AEW officially confirmed the location for All Out 2022 on Wednesday night during AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest. The show will once again emanate from the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois outside of Chicago. The arena was the site of the 2018 All In event, which wound up being one of the building blocks for the launch of All Elite Wrestling. All Out has since been consistently held at the arena, with the one exception being in 2020 during the COVID-19 era.ย
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The company has already run a pay-per-view in Chicago once this year, with Chicago’s United Center hosting the Forbidden Door pay-per-view last month. AEW President Tony Khan has consistently pushed for All Out to run the same venue every year given the historical significance it has for the company.ย
“I think one thing for sure is that from the beginning, Chicago has been an awesome market for AEW and I’m very excited about doing lots of shows there,” Khan told TSN in May. “I think All Out is the biggest show we’ve ever done so far before on pay-per-view and it’s another one of our landmark events where we’ve reached our highest highs so far. We’ve got a great history there at the NOW Arena, formerly the Sears Center, in Hoffman Estates near Schaumburg, the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I think we can continue that, potentially, but on the other hand, there’s a lot of places around the world where All Out would be a great show and we’re going to continue exploring options here.”
The show could potentially host the return of AEW World Champion CM Punk, who has been out with a foot injury since last month. In his place, Jon Moxley has served as interim world champion and will have a unification match as soon as Punk is back.ย
“We sold out the United Center on a rumor,” Punk said following last year’s All Out when asked about Chicago becoming one of AEW’s signature cities. “If I can toot my own horn, I’m a kid from Chicago and I don’t know if I can claim I sold out this building because I think it was sold out before I was ever announced, but I sold out the United Center, I sold out the Rosemont Horizon (now the Allstate Arena)… man, that’s super great and I would like to brag on that but it’s also super humbling. For a kid who… I was at the first-ever event in the United Center,ย SummerSlamย 1994. I watched Bret and Owen (Hart) in the cage. And I feel like Chicago has just been ripe for the taking, they love wrestling and they want to be entertained. And there’s been some great shows here, I was on a few of them, and then I just feel like we’ve got the pulse of the whole place. To me, what’s next? Wrigley Field? Soldier Field? Let’s go!”
