One of AEW’s biggest controversies over the past few years has been the discourse surrounding All In 2023.
The event was their debut in the UK, bringing professional wrestling to the new Wembley Stadium for the first time in its history.
Four years after the company was announced, Tony Khan took a roster that included CM Punk, Kenny Omega, Adam Page and Sting and put on one of the biggest wrestling shows of all time on August 27, 2025.
For fans who want the full backstory of AEW’s meteoric rise, This Book Is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling offers an inside look at the company’s creation, controversies, and triumphs.
It was a massive event, with world title fights, legends galore and the final AEW match of Punk before being fired for attacking Jack Perry backstage before his bout with Samoa Joe.
Midway through the show, wrestling legend Nigel McGuinness took to the ring for a historic announcement. To cheers from the crowd, he announced that a record 81,035 paid attendance for the show, the most in wrestling history.
This was celebrated by AEW extensively; t-shirts were sold boasting the number, Tony Khan referenced it in every interview and Will Ospreay (who beat Chris Jericho that night) even got a tattoo of the number on his arm.
That final point may have been the biggest mistake, given what later came out about the real attendance number—or did it?
The Claim: AEW All In 2023 didn’t break the record for the highest attendance ever
Despite the record-breaking claims from AEW, sources have alleged that less than 81,035 fans attended AEW All In 2023 in Wembley Stadium.
With the very noticeable empty seats in the 90,000 seater stadium, and later claims that nearly 10,000 less fans attended than claimed, the attendance announced by McGuinness seemed unconvincing.
It would have put the show above WrestleMania 32 (which boasted 80,709 fans instead of the 101,763 that WWE claimed) as the most-attended paid wrestling show of all time, just below the controversial WCW/NJPW North Korean show in the 1990s in the record books.
AEW seemed adamant the claim was correct, but later evidence proved them to be wrong.
The Evidence: The turnstile number for Wembley Stadium was 72,265, not the paid attendance
Evidence from the Freedom of Information office for the Brent Civic Centre showed that the turnstile count for AEW All In 2023 was below the 81,035 that AEW claimed attended the event.
In response to a freedom of information request, they revealed that the official count of individuals going through the turnstiles into Wembley Stadium on August 23, 2023 was only 72,265, nearly 9,000 less than claimed.
On whatdotheyknow.com, Brent Council wrote:
“The actual numbers registered entering the Stadium through the turnstiles
was 72,265 – this is reflective of what attended on the night and not the
total number of tickets sold or no-shows etc.”
The turnstile count literally counts people going through the turnstiles. When their ticket is scanned on the door, that is counted as them attending.
Many people have claimed that not all fans who attend count towards this number, citing the 15,000 VIP box seats as examples.
However, research into the stadium shows that VIP members do indeed have to scan their tickets to enter the stadium, just not to get into their individual boxes. As such, they will be included in the turnstile count.
This number matches up with Wrestlenomics’ estimate, as they report an average AEW event suffers an 80-90% drop-off in attendance on the day of the show.
One of the reasons for this potential drop off at Wembley Stadium will have been the bank holiday train strikes, which caused multiple people to be unable to travel to the event.
The Verdict: TRUE with some caveats
AEW All In 2023 did not have 81,035 fans in the stadium, with only 72,265 attending the event. The rate of 83% of ticket holders attending is a reasonable figure for live events, especially with the train strikes in London that weekend.
However, this is only a partially false verdict. Because yes, the turnstile attendance was lower than the paid attendance AEW claimed, but only because those are two different metrics.
AEW All In did sell 81,035 tickets. The “paid attendance” metric is one used at every sporting event across the world, as actual turnstile numbers aren’t available until some time after the show, sometimes days or even weeks later.
The “tickets sold” number was all the promotion had on the day of the show, and “paid attendance” is generally accepted to mean “tickets sold”.
While the attendance on the night was 72,265, saying the “paid attendance” was 81,035 is partially true, if the wording is slightly misleading.
Whether you see AEW’s Wembley show as a triumph or a controversy, the company’s story is fascinating. This Book Is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling dives into the highs, lows, and everything in between — perfect for fans who want the full picture.
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