Las Vegas is known as The Entertainment Capital of the World. Well, with all the upcoming professional wrestling shows set to take place there over the coming months, we might be looking at renaming this The Sports Entertainment Capital of the World.
AEW Double or Nothing will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 26, 2024. Two weeks later, NXT Battleground comes to the UFC Apex on June 9, 2024. And then, it was recently announced that WWE will be bringing WrestleMania 41 to Allegiant Stadium on April 19 and April 20, 2025.
It can be assumed that will be accompanied by the standard NXT Stand & Deliver event, the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2025, an episode of Friday Night SmackDown and an episode of Monday Night Raw, as well.
Needless to say, as if Las Vegas needed any other reason to bring in more tourists beyond just its casinos, business is about to be booming on the pro wrestling side of things.
Let's break each of these down and examine the ins and outs of why All Elite Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment have chosen to host these pay-per-views in Las Vegas so close to each other.
AEW Double or Nothing
To celebrate its fifth year in operations, AEW is going back to where it all began by once again hosting Double or Nothing at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as it did back on May 25, 2019.
It should be no surprise that the event is being held here. After all, the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada hosted in 2022 and 2023. The only reason it hasn't been there every year was due to COVID-19 forcing essentially all events to go down at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida—the de facto home of AEW, as the amphitheater is essentially owned by Tony Khan's family.
Double or Nothing's theme itself revolves entirely around Vegas to the point that it would be odd for it to be hosted anywhere but a casino town. Unless AEW plans to bring it to Atlantic City for the pure sake of switching it up, it's likely to remain a Vegas event every year, similar to All Out always taking place in Chicago.
This year's card has yet to be fully finalized, but it's already shaping up to be a big one with the in-ring debut of Mercedes Moné likely winning the AEW TBS Championship from Willow Nightingale (one of the safest bets to make), Will Ospreay attempting to dethrone Roderick Strong out of his AEW International Championship, "Timeless" Toni Storm defending her AEW Women's World Championship against Serena Deeb, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland putting his title on the line against Christian Cage and a special Anarchy in the Arena match featuring The Elite against FTR, Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston.
Battle lines have been drawn! Team AEW will step up to The Elite at Anarchy in the Arena at #AEWDoN!
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 9, 2024
Watch #AEWDynamite LIVE on TBS!@DaxFTR | @CashWheelerFTR | #EddieKingston | @BryanDanielson pic.twitter.com/F7yUeOunZd
Assuredly, a handful more matches will be announced, so stay tuned for more updates.
AEW Double or Nothing tickets are available now.
NXT Battleground
Unlike Double or Nothing, it was indeed a shocker to find out that NXT Battleground 2024 would be taking place in Las Vegas, considering it was already scheduled for a completely different date, venue and city earlier this year.
Originally, WWE had announced this premium live event to collide with Double or Nothing on Memorial Day weekend by going head to head May 26th, albeit at the Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia.
However, a few months after that initial announcement, WWE suddenly shifted gears, announcing it would be moved to the UFC Apex two weeks later.
This was interesting not just because of the change in plans in general, but the specific location chosen to be the new home of the PLE. It will be the first WWE event of any kind to take place at the UFC Apex, not all that much more than a year after WWE had merged with UFC in the creation of TKO Group Holdings.
There have been many changes to the way WWE operates in the past year after this acquisition, but few definitive crossovers between brands. Now, UFC's home will be hosting, which likely indicates more collaborations in the future.
Considering nearly half of all 487 UFC events so far have taken place in Las Vegas, is this a sign WWE will start coming to Nevada more often as well?
NXT Battleground may be the test run to see how the market plays. While there are certainly fans who follow both sports, it isn't a 1:1 ratio any more than appealing to basketball fans with baseball.
Perhaps it will be a packed house watching the crowning of the inaugural NXT Women's North American Championship and whatever else WWE has in store for this card.
NXT Battleground ticket packages are up for pre-sale access now.
WWE WrestleMania Week 2025
Even if NXT Battleground is not the most bombastic success, history has shown bringing WrestleMania to a town in recent years goes over like gangbusters.
By this point, maybe WWE will be positioned well enough that even the best sportsbooks will finally start taking bets more seriously for The Showcase of the Immortals and more going forward after having a more personal, at-home stake in it.
Following off the hot streak that was WrestleMania XL at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, all signs pointed to Minnesota winning the bid for the next Super Bowl of pro wrestling, only to have that be dragged out long enough that lo and behold, Las Vegas was the pick, instead.
This was big news for even outlets like USA Today that rarely cover pro wrestling, as WWE normally has plans settled for next year's WrestleMania by the time that year's takes place.
Among the biggest reasons why WWE chose Las Vegas instead of Minnesota seems to be wanting a warmer climate after the cold spell that fans and performers went through this year, as well as trying to avoid NCAA Final Four weekend, which explains the later than normal date in April for the biggest show of the year to be taking place.
Interestingly, it will be the first WrestleMania to take place in the area since 1993 when WrestleMania IX hailed from Caesars Palace in what many consider to be one of the worst WrestleManias of all time. Here's hoping WrestleMania 41 doesn't come close to as problematic and we don't see Hulk Hogan snatch the WWE Championship from someone to end the show!
It should be noted all the extra events that come with WrestleMania Week. Not only does WWE traditionally host the Hall of Fame ceremony, Raw, SmackDown, NXT Stand & Deliver, but the WWE World convention and dozens, if not hundreds of other appearances. Then, every independent promotion tries to run shows in the area to capitalize off WWE's popularity, so you can expect a heavy presence from multiple GCW events, countless others and even Ring of Honor hosting the next ROH Supercard of Honor event.
As big as Double or Nothing and Battleground will be, WrestleMania will surely be The Grandest Stage of Them All that Las Vegas will receive the most revenue from.
Sign up for pre-sale registration for WrestleMania 41 and be the first to know when tickets go on sale, and as always, stay tuned to Smark Out Moment's coverage of WrestleMania 41 over the next year for updates, spoilers and predictions.
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