Widespread Belief Within WWE That Tony Khan Is Buying Up AEW Tickets

Earlier this week, news broke that multiple employees inside WWE believed that AEW President Tony Khan was purchasing tickets to inflate AEW’s sales numbers. As the two companies battled over who could pack more fans into Long Island’s new UBS Arena, Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly made a shocking statement.

He said that multiple people truly believe that Khan is buying the tickets. On today’s Wrestling Observer Live, Alvarez went into further detail about the statement which he originally made on the F4WOnline Message boards. He said others approached him to say they’d heard the exact same news.

“This is not like, one person, okay? First off, I’ve been hearing people say this for months now. I heard about it again a few days ago. When I talked about it on the air, I had people come out of the woodwork and telling me that they heard the exact same thing.

This is not ‘oh there’s one or two people,’ you know, this is multiple people. This is a belief by people in WWE that Tony Khan is buying tickets for these shows, because that is the only way that AEW could outsell WWE.”

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The practice of papering a wrestling crowd to make it appear fuller is nothing new. Comped tickets go out to friends and family, contest winners, and as parts of package deals all the time. It’s not even unheard of for promotions to hand tickets to random people on the street before a show. What is shocking is the accusation that Tony Khan himself is buying the tickets, rather than just the standard of papering the crowd with fans who received free tickets one way or another.

According to Alvarez, there are several people who have been theorizing the same thing about Tony Khan for months. If that’s true, it means that WWE doesn’t believe AEW could possibly sell as many tickets as they have been. It’s a very strong allegation, which so far comes with no proof. AEW has currently sold 8,782 tickets for their show at UBS Arena. WWE drew 5,887 to Raw when it took place at the same venue.

Do you think Tony Khan is buying AEW tickets to increase sales figures? Let us know in the comments!