Background and formation (2017–2019) In May 2017, professional wrestling journalist
Dave Meltzer commented that the American professional wrestling promotion
Ring of Honor (ROH) could not sell 10,000 tickets for a wrestling event, a feat that no U.S.-based wrestling promotion besides the dominant
WWE had accomplished since WWE's defunct major competitor,
World Championship Wrestling (WCW), in 1999. The comment was responded to by professional wrestlers
Cody Rhodes and
The Young Bucks (the
tag team of Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), who were then top stars signed to ROH and good friends both inside and outside professional wrestling as part of the group
Bullet Club (and later part of the sub-Bullet Club faction,
The Elite). They promoted and held an independent professional wrestling event called
All In in September 2018, featuring wrestlers from ROH as well as other promotions. The event sold out in 30 minutes and had the largest audience in attendance for a professional wrestling show in the United States held and organized by promoters not affiliated with WWE or WCW since 1993. The event was attended by 11,263 people. The event was acclaimed, and it led to much online speculation that Cody and The Young Bucks would expand their ambitions and create their own professional wrestling promotion or do a second All In event. Reportedly, people in the
television industry were also very impressed with the show. On November 5, 2018, several trademarks were filed in
Jacksonville, Florida, that indicated the launch of All Elite Wrestling. Names filed for trademark included: All Elite Wrestling, AEW All Out, All Out, AEW, Double or Nothing, Tuesday Night Dynamite, AEW Double or Nothing, and several logos. In December 2018, Cody, The Young Bucks,
Hangman Page, and several other wrestlers left ROH. The official announcement of AEW's creation came at midnight
Eastern Time on January 1, 2019, in an episode of
Being the Elite, a
YouTube web series created by and featuring The Elite, wherein Page looked at his phone to show the All Elite Wrestling logo on his smartphone. Also announced in the episode was
Double or Nothing on Cody & The Bucks' smartphones, AEW's inaugural event and sequel to All In. On January 2, 2019, Cody, The Young Bucks, & Page officially signed with the promotion as competitors as well as serving as AEW's co-
Executive vice presidents, (with the exception of Page), while entrepreneur, football executive, and longtime wrestling fan
Tony Khan was announced as the president of the company. Tony's father,
Shahid, was reportedly backing the promotion as lead investor. The Khans are billionaires and part of the ownership group of the
Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team and
Fulham F.C.. Cody's wife,
Brandi Rhodes, was announced as the company's
chief brand officer on January 3, 2019. On January 8, 2019, the company held its inaugural press conference on the forecourt of the
TIAA Bank Field, where they announced talents that were going to perform as part of the promotion, including former ROH wrestlers the team of
SoCal Uncensored (
Christopher Daniels,
Scorpio Sky, and
Frankie Kazarian), independent wrestlers
Britt Baker,
Joey Janela,
MJF,
Penelope Ford, and former WWE wrestlers
Pac and
Chris Jericho. On February 7, 2019, the group held a press conference where tickets were released for Double or Nothing. Other big announcements included
Kenny Omega joining as a wrestler and the company's fourth co-Executive Vice President, as well as the signings of
Sammy Guevara, The
Lucha Brothers (
Pentagón Jr. and
Rey Fénix) and
Best Friends (
Trent Beretta and
Chuck Taylor).
Early history and TNT debut (2019–2020) in
Jacksonville, Florida. On May 15, 2019, AEW and
WarnerMedia announced a deal for a weekly primetime show airing live on
TNT, the network that formerly had broadcast WCW's
Monday Nitro during the
Monday Night War (1995–2001).
CBS Sports described AEW as "the first company with major financial backing to take a swing at beginning to compete with WWE on a major level in nearly two decades". During the summer, AEW produced two more events,
Fyter Fest in June and
Fight for the Fallen in July. On August 31, 2019, AEW produced their second pay-per-view event,
All Out as a
spiritual successor to All In. At the event, the
AEW Women's World Championship belt was unveiled and in the main event, Chris Jericho defeated "Hangman" Adam Page to become the inaugural AEW World Champion. On September 19, TNT's website listed AEW's show as
AEW Dynamite with a one-hour preview show scheduled for October 1 at 8 p.m. On October 2,
Dynamite debuted on TNT which averaged 1.409 million viewers, which made it the largest television debut on TNT in five years. Also on October 2, WWE's
NXT would make its two-hour debut on
USA Network (the previous two episodes featured the first hour on USA with the second hour on the
WWE Network), and they averaged 891,000 viewers.
Dynamite beat out
NXT in viewership and more than doubled its competition in the key adults 18–49 demographic, scoring 878,000 viewers compared to
NXTs 414,000. This would also mark the beginning of the "
Wednesday Night Wars". Prior to and after the episodes,
untelevised matches were filmed to air on
AEW Dark on the following Tuesdays (except before PPV events, where the episodes aired Fridays) on AEW's YouTube channel. On November 9, AEW produced their third pay-per-view event,
Full Gear. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Kenny Omega in an unsanctioned Lights Out match. On January 15, 2020,
WarnerMedia and AEW announced a $175 million contract extension for
Dynamite on TNT through 2023 and that AEW would be launching an upcoming second television weekly show, later revealed as
AEW Rampage and airing on Friday nights.
Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) in
Jacksonville, Florida (which is connected to EverBank Stadium), due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. As other sports cancellations and postponements were being announced in March 2020, AEW began to be impacted by the
American onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Following the
suspension of the 2019–20 NBA season after two players tested positive for the virus, the March 18 episode of
Dynamite was held
without spectators from
Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. That year's
Double or Nothing was supposed to take place on May 23, but on April 8, the MGM Grand Garden Arena announced that they had canceled all events up through May 31 due to the pandemic.
At that point, Nevada had been in a state of emergency since March 12, banning all public gatherings indefinitely. In response, AEW announced that Double or Nothing would still proceed as planned but from Daily's Place, as well as TIAA Bank Field for the main event match. On April 13, Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis had deemed AEW, like WWE, an essential business critical to the state's economy, and had added an exception under the state's
stay-at-home order for employees of a "professional sports and media production" that is closed to the public and has a national audience. In an interview on the
AEW Unrestricted podcast, Tony Khan stated the pandemic has deprived AEW millions of dollars in revenue from live events. On August 3, 2020,
Jazwares released the first line of AEW action figures and toys. AEW announced the return of ticketed fans to live events on August 20, following the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines including wearing masks, physical distancing, and temperature checks. Beginning with their August 27 episode of
Dynamite, they allowed up to 10 percent capacity at Daily's Place and up to 15 percent capacity starting with that year's
All Out. On November 10, 2020, the promotion announced
AEW Games, the company's video game brand. AEW revealed that three games were in development;
AEW Casino: Double or Nothing and
AEW Elite GM for mobile devices, and
AEW Fight Forever developed by former
WWE 2K developer
Yuke's. For the
Double or Nothing pay-per-view in May 2021, the venue was raised to full capacity, making it the first time AEW held an event with a full capacity crowd since March 2020.
Return to live touring and ROH purchase (2021–2022) In May 2021, AEW announced that they would be returning to live touring, beginning with a special episode of
Dynamite titled
Road Rager on July 7 in
Miami,
Florida, in turn becoming the first major professional wrestling promotion to resume live touring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Road Rager was also the first in a four-week span of special
Dynamite episodes called the "Welcome Back" tour, which continued with the two-part
Fyter Fest on July 14 and 21 in
Cedar Park and
Garland, Texas, respectively, and then concluded with
Fight for the Fallen on July 28 in
Charlotte, North Carolina. In June, AEW announced that the September 22 episode of
Dynamite would be another special episode titled
Grand Slam and would be AEW's
New York City debut, a city primarily known as home territory for WWE, as well as their first full event held in a stadium. The event would also become AEW's most attended event, with over 20,000 spectators. On August 20, 2021,
CM Punk joined AEW. It was Punk's comeback to professional wrestling after leaving WWE in 2014. On August 27, 2021, it was revealed that
Dark would begin being taped at its own set within
Universal Studios Florida in
Orlando at
Soundstage 21. On the March 2 episode of
Dynamite, Tony Khan announced that he had purchased Ring of Honor from
Sinclair Broadcast Group, including its brand assets, intellectual property, and video library. It was clarified through a press release issued that night that the acquisition was made through an entity separate from AEW and wholly owned by Khan. In a media scrum following AEW's
Revolution PPV on March 6, Khan revealed that he eventually planned to run ROH separately from AEW, and also indicated that ROH could be used as a developmental brand for AEW. On May 4, the sale of ROH to Tony Khan was officially completed. Later in 2022, AEW promoted its first events outside of the United States, when they held a live broadcast of
Dynamite on October 12 in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, followed by a
Rampage taping the next night at the same venue.
Expansion of live and broadcast events (2022–present) Following the 2022
All Out pay-per-view, then-reigning
AEW World Champion CM Punk used the post-PPV media scrum to air out-of-character grievances against multiple members of the roster, including
Colt Cabana,
Adam Page and AEW Executive Vice Presidents Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. After Punk's portion of the scrum concluded, it later emerged that Punk and his friend
Ace Steel had a legitimate brawl with Omega, the Young Bucks and Christopher Daniels following the Bucks and Omega storming into the former's locker room. The incident was dubbed by fans and reporters as "Brawl Out". In the aftermath, all involved were suspended, Steel's contract was terminated by AEW a month later, The Bucks and Omega returned at
Full Gear and Punk returned the following June after undergoing surgery for an injury from his match with Moxley. On February 1, 2023, AEW announced that they would be expanding its live events schedule and would begin doing
house shows, with its house show series titled
AEW: House Rules. AEW's first
House Rules event took place on March 18 at the
Hobart Arena in
Troy, Ohio. Prior to
House Rules, AEW had only held one house show, titled
The House Always Wins, which occurred at Daily's Place in Jacksonville on April 9, 2021. On April 5, 2023, AEW announced that they would revive the
All In name—which Tony Khan acquired the rights to after purchasing ROH—for AEW's
United Kingdom debut to be held at
London's
Wembley Stadium on August 27, 2023. On May 17, 2023, AEW announced a third weekly television show titled
AEW Collision, with its first episode featuring Punk's return to the company and
Luchasaurus capturing the
AEW TNT Championship from
Wardlow. The show airs live, with some exceptions, and premiered on TNT on Saturday, June 17, 2023. In June 2023 AEW released
AEW Fight Forever after years of development; the game received mixed reviews, being praised for its throwback style of arcade gameplay but criticized for limited presentation, modes and customization. In August 2023, AEW held
All In at Wembley Stadium, a pay-per-view that received critical acclaim; with a live paid attendance number of 72,265, it became
one of the highest attended events in professional wrestling history. The event is also notable for being CM Punk's final AEW event, as he was fired with cause by Khan and the AEW Discipline Committee, following a legitimate backstage altercation with
Jack Perry; Perry was also later suspended indefinitely. At the conclusion of the All In event in London, AEW announced that it would return to Wembley Stadium on August 25, 2024, with tickets going on sale on December 1, 2023. All In subsequently took place at
Wembley Stadium as scheduled, coinciding with the United Kingdom's
August Bank Holiday weekend. The event was notable for featuring the AEW debut of former
WWE wrestler
Ricochet, the return of British wrestler
Jamie Hayter, who had been out with an injury since May 2023, the appearance of former AEW wrestler
Sting, and the in-ring return of English wrestler and London native
Nigel McGuinness following his retirement in 2011 and subsequent transition into color commentary. On October 2, 2024, AEW and
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced a multi-year contract extension; the contract maintained most of AEW's existing programs on TBS and TNT (aside from
Rampage, which was cancelled), while adding digital rights for
Max (including rights to simulcast live AEW programs, and a rolling library of past television episodes and PPVs) beginning in January 2025. Later in 2025, AEW pay-per-views will also become available for purchase via Max; although they will still be sold via television providers and other platforms, they will be sold at a discount on Max, and the service will be promoted as the main outlet for AEW pay-per-views. In January 2026, amidst a
proposed Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery assets, it was reported that
Warner Bros. Discovery owns a minority stake of AEW. On March 9, 2026, in partnership with
Kiswe, AEW launched
MyAEW, an
over-the-top streaming service and
digital television network available worldwide outside of the United States and Canada. The service hosts all episodes of AEW's programs and all PPV events, live and on-demand, as well as hosting the archive for all prior programs and PPVs. It also hosts the archive for ROH. AEW's first PPV to stream on MyAEW was
Revolution. ==Programming==