AEW Sells 10,000 Tickets in 2 Hours for United Center Debut

By Trent Osborne Last updated Jul 30, 2021

All Elite Wrestling has arguably been the hottest ticket in wrestling over the past few weeks. After tickets for AEW’s next major pay-per-view became the highest priced secondary market ticket in the history of professional wrestling, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the company is nearing one of their most impressive opening gates to date.

In less than two hours since the pre-sale for AEW Rampage’s “The First Dance” on August 20th went live, the Jacksonville-based promotion is on the verge of selling out their first 20,000 seat arena.

According to WrestleTix on Twitter, the tickets for AEW’s United Center debut are moving at a staggering rate. The arena continues to open up more sections for sale, but the seats continue to sell out as quickly as they are made available.

On one computer I'm still in a queue with 2,000+ ahead of me. On another, I'm capturing counts and all of the 100 level seats you see in this initial screenshot are gone. Top level seats are moving at a fast pace as well… pic.twitter.com/ZNZ21Xw2xE
— WrestleTix (@WrestleTix) July 30, 2021

Since the opening of the new sections pointed out in my last tweet, look at the amount of tickets sold in 5 minutes (the number going down represents available tickets at that time): pic.twitter.com/dO2XltY7aN
— WrestleTix (@WrestleTix) July 30, 2021

Few new sections opened up but they are.. gone pic.twitter.com/V0feVllsbv
— WrestleTix (@WrestleTix) July 30, 2021

After going through the second by second numbers as sections were being opened up, AEW sold more than 10,000 tickets today so far for the The First Dance at the United Center.

286 seats remain of the current allotment.https://t.co/yRCOtL75Yu pic.twitter.com/FenirIfw0H
— WrestleTix (@WrestleTix) July 30, 2021

AEW’s ability to move tickets so quickly for the event is astounding for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the company has already been selling tickets for shows in Chicago for over a month. The company will be running the NOW arena for episodes of Dynamite, Rampage, and the aforementioned All Out during the first week of September.

Secondly, not a single match has been announced for the show. In fact, the only wrestler confirmed to be at the event is Darby Allin, who stated he would be appearing this past Wednesday on Dynamite. The former TNT Champion included a not-so-subtle hint of who else may show up on August 20th.

https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1420550798371549185?s=20

The show’s interest is not only built on it being the largest crowd for a weekly AEW event so far but the possibility of CM Punk making his long-awaited return to wrestling on the show. Punk has reportedly signed a contract with AEW but, outside of a few winks and nods, no confirmation has been made by the company.

If AEW can sell 20,000 tickets merely off the possibility that Punk may appear, then it says a lot about the drawing power of not just the former WWE Champion, but the company as a whole.

The remaining tickets for AEW Rampage’s “The First Dance” at The United Center in Chicago go on sale this Monday at 11 AM Eastern.