AEW Campaigning For "Disrupting the Wrestling Industry" Panel at South By Southwest 2024
The "Disrupting the Long-Monopolized Pro Wrestling Industry" panel would feature Khan, Jericho, and Baker.
All Elite Wrestling has been an active company for over four years. Tony Khan first launched his wrestling promotion in January 2019, holding a press conference where top talents like Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, SoCal Uncensored and more announced their involvement with AEW. From there, AEW held its inaugural event, AEW Double or Nothing, that May, and went on to have three more one-off events before taking itself to weekly television on TNT. AEW has grown tenfold since its first year, regularly pulling in seven-figure viewership for AEW Dynamite and occasionally selling out some of the biggest arenas in the United States for its pay-per-views. If Khan and company get their way, AEW will make another breakthrough in 2024.
AEW x SXSW?
As shared on Twitter, AEW is campaigning to bring an AEW panel to South by Southwest 2024's starting lineup. The AEW panel is up for nomination for SXSW 2024.
When @TonyKhan launched @AEW, he changed the game. We want to change the game at @SXSW with the first-ever AEW panel, but we need YOU! Vote for our session to make the starting lineup next spring ⬇️ https://t.co/ldr1NjcwCR#SXSW @IAmJericho @RealBrittBaker pic.twitter.com/N7V2p79XtS
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 15, 2023
If the AEW panel is voted through, AEW President Tony Khan, former AEW Women's Champion Dr. Britt Baker DMD, inaugural AEW World Champion Chris Jericho, and Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso would participate. The pending panel is titled "Disrupting the Long-Monopolized Pro Wrestling Industry."
Fans can cast their votes for the AEW panel at SXSW '24 here.
AEW's "Disrupting" History
Since its inception, "disrupting" has been one of the primary descriptors of AEW. Following its successful launch on television in Fall 2019, AEW went on to survive the global pandemic, putting on over 52 consecutive weeks of empty arena television episodes as well as three crowd-less pay-per-views.
That momentum that AEW generated during the empty arena shows skyrocketed once crowds returned in May 2021. AEW went on to have the most successful stretch in company history beginning in Summer 2021. Top free agents like Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole defected from WWE to join the upstart promotion. CM Punk ended his seven-year absence to become All Elite. AEW All Out 2021 brought in over 215,000 pay-per-view buys.
While the company experienced some growing pains in Fall 2022, momentum seems to be back on AEW's side heading into this autumn. AEW is holding its first-ever stadium show during its first trip to the United Kingdom later this month when AEW ALL IN: London goes down from Wembley Stadium. That show has already sold over 80,000 tickets, making it one of the largest paid wrestling crowd of all time.
AEW ALL IN: London goes down on Sunday, August 27th.