AEW All Out and WWE x AAA: Worlds Collide are set to be pitting heads on September 26, but the real war is not happening inside the squared circle but outside it.

WWE has been trying for ages to put a dent in AEW’s business and has gone the extra mile to hamper some of their ticket sales. This has been ongoing for quite a few years especially with them running shows adjacent to or directly clashing with AEW. They ran a AAA and NXT show simulteneously with All In and then they brought out the big guns.

AEW All Out on September 26 will be running against AAA and WWE’s joint venture – Worlds Collide. That’s not all, both shows will be in Chicago, and moreover, Triple H and The Undertaker are stacking up the card with CM Punk of all people set to wrestle at the show. Of course the idea is to harm AEW and Tony Khan, but results indicate the ploy could be backfiring on WWE.

AEW All Out And WWE Worlds Collide Ticket Sales Tell A Completely Different Story

AEW will be running the Now Arena which has a capacity of 10,595. At the time of writing, WrestleTix reports that Tony Khan and his promotion have sold 9,051tickets so far with setup for about 9,096. It’s safe to say that more of the seats will likely be opened up as more tickets are sold, and AEW could easily get to the 10,000 mark with about 15 days still left before the show.

That being said, WWE isn’t doing a bad job either. They will be running the Allstate Arena in Chicago. The difference between both arenas is that Allstate holds somewhere between 18,200 to 22,000 people for a show, depending to what it may be. Even with the lowest number considered for this, Allstate holds 8,000 people more than the Now Arena. With that in mind, WWE has sold around 10,149 tickets with a setup of 12, 793, according to WrestleTix on September 8. Assuming they sold another 1000 tickets in the subsequent two/three days, they are only still two thousand tickets ahead of AEW.

For a company the size of World Wrestling Entertainment, who have immense wealth and pull in Chicago, thanks to CM Punk, the numbers should probably be way higher. If nothing, fans would rather be flocking to watch Punk and all the likes instead of AEW. A difference in 2000 is not a good look for TKO and Triple H would were looking to hurt Tony Khan’s books.

Truth be told, the last thing WWE would have wanted was to see All Out become sold out and that too on the same turf they are running.

As per WrestleVotes, it’s also true that Worlds Collide was intentionally being run at 8pm ET against All Out. It was once again a ploy to get head-to-head to All Out. Again, it might have been an idea to damage Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling as much as possible, but in reality, the plan hasn’t worked. The ticket sales for a company that is seven years old is almost matching that of the decades-old pro wrestling conglomerate and one of the pioneers.

And all of this is happening while the flagship champion of the company has been booked on the same show.

WWE may have started this war, but at this point, it’s clear AEW is winning it.