WWE’s Blatant Move To Directly Compete With AEW All In: Texas Revealed

Written by Marc Middleton • Published Jul 07, 2025 13:04 EDT
WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H and AEW President Tony Khan at work

WWE and AEW are set for a massive weekend of in-ring action, swerves, and other happenings. Tony Khan and his companies are set to put on ROH Supercard of Honor and AEW All In: Texas, while Triple H and his teams are presenting The Great American Bash, Saturday Night’s Main Event, and Evolution. Now the so-called war between promotions is picking up with the latest talk from backstage.

Evolution II was originally set to take place one week before AEW All In, which was booked for Saturday, July 12 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Khan later announced a special start time of 3pm ET for All In after WWE announced Saturday Night’s Main Event XL for that same night, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. However, WWE then announced NXT’s The Great American Bash XIII for that same Saturday afternoon, to run head-to-head with All In.

WWE officials booked Evolution and The Bash on the same weekend as SNME because they are trying to flood the market and create chaos for AEW, according to an accusation made by Wrestling Observer Radio‘s Dave Meltzer. It was noted that WWE originally had Evolution booked for the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT on Saturday, July 5. However, the decision was allegedly made to move Evolution to this coming weekend because they wanted more competition for AEW’s first PPV in Texas.

Meltzer accused WWE of being on a quest to hurt AEW.

“I think that the lesson of this weekend is that WWE, in their quest to run so many shows to make sure that AEW isn’t a success… I think they basically messed up bad because it looks like there’s very little interest in the NXT Great American Bash. I mean… if they’re not selling out Center Stage, that’s not really good, and then the women’s show, it would’ve sold out Mohegan Sun easily. I think to run three shows in the same market was overkill, there was no point to do The Great American Bash. They did The Bash because AEW moved from the evening to the afternoon, then they threw this other one in to basically burn out the weekend, and the only thing they burned out was…,” Meltzer said.

WWE Accused Of Being Obsessed With Stopping AEW

WWE is facing some criticism for the coming weekend takeover of Atlanta due to apparent low interest in The Great American Bash and Evolution. Dave Meltzer speculated on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE will use the lack of Evolution II success to dismiss any pitch for a similar event in the future.

The Bash is being held at Center Stage in Atlanta, the former home of WCW Saturday Night, which usually holds around 730 seats, with a capacity of 1,050. Meltzer pointed to how the lack of a sell-out at Center Stage is a bad sign, adding that Evolution likely would have drawn a sell-out at Mohegan Sun Arena on the weekend of Independence Day, the original planned location and date. He also accused WWE of being obsessed with stopping AEW.

“So, I think that they decided they wanted to try [Evolution] again, and decided they wanted to put it on this weekend, and now they’ll probably go in there, and because it’s not a success as far as the attendance goes… I mean, even if they give a lot [of tickets] away, which they will to make it look better, they’ll go in and just go, well… I mean, their PLEs sell out instantly, and this one, obviously is gonna be lucky to do half-a-house legit, and I think that, unfortunately, will probably be used if the subject comes up for the next several years about doing another show like this. So, I feel bad, if it was last week they would’ve sold out Mohegan Sun Arena, and no one would’ve said anything, but that’s… there’s a lesson there. When the whole thing started I said they may have over-played their hand in being obsessed with stopping AEW, and I don’t know if… again, I don’t know… we don’t know until the AEW buyrate comes in if [WWE] does a number on AEW, or if their buyrate is way down,” Meltzer said.

Wrestling fans have committed to watching weekend-long marathons of their favorite promotions in the modern era, but this coming weekend will be tough to pull off for both companies, especially with outside competition. Meltzer commented on if this will be a lesson learned for WWE.

“We’ll see if people are too burned out, or the idea of… all they needed to do was that Saturday Night’s Main Event with Bill Goldberg’s retirement on free television on the same day as a pay-per-view, a lot of people are gonna watch the free show, and not that many people, in my mind, are going to be out there wanting to watch 6-7 hours of wrestling in one day. … So, putting Saturday Night’s Main Event head-to-head, for what their goal was, and having Bill’s retirement, that was a smart move. When they added the other shows they just cut off the other shows, to make… you know, cut off their nose to spite their face, I mean, trying to overkill this thing, and it’s a lesson… I guess it’s a lesson learned, or maybe… well, it’ll be a lesson learned. [WWE is] not above the idea that they don’t learn lessons, these guys always learn lessons,” Meltzer said.

The Great American Bash had around 600 tickets sold as of Sunday, with around 125 left. Center Stage will likely be full on Saturday afternoon, but some expected an instant sell-out. The State Farm Arena will be sold-out for SNME XL by showtime as there were less than 2,000 tickets left at last word. Evolution had less than 5,000 tickets out as of Sunday, and it will not be sold out at the same venue. WWE announced attendance of just under 17,000 for Bad Blood 2024 at the State Farm Arena.