AEW head Tony Khan has given a big endorsement of the promotion’s month-long set up in Texas.
During a four-week stretch which started in late July and will conclude this weekend, AEW set up shop inside the Esports Arena in Arlington. The venue was used for episodes of Collision and Rampage, as well as numerous tapings for the ROH brand.
The venue had a capacity of just over 1,000, making it significantly smaller than most arenas that AEW visits. However, the location has been filled up significantly for most nights, providing a more lively studio-like atmosphere for shows.
This style of long-term residency hasn’t been seen by AEW since they ran Daily’s Place during the lockdown months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
AEW’s Khan believes the venue experiment has worked, recently praising it in an interview with TV Insider.
“I think we found something very special around Arlington’s Esports Stadium in Texas,” Khan said in the interview. “There is magic in the building and magic in those fans. I would love to keep doing more shows there and having major events there. And if there are other great wrestling markets, legendary wrestling markets that could sustain that kind of excitement week after week, I would love that. We found something very special there in Texas.”
If AEW plans to do a similar experiment in the future, it won’t be for a little while. Collision is scheduled to hit the road once again later this month, with TV tapings currently booked until early October.
Also in the interview, Khan continued to tease that a major announcement is on the way.
“We’re on the verge of the most important announcements in the history of AEW,” Khan said. “There are multiple aspects. The arrival of these announcements is imminent. We’ll have big news that could come at any time. Isn’t that the best kind of wrestling surprise when you know something is coming and you want it and it’s exciting, but you’re not sure when it’s going to happen? You have that feeling it’s going to happen.”
