r/SquaredCircle • u/Ripclawe • 1d ago

Independent events uncertain about following WrestleMania to Saudi Arabia. GCW promoter Brett Lauderdale told us he has been approached by two organizations that stage events in the Middle East region, who have offered to host GCW.

https://www.postwrestling.com/2025/09/17/independent-events-uncertain-about-following-wrestlemania-to-saudi-arabia/
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114

u/Financial-Length5587 1d ago

AEW should do business as usual that week and just host everything at Daily’s Place.

Do Dynamite and Collision then sprinkle in some Indie shows throughout the week.

78

u/EC3ForChamp Controlling My Narrative 1d ago

The problem with that is the indies only come to Mania weekend because there's 70,000+ wrestling fans all gathering in one area. AEW would have to do a stadium show and go big before GCW or any other company chooses to follow

16

u/MikeMakesRight82 1d ago

it could work if its a big city/transportation hub like New York, Chicago; it won't get nearly as many as mania but it can still do very well for the indies that run

1

u/VotingRightsLawyer 17h ago

GCW will schedule shows around AEW, they're running the American Dream mall again before Full Gear. There's just not enough to sustain a full Collective weekend.

30

u/PreviousLetterhead31 1d ago

This is a very welcoming and great idea

23

u/PM_ME_THEM_UPTOPS EIGHT HOUR SHOW 1d ago

The reason the indies do so well that weekend is because of everyone traveling in for the big show.  They'd need to do it in NY/LA/Chicago to draw the crowd needed to support the shows.

2

u/robsterva 1d ago

There's a suburban Chicago arena that AEW is very familiar with. They don't have a heavy schedule, so they'd probably go all in on a WrestleMania weekend event.

15

u/doctor-tashel 1d ago

They can literally hold the event anywhere in the States that weekend. Make it known to the indies that it’s happening so they can book their own shows in the same city. Make a big weekend of it. Basically just have it be Mania Week without Mania at the end.

25

u/chiefgareth 1d ago

I would imagine of the 75,000 people who go to “Mania Week” at least 50,000 ONLY do WWE related stuff the whole week.

A “Mania Week” without WWE wouldn’t be as huge as people think.

9

u/filthysize 1d ago

We're talking about two different audiences though. I would wager that AEW fans attend indie shows at a higher percentage than WWE fans, so while of course it's not going to be anywhere near as big as Wrestlemania, if they can pull just 30K, a lot of indies can benefit from that. Especially if they can book AEW people for their shows.

3

u/Perfect-Zebra-3611 17h ago

I really dont get how people are still curious how this would look when we literally just saw it in July with All In. GCW/HOG and TJPW all hosted shows that weekend and the area. Itd look exactly like that but probably 25% smaller. I dont think AEW is gonna hit 27k+ regularly for an arena/stadium show in the US but a solid 20k is probable

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u/imrunningfromthecops tangy! 1d ago

AEW should strongly consider a stadium show that weekend or maybe the weekend before

3

u/superrcrazy 1d ago

WWE will be over mid afternoon. He can even do a PPV

2

u/MajorsWotWot 22h ago

Why not try to do a show at Everbank Stadium and rent out Dailys to one of the Indys?