Dave Meltzer believes WWE’s decision to schedule multiple events in New York during WrestleMania 43 week could be intended to limit the impact of a potential AEW presence in the city.
During the July 2026 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, WWE announced several events for WrestleMania week, including an official watch party, NXT Stand & Deliver and AAA’s Eternal Glory. The events will take place in New York while WrestleMania 43 is held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer speculated that the additional events may have been scheduled in response to AEW’s potential plans for shows in New York on the same weekend.
“I had been under the impression that AEW was going to run, and possibly in New York. If you’re putting an AEW show in the same market and [WWE] is going to run AAA and NXT at The Theater… even at best they’re going to get 4,000 people. It’s really not going to hurt AEW significantly. It’s something, if that’s what the plan was.”
AEW has previously run several successful events in New York, including multiple editions of Grand Slam, although the company has not announced any shows for WrestleMania 43 weekend.
WWE Set To Host The First WrestleMania Outside Of North America
WrestleMania 43 is expected to take place in April 2027 and will be the first WrestleMania to be held outside North America, with WWE officially confirming Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the host city during Saturday Night’s Main Event. Neither WWE nor AEW has commented on Meltzer’s speculation regarding potential competing events in New York.
