Rafael Morffi is the Vice President of Live Events and Touring at AEW, helping AEW book and nurture relationships with venues.
Before joining AEW, Morffi spent eleven years in WWE working with their live events department.
To date, AEW's biggest show took place at Arthur Ashe Stadium with over 20,000 fans attending the first AEW Dynamite Grand Slam in 2021.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho, Morffi revealed that he told Vince McMahon about Arthur Ashe years ago, and that AEW was originally going to go to Arthur Ashe much sooner.
"I remember telling [Vince McMahon] about Arthur Ashe Stadium, while in the gym. This is when it did not have a roof. It was a good location, centralized, where a lot of our fanbase is. I explained to him that a roof is coming there. It eventually did, and I was no longer in WWE, and we had the opportunity to do it here (in AEW). We came at the right time here in AEW where there are options in the New York market place. Not only MSG [Madison Square Garden], and MSG, we've had conversations with them, but they have loyalty to WWE and I don't blame them. I was a small part of that on the other side. I appreciate their loyalty and how they feel committed to WWE. We embraced a venue that is our own, being Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was something we were going to do right in our infancy. We were going to have that pay-per-view on your birthday [AEW Full Gear 2019]. We thought about it. We were concerned about the conditions, big show in New York right in the first month of our existence. Let's play it safe. We were right. Baltimore, where we did have the pay-per-view, it was 20 degrees. We had a conversation with Arthur Ashe Stadium, great dialogue. We nurtured that, and we were going to have a show soon after the pandemic date, it was going to be sometime in 2020. Obviously, we didn't have it. I'm amazed we were able to keep it under wraps and surprise everyone," he said.
AEW returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2022 for a million dollar gate.
While AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 2021 is the most attended event to date, that record will be broken with AEW All In 2023 as over 60,000 tickets have already been sold to Wembley Stadium.
No matches have been announced for AEW All In. Fans can find Tony Khan's explanation as to why AEW booked Wembley Stadium instead of Craven Cottage by clicking here.
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