identical to Revolution.
Whatever the final number is, it will be down from last year’s 165,000 buys, helped by CM Punk going for his first AEW World title, the first-ever Anarchy in the Arena match, and the buzz surrounding whether MJF would appear for his match with Wardlow given the subsequent controversy when he skipped a Saturday autograph session and went radio silent to management.
The number will continue a range AEW has been falling in with their last four PPV offerings: June 2023’s Forbidden Door (140,000 range), September 2023’s All Out (140,000 range), November 2023’s Full Gear (140,000 range), and the aforementioned Revolution from this past March (145,000 range).
Meltzer also reported the show drew 10,550 fans (9000 paid/1550 comps) to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for a gate of nearly $900,000. That would be under last year’s $1,000,00+ gate and attendance (14,459 total) in the same venue. Meltzer noted higher ticket prices contributed to the gate not dropping by that much.
While there is still no new information on launching a streaming service domestically, AEW & ROH head Tony Khan did reveal that there is interest in supporting a focused channel that is free to the public.
Speaking to Variety as part of the Monaco Streaming Film Festival earlier this week, Khan said he feels there are opportunities to put together a FAST (free ad-supported television) channel.
FAST channels are fast becoming hot currency with major technology companies (Amazon’s Freevee, The Roku Channel, Paramount’s Pluto TV, Fox’s Tubi) getting behind them.
“As we build a great library of historical content, it presents more and more opportunities for a potential FAST entry, I think,” he said, adding that the decision would need to be made in partnership with WBD.
Regarding to a future with domestic streaming, Khan said it’s a decision he would need to make in part with WBD.
In January, it was announced that WBD signed deals to launch a singular FAST channel with Roku and 14 FAST channels for Tubi.
Khan continues to be bullish about his international business, believing that “as the landscape changes, we can expand AEW’s streaming revenue multiple times over.”
Pro wrestling content exists on various FAST services with FITE.tv recently announcing they surpassed the one million minutes viewed mark in their first of having a FAST channel.
WWE has not launched such a channel and has not discussed it as a strategy during their quarterly investor calls.
On Wednesday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer provided another update on the projected final buys for AEW Revolution.
Updating a report from Monday, he believes the final numbers for this month’s pay-per-view will be in the range of the low-to-mid 130,000s as “late buys were strong.”
Compared to November’s Full Gear, he said that international streaming buys and linear TV PPV buys were both down but didn’t have a final number on domestic streaming buys.
At the post-Revolution press conference, AEW head Tony Khan said he thought the show would finish between 130,000-140,000 buys based on early numbers.
The number is a drop from 2022’s 175,000 buys for Revolution and more in line with 2021’s 135,000.
The number is also a drop from the 140,000 range they hit for their last three PPVs: June’s Forbidden Door, September’s All Out and November’s Full Gear.
The show came a day after a noteworthy UFC PPV that featured the return of Jon Jones in a fight for the vacant heavyweight title that could have affected some buys.
AEW & ROH head Tony Khan said it’s been a very successful week for his companies.
Speaking at the post-AEW Revolution press conference Sunday, Khan said the early pay-per-view buy numbers for the show look to be “very successful” and line with recent PPV offerings like last June’s Forbidden Door and last November’s Full Gear, possibly higher.
Khan said the final number could be in the range of between 130,000-140,000 buys and believes AEW has a good chance to get replay buys based on the strength of the show.
Last night’s gate of over $800,000 which is a record for wrestling events in the city. That was based on attendance of more than 9000 fans, over 8000 of which paid.
Khan also was happy with the early success of Ring of Honor on HonorClub, noting they have 12,000 subscribers for the streaming service — something he believed was as good as the previous iterations of Honor Club ever achieved.
In a move that will surely influence their TV product, AEW has hired Michael Mansury, WWE’s former vice president of global TV production, to be their new senior vice president and co-executive producer.
The hiring was first reported by PWInsider who added that Mansury will begin his new job at Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite. Specific job responsibilities were not reported.
Mansury was most recently the senior VP and executive producer of global production for Asian-based MMA promotion ONE. Before that, he was an executive producer for the Pat McAfee Show.
Starting in 2009, Mansury was with WWE for 11 years and left on his own accord in May 2020. While his name is likely not familiar with most fans, his work as the director of record for many WWE pay-per-view and TV shows during his time there are.
As noted by PWInsider when they first broke the story in 2020 of Mansury leaving, he was seen by some as an eventual successor to Kevin Dunn and “seen as a big part of the Triple H regime.”
According to Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the total pay-per-view buy estimate for last Sunday’s AEW All Out is between 135,000 and 142,000.
Regardless of where the final number rests in that range, it marks a substantial drop from last year’s event which generated 205,000 buys.
The range includes both streaming and cable/satellite, the latter of which is estimated on early returns because of the longer time period in which those linear providers take in finalizing everything. Meltzer did say the estimate is based on less information than usual.
A key difference between the two years is that WWE ran two shows during Labor Day weekend with Saturday’s Clash at the Castle and Sunday’s WWE NXT Worlds Collide — a move AEW head Tony Khan took umbrage with at the post-event press conference.
Last year’s show also was was CM Punk’s first in-ring action in seven+ years.
Tony Khan was not happy that WWE ran 2 shows during All Out weekend!!
All Out drew 9100 (8800 paid) and over $1 million at the gate — the company’s third-straight PPV that has hit or that dollar mark. Meltzer noted AEW became the second North American wrestling company in history to do three $1 million gates in a calendar year.
“It was about 150 to 200 tickets shy of a sellout as not all the late released tickets were sold. From a secondary market standpoint, the pricing and interest level was the best for a company show this year,” he wrote.
Meltzer also offered the following:
“(The PPV number) was well below both Revolution and Double or Nothing, but it would have been considered a very good number for a show prior to last year’s All Out. The reality is the company is not as hot. WWE putting on two shows that weekend didn’t help. It broke the streak Tony Khan was so proud of where every show in AEW history has beat the same named show from the prior year.
That streak was going to be broken because there was no way this was getting near 205,000 buys which they got due to it being CM Punk’s first match back.
At the press conference, Khan noted that digital buys indicated a number above Forbidden Door and at or near Double or Nothing, and said three major shows over the weekend instead of one was part of the reason. Others with knowledge of digital numbers indicated the range is probably where it will wind up or perhaps a bit higher than that estimate.
On the flip side, this number would be lower than expected and hoped for because there was not as much interest in the show as compared to the other shows other than Forbidden Door which was going to do a smaller number overall but actually was considered a great success for the nature of the show.”
