All EliteWrestling's first trip to Australia turned out to be a massive success despite some initial setbacks in the build up. The Grand Slam Australia show was moved from the original location of the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane to the city's Entertainment Centre due to poor ticket sales, but that did stop the event from generating the third largest gate in company history, as well as having a number of memorable moments like Toni Storm becoming the first-ever four-time AEW Women's World Champion. WWE Hall of Famer JBL was asked about the event on his "Something To Wrestle"podcast, and while he didn't watch it live, he was happy for AEW's success.
"I caught the social media stuff of it. I rarely watch full pay-per-views, full shows, I catch a lot of social media clips and that's why I keep up with it. It looked like it was a great show, I know they're disappointed because they went from a stadium down to an arena, but you're still selling something out that's pretty big and you're still putting a lot of people in there with fewer matches which I think is a key." JBL believes AEW might be picking up on WWE's model of having fewer matches on their big shows so that the performers are able to have more time to tell the stories they want to tell.
AEW President Tony Khan has already confirmed that the company will be returning to Australia in 2026 following the success of their debut trip. However, it has not yet been confirmed whether it will be for a Grand Slam sequel, or a pay-per-view event like All In London. Regardless, many people expect AEW to change location in 2026 to either Perth or Sydney.
Please credit "Something To Wrestle" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
