AEW boasted that its All In pay-per-view event at London’s Wembley Stadium on Aug. 27 broke the record for “the most paid fans ever at any pro wrestling event.” AEW President Tony Khan said 81,035 was the official number of paid tickets for the show.
However, there’s a difference between the number of paid tickets for an event and how many fans actually showed up to go through the turnstiles. We now have information on the latter result thanks to a Freedom of Information public records request.
The Brent Council responded to the request by revealing the actual turnstile count was 72,265 people:
“The actual numbers registered entering the Stadium through the turnstiles was 72,265 – this is reflective of what attended on the night and not the total number of tickets sold or no-shows etc.”
The discrepancy between the two numbers is likely due to scalpers buying up a lot of tickets early on and not selling all of them, in addition to anyone who did buy tickets but decided not to attend.
Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer tried to provide some context for thinking about the drop off from the total paid number to the actual turnstile count:
“Most turnstile numbers when it comes to stadium events…[are] usually about 10 percent off. This is 11 percent off…It’s a higher number than I probably would have expected for this show, but not in the realm of unusual…I have seen WWE’s, and they’re a little lower, but it’s like 8 [or] 9 percent.”
Meltzer points out that AEW’s official paid number is still not verified, and you should always be skeptical about these numbers in pro wrestling until that happens:
“We do not have authenticity and verification of the paid number, the 81,035. I expect that we will have an audited copy of that at some point. Almost every big show we end up with it, sometimes it takes a couple months…It’s healthy to be skeptical, this is the pro wrestling business.
…right now the paid [number of tickets] that they have claimed is the all-time record. There obviously were 8,000 more people at WrestleMania 32 in the building than there were at Wembley, so Wembley did not break the all-time building attendance record, and probably was behind the WrestleMania 3.”
If you need another reason to remain skeptical about the paid number before it is verified, Meltzer mentions that Tony Khan provided an incorrect number of total people in the building for All In:
“At the press conference, I asked [Tony Khan] how many were in the building, and he gave a number close to 90,000. The number in the building was not close to 90,000.”
It is likely that Khan’s number tried to include employees, media, and other people who would not go through the turnstiles. However, there’s no way that number can be almost 20,000 higher than the actual turnstile count, so it seems like Khan needs to take an advanced course in Steiner math.
What’s your reaction to the turnstile count for All In, Cagesiders?
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