Vince McMahon was told about Arthur Ashe Stadium by a major name in AEW.
AEW VP Rafael Morffi spent 11 years working with WWE, working in the live events department of the company. AEW’s current highest attendance comes from Arthur Ashe Stadium, coming in at 20,000 in attendance at AEW Grand Slam 2021.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho, Morffi revealed that he told Vince McMahon about Arthur Ashe years ago.
“I remember telling [Vince McMahon] about Arthur Ashe Stadium, while in the gym. This is when it did not have a roof. It was a good location, centralized, where a lot of our fanbase is. I explained to him that a roof is coming there. It eventually did, and I was no longer in WWE, and we had the opportunity to do it here (in AEW). We came at the right time here in AEW where there are options in the New York market place. Not only MSG [Madison Square Garden], and MSG, we’ve had conversations with them, but they have loyalty to WWE and I don’t blame them. I was a small part of that on the other side. I appreciate their loyalty and how they feel committed to WWE. We embraced a venue that is our own, being Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was something we were going to do right in our infancy. We were going to have that pay-per-view on your birthday [AEW Full Gear 2019]. We thought about it. We were concerned about the conditions, big show in New York right in the first month of our existence. Let’s play it safe. We were right. Baltimore, where we did have the pay-per-view, it was 20 degrees. We had a conversation with Arthur Ashe Stadium, great dialogue. We nurtured that, and we were going to have a show soon after the pandemic date, it was going to be sometime in 2020. Obviously, we didn’t have it. I’m amazed we were able to keep it under wraps and surprise everyone,”
Rafael Morffi
AEW returned to Arthur Ashe in 2021 and set a million dollar gate for the event. AEW All In is set to smash the previous attendance record, with almost 70,000 tickets sold.
H/T to Fightful
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