AEW WrestleDream 2023 Reportedly Set To Air For Free In The UK

AEW WrestleDream airs live this weekend on pay-per-view, the company's sixth pay-per-view event in 2023, setting an AEW record for shows in a calendar year. Tony Khan announced the event in August during All In, declaring it to be a tribute to Antonio Inoki staged on the one-year anniversary of his death. It happens October 1, 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT, live in Seattle. 

But for fans in the UK, there is an opportunity to forego paying the cost to watch WrestleDream live. ITV 4 is scheduled to air the event on Thursday, October 5, on national television at 11 PM GMT. Dave Meltzer noted in this week's "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" that the free airing will certainly hurt the PPV buys in the UK, especially the late buys going into this weekend. 

This is by no means a new practice for AEW, who also presented All In on ITV just four days after the event. Both "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Rampage" weekly shows also air on ITV4 for free every Friday and Tuesday respectively, and are further made available On-Demand via the "ITV X" streaming platform, which became a topic of discussion earlier this year when it was reported that UK ratings had gone down. For reference, the September 11 episode of "Dynamite" recorded 210,000 viewers in the UK — a company record — whereas the average viewership for that same episode in the USA was 911,000.