AEW ticket sales remain sluggish in Chicago as Forbidden Door 2024 looms

AEW is deep in Forbidden Door season, and this year's edition of the blockbuster crossover pay-per-view looks to be bigger than ever, with CMLL and Stardom officially joining the show. Despite that, All Elite Wrestling's ticket sales remain in a slump that has lasted for most of the year.

Across the promotional divide, WWE has been on fire and is enjoying its highest level of popularity in years. AEW, meanwhile, has been lagging in both ticket sales and television ratings, the latter having taken a major hit during the NBA playoffs lately. Although this year's Forbidden Door pay-per-view has generated hype, Tony Khan's company is still struggling to fill arenas.

An example of this can be seen in the latest update for the episode of Dynamite immediately following Forbidden Door. The Wednesday night show is heading back to Chicago on July 3, and the most recent numbers from WrestleTix show that only 2,788 tickets have been sold so far.

This has been a cause for concern among the fanbase lately. Although All Elite Wrestling has made major strides to correct course after a poorly received 2023, the dip in attendance doesn't look to be going away anytime soon. That being said, with a few weeks and a pay-per-view between now and the Chicago show, we could see the attendance increase to the desired 4-5k range.

AEW Forbidden Door is building a stacked match card

It's not all doom and gloom in the world of All Elite Wrestling, as the company and its partner promotions are busy filling out the card for one of the most anticipated events of 2024: Forbidden Door.

According to WrestleTix, the cross-promotional pay-per-view has already sold 8,392 tickets, and several sections on the upper decks of UBS Arena on Long Island have opened up, indicating a solid turnout two weeks before the event.

Alongside NJPW, historic Lucha Libre promotion CMLL will join the festivities this year after establishing a partnership with AEW. Famed Joshi promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom will also send its talent to face off against the best Tony Khan has to offer.

Here is the updated match card for Forbidden Door 2024:

Orange Cassidy vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
AEW Women's World Championship: Toni Storm (w/Luther & Mariah May) (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa (w/Mariah May)
TNT Championship Ladder Match: Mark Briscoe vs. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. TBD vs. TBD
TBS Championship / NJPW STRONG Women's Championship Title vs. Title Match: Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Stephanie Vaquer (c)
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
AEW World Championship: Swerve Strickland (w/Prince Nana) (c) vs. Will Ospreay

Forbidden Door will air live from UBS Arena on June 30. Fans can catch all the action on traditional pay-per-view channels as well as Bleacher Report, YouTube, TrillerTV, and DAZN, both in North America and internationally.