More On AEW & WWE Potentially Running US Events During WrestleMania 43 Week

A new report has the latest on AEW and WWE possibly running US events against each other when WrestleMania 43 takes place in Saudi Arabia. As has been reported, WWE will host WrestleMania watch parties across the US including at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The same venue will host NXT Stand & Deliver and AAA Eternal Glory that same weekend.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more details on the expectations around Tony Khan’s plans for AEW that weekend. Khan noted that sources in WWE have believed that Khan would run an event in New York. This is, at least in part, why WWE booked NXT Stand & Deliver and AAA Eternal Glory at the Infosys Theater. The report notes that the NXT and AAA shows will take place “likely right after” the WrestleMania watch parties at the venue, considering that WrestleMania will air earlier due to the time zone difference.

Some in the companies have speculated that running the Infosys Center allows WWE to keep AEW from making their debut at Madison Square Garden, though MSG has not been interested in AEW events. Dave Meltzer also pointed out that it isn’t cost effective for AEW to run the Garden as opposed to somewhere like Louis Armstrong Stadium or the Barclays Center.

It is important to make clear that Tony Khan and AEW have not yet announced their WrestleMania week/weekend plans. That said, the report does some speculation and notes that if AEW had a stadium show in New York City, they could benefit by this as people could watch WrestleMania at the Infosys Center and then drive to the AEW event.

If both AEW and WWE run shows in New York City over that week or weekend, it would likely be a boon to independent promotions as the area would be a massive hub for wrestling week events in the way that WrestleMania week usually is. WWE running WrestleMania itself in Saudi Arabia had the potential to remove that hub to a degree, which many independent companies have traditionally relied on for a big part of their business each year. Meltzer said he would expect WWE would want to find a way to make independent groups “choose” between associating with AEW or WWE’s events running that weekend, but it’s not clear how that would even be possible.