AEW President Tony Khan responded to a report claiming WWE was caught off guard by how well AEW All Out sold, telling reporters during the show’s post-event media scrum in Chicago that he was surprised WWE would be surprised at all.
The comments stemmed from a Fightful Select report published ahead of All Out, which stated that WWE had scheduled its Worlds Collide event in Chicago on the same night in an effort to impact ticket sales for AEW’s show. According to Fightful, sources within WWE “admitted they didn’t expect AEW to sell as well” as it did despite the counterprogramming.
Asked about the report at the scrum, Khan pushed back on the notion that AEW’s strong sales should have come as a shock to anyone in WWE, pointing to the venue’s track record with AEW events. “I was kind of surprised they were surprised,” Khan said, according to F4W Online. “We’ve sold out this arena many times.”
The exchange added a new layer to the ongoing scheduling rivalry between the two promotions, with WWE placing Worlds Collide directly opposite AEW All Out in the same city. Multiple outlets, including Ringside News and eWrestlingNews, confirmed that Khan raised the topic unprompted during the scrum and used it to reinforce AEW’s standing draw in Chicago.
Neither WWE nor Fightful’s original sources were named in connection with the surprise claim, and WWE has not publicly commented on the report.
