Dave Meltzer Assesses Ticket Sales For WWE SummerSlam & AEW All In

Two of the biggest events of the year are rapidly approaching as WWE SummerSlam 2026 will take place on August 1 and 2, while AEW All In London 2026 will bookend the month by taking place on August 30. Two companies producing three stadium shows in one month means that there has been a lot of talk about ticket sales, and in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer examined where both shows are one month out from bell time.

Starting with WWE, Meltzer believes that things aren't looking to great for SummerSlam compared to previous years. The two-night event will take place at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a venue that can hold around 67,000 people if needed, but at the time of writing, night one of SummerSlam has 22,069 tickets out while night two is slightly lower at 21,731. Meltzer noted that the get-in price is currently at $84, and that there is a 25% sale on tickets, but that sale has not helped push ticket sales up, and while Meltzer doesn't believe those within WWE were expecting a sell-out show, he does believe that these figures are a lot lower than they would like.

To combat this Meltzer stated that the company needs to lower prices in order to attract more fans, and reflect on whether the two-night structure for shows that aren't WWE WrestleMania are a good idea. He did say that the company isn't doing badly by any stretch, but there are some cracks in the WWE armor. Viewership for "WWE Raw" has dropped to the point where the previous three episodes of the show have done the lowest numbers since WWE put its flagship show on Netflix, and while the show has had to compete with the FIFA World Cup which has done damage, Meltzer noted that AEW has also gone up against the soccer tournament and hasn't seen anywhere near the drop that "Raw" has.

As for AEW, the news is more positive compared to what's going on in WWE, especially after the developments of what happened at the Beach Break episode of "AEW Dynamite" on July 8.

Meltzer reported that All In London currently has 29,127 tickets out, a figure that was reached through a combination of a 50% discount on tickets that helped the figure surpass the 28,000 mark, and Kenny Omega winning the AEW World Championship that moved more than 1,000 tickets in the 24 hours after his win. Meltzer noted that the discount sale does encourage people to not buy tickets right away, hence why the figures for this year's show are much lower than the previous two instalments in 2023 and 2024, but that it has been more successful than WWE's sale. 

On the topic of Omega, Meltzer thinks that the ticket movement after the announcement that Omega will defend the title against Will Ospreay in the main event should be the clearest sign to AEW officials that the match shouldn't be messed with by making it a three-way, or having Omega drop the title beforehand. However, given the landscape of the AEW World Championship scene this year, Meltzer can't be certain plans won't change.

As for what the attendance could be, the current get-in price on the secondary market is much higher than SummerSlam at $177.62, and Meltzer sees 35,000 people as a safe bet, while 40,000 is not impossible and would be considered a success. He did note that 40,000 would be half of what the company achieved in 2023 with over 80,000 tickets sold, and that the venue will be noticeably emptier given it can hold over 90,000 for certain events. However, the idea of putting another 40,000 people in a venue that the company has ran twice in the last three years already would be unprecedented for a secondary company outside of Japan.