Bully Ray, a renowned wrestling personality, has shared his insight about AEW’s recent strategy to shift their events to smaller venues. He suggests that AEW, like many wrestling promotions before it, is currently going through a ‘valley.’
Rather than staging events in sizable arenas, AEW has lately been hosting its shows in smaller facilities. Bully Ray, speaking on the recent episode of “Busted Open Radio” podcast, advocated for AEW’s decision to scale down their venue choices, saying,
“Going to smaller venues is actually a smart move, and every single wrestling company since the beginning of time who has achieved success also has to go through the valleys sometimes.
“You get the peaks where you’re successful, and you come down on the other end and you get the valleys. You go from arenas to smaller buildings, it’s happened to the WWE, it happened to WCW, it happens in Japan, it happens in any company that grows exponentially and becomes really, really big because you can’t stay that hot that long.”
Bully Ray’s commentary follows AEW’s recent decision to relocate their Grand Slam: Australia event from Suncorp Stadium to the more intimate Brisbane Entertainment Center.
Suncorp Stadium can accommodate a crowd of more than 50,000, whereas the Brisbane Entertainment Center has a capacity of approximately 13,000 spectators. Reports suggest underwhelming ticket sales for the show.