Dave Meltzer Shares Bleak Forecast For AEW All Out 2025

For the first time in six years, an AEW pay-per-view is set to go head-to-head with a main roster WWE premium live event next month, when AEW All Out from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada airs live at the same time as WWE Wrestlepalooza on ESPN from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on September 20. Throughout this year, WWE has counter-programmed AEW on multiple occasions, but usually both promotions will run their speciality event at different start times while still being on the same day. However, AEW has mostly been rivalled by "WWE NXT" PLE's, and with Wrestlepalooza expected to feature Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena and Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre, Dave Meltzer believes that the buy rate for All Out could reach a historic low.

"I don't want to make any predictions but I think it'll be the lowest they've ever done ... under 100 [thousand] for sure," Meltzer stated on the "Wrestling Observer Radio." "The ones that buy every AEW show, you know what that is? That's like 20,000, 40,000 people. The rest of them are people who buy one show a year or every now and then or whatever. Those people, some of them will still watch AEW, but it ain't going to be 120,000 like they usually get ... I don't think that you realize how hard ESPN's going to be pushing this thing."

Meltzer continued by questioning why AEW President Tony Khan didn't reschedule All Out for the afternoon of September 20 to avoid going head-to-head with WWE, stating that it's a mistake to compete with them directly and that moving to an earlier start time could result in the pay-per-view performing well.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.