By: Reece Hooker
Special to POST Wrestling
Following a long and often criticized build-up, AEW delivered Grand Slam Australia from the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in a show headlined by Toni Storm reclaiming the AEW Women’s World Championship in front of a raucous hometown crowd.
The issues on the road to this event have been well publicized: after ambitiously announcing the show in August 2024 at Suncorp Stadium, a 60,000-seat venue, the show was promptly downgraded to the 13,000-capacity Brisbane Entertainment Centre in November.
The venue change sparked headaches for fans who had already purchased tickets, with some finding their expensive Suncorp Stadium tickets had become poor seats at the new site. Then, there remained ambiguity over whether the show was a pay-per-view or television special and confusion over what time it would even air.
Frustrations over the organizational fiasco were on full display when Tony Khan faced the crowd and was met with loud boos. Khan didn’t acknowledge the hostile reception, but quelled the boos by promising the company would return to Australia (which has since been officially confirmed). Still, it was a significant moment that indicated — for as excited as the atmosphere was inside Brisbane Entertainment Centre — there remained hurt feelings over Khan’s handling of the company’s Australian debut.
But as often seems the case in AEW, the issues fade away fast when the bell rings. As the broadcast captured, the energy inside Brisbane Entertainment Centre was high throughout the entire show. It is instantly among the best professional wrestling shows ever heard on Australian soil and might be one of AEW’s strongest television episodes.
The show was bookended by memorable moments, starting with Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega’s first-ever tag match and concluding with Storm’s euphoric win over Mariah May. Right in the middle, a crowd sing-along to ‘Metalingus’ during Cope’s entrance produced an organic emotional highlight, as the legend made his first appearance in Australia since 2008.
It was also a show that did the little things well: Harley Cameron may not have left with championship gold but the Queenslander shone in her biggest spot yet. At the same time, Buddy Matthews’ reputation continues to grow after a strong showing against Kazuchika Okada.
Still, with AEW set to return in 2026, there will be plenty of learnings to take from it. The obvious learning is to book a venue within their means. That might mean running the Brisbane Entertainment Centre again or taking on similarly sized venues elsewhere such as Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena (21,000 seats) or Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (15,000 seats).
It’s even conceivable that AEW could successfully manage a venue as large as AAMI Park in Melbourne (30,000 seats), which is 200 meters from the site of an actual tennis grand slam, the Australian Open.
Realistically, if AEW wants to touch the stratosphere of a stadium show in Australia, it desperately needs to improve its brand visibility. This starts with improving its television deal, which currently sees AEW airing on delay on the cable channel ESPN Australia and its parent streaming platform Kayo Sports. Even the domestic broadcast for Grand Slam Australia began airing an hour after it finished on North American screens. AEW commercials airing throughout the weekend on Kayo also made no mention of Grand Slam Australia, instead repeating a generic Dynamite commercial that has been in rotation for months.
Going beyond television and streaming, AEW’s presence in Australia has felt minimal. Queensland locals unanimously said they had seen little to no advertising outside of pro wrestling circles, while the show did not register nationally, despite relying heavily on interstate tourism for attendance. The company sent Toni Storm and Paul Wight over for the initial announcement and had Darby Allin and Kyle Fletcher promote the show remotely with a slew of radio and podcast interviews. But these failed to generate the same degree of attention as, say, Grayson Waller’s terse interview on national breakfast television or Austin Theory’s dust-up in The West Australian newsroom.
But AEW doesn’t have to only look to the WWE playbook to build its brand in Australia. Grand Slam Australia felt like a true triumph of Australian wrestling in a way that no other international show ever has — four Australians and a New Zealander on the AEW card, along with three Aussies on the pre-show taping of Ring of Honor, helped set a tone.
Roaming the Brisbane Entertainment Centre made it clear that many in the audience were connected with the grassroots scene: a chant in the hallway for Queensland wrestler Yeet Stevens, or fans calling out to Sydney rising star The Tuckman who worked as an extra, or conversations between fans waiting for Ubers about the booking in Melbourne City Wrestling.
On the heels of an Australian indie-super show put on by Pro Wrestling League and Renegades of Wrestling which drew over 600 fans and Rock n’ Roll Wrestling’s Brisbane debut with over 400, plus Pro Wrestling Australia and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Tamashii brand both running shows on Saturday and Sunday, it felt like a celebration of Australian wrestling.
AEW has partially understood the memo: Buddy Matthews was allowed to wrestle five times in Melbourne City Wrestling and carried the promotion’s top championship last year. Booking Robbie Eagles for a Ring of Honor Pure Championship match against Lee Moriarty was another nod towards appealing to Australia’s independent scene (one person I spoke to said that, had the Eagles match been announced earlier, they would have flown from Melbourne to attend the show).
But AEW did not build strong connections within Queensland’s independent scene, nor did the company line up anyone to appear at the aforementioned Australian indie super-show the night prior.
Running a show in Brisbane again would be a challenge. The vast majority of patrons I spoke to had traveled from interstate, and most indicated they wouldn’t return if Brisbane hosted Grand Slam Australia in 2026. The heavy favorites for the honor next year would be Melbourne or Sydney, two larger markets that are more tourist-friendly.
Melbourne has an established record of hosting major wrestling shows, drawing over 70,000 to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for WWE Super Show-Down in 2018 and hosting an NXT taping in 2017. Sydney meanwhile has been starved of a major pro wrestling show, having not hosted a television taping since WCW Thunder at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 2000.
In any case, the first hurdle has been cleared. AEW has run a spectacular show in Australia, and the Australian audience has proven itself to be an asset for the company’s television broadcast. It has saved what was a relationship that risked turning sour and bodes well for the company’s return down under in 2026.