– It appears there is negativity circulating behind the scenes in AEW at the moment. Dave Melter reported on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio that he’s been receiving a great deal of negative feedback from people “in and around” AEW. Meltzer stated that he believes some of it stems from last Saturday’s edition of Collision drawing a “poor crowd.” This is despite AEW experiencing a reported increase in revenue this year compared to 2022.
As previously noted, last Saturday’s AEW Collision sold about 1,980 tickets ahead of the event. While the Erie Insurance Arena is a lot smaller than the bigger arenas AEW typically uses, it’s still about to hold about 6,000-7,000 people for an event depending on the setup.
Additionally, Meltzer cited the recent termination of former VP of Post-Production, Kevin Sullivan, from the company as a move that “a lot of people” within AEW were “surprised” and “not happy” about. SVP Mike Mansury reportedly made the call to release Sullivan from the company. Sullivan had reportedly been with the company since it began, previously coming from TNA/Impact Wrestling, along with most of his production team.
Meltzer described that there’s a feeling backstage that the company is changing and “becoming something that it wasn’t.” The move is now allegedly being seen as someone coming in from WWE and replacing the people who were part of All Elite Wrestling in the first place.
