Fans set to return to WWE and AEW: What’s on the horizon?

After an unprecedented year for just about everyone, wrestling fans are naturally looking forward to heading back to live matches. What’s a PPV without a live audience, anyway? While both WWE and AEW have worked around the constraints of the pandemic over the past year, it’s safe to say we’re all looking forward to wrestling getting back to normal.

Thankfully, both wrestling brands are lining up PPVs for the remainder of 2021 just like old times. Whether you’re the sort of fan that gets deep into the action by placing a bet through a site such as Best Odds, or if you’re always keen to book your tickets for live shows as soon as possible, it’s well worth getting the calendar out. Bestodds.com is a great up-and-coming site that aims to keep you up to date on a huge variety of events and sports.

For now, however, let’s take a quick look at the biggest PPVs and events the wrestling world has lining up for us across 2021.

WWE’s Summer Tour

 With pandemic conditions appearing to ease, WWE is taking full advantage and is mounting a summer onslaught across the States. As of July 16th, Smackdown will be hitting the road in Houston, TX. It’s the first of three big shows in Texas, with 22 more cities welcoming back wrestling as part of a major summer comeback across the US.

It’s a huge relief to fans, as this latest tour will be the first run of events to have participant audiences since April 2020. Unbelievably, the last time crowds headed to WWE live was via Wrestlemania XXXVII. Thankfully, this news seems to indicate live attendance is very much back on the menu.

Other big events traditional to the WWE calendar are up in the air when it comes to audiences. However, as always, we can expect to see SummerSlam arrive around August time, and with Payback and Clash of Champions due soon after. Interestingly, WWE moved Hell in a Cell up from fall to early summer, meaning it’s going to be another unprecedented year for fans.

AEW’s live comeback

On the flip side, AEW seems to be taking the summer to also give fans a big return to live-action, weirdly enough, also in Texas. However, at the time of writing, it seems that the LIVE! Welcome Back Tour is set to make its maiden visit to Miami, FL, as of early July. However, they’ll then take AEW Dynamite to Cedar Park, Garland, and Houston.

Much like WWE’s summer slate, it seems that AEW is keeping its fingers crossed that they will be able to hit the ground running with live shows heading well into the fall. Certainly, neither brand is letting up when it comes to future prospects, but the summer does seem to be comeback season.

AEW’s taking Dynamite beyond Texas, however, with visits to Rochester NY, and Philadelphia PA earmarked for the fall. Of course, these events transpiring will all depend on how the live shows go this summer.

Are live shows finally coming back for good?

With continuing good news regarding COVID-19 and vaccines across the US, many promoters of live events are keen to take full advantage. The summer is naturally going to be a great time for fans to finally get back into watching the events they love in person. While wrestling this past year has been as intense as it always has, it’s arguably lacked the spark that live audiences bring to the table.

Live shows are absolutely coming back, but with the world still recovering from the ravages of the coronavirus, it remains to be seen exactly when matters will be 100% safe. Naturally, events providers and stadiums will likely run vaccine checks and tests before allowing in guests.

We’ve all missed live wrestling over the past year. The summer is absolutely the perfect time for us all to get back into the groove, and for that reason, we have our fingers tightly crossed AEW and WWE’s PPVs go ahead unscathed. If anything, these summer shows are going to prove whether or not it’s viable, and safe, for further live audiences to get on board for the year ahead.

So, wrestling fans are still waiting patiently to see what happens next. However, it really won’t be long before both AEW and WWE have exciting new schedules opening up before us. Of course, we’ll let you know more as soon as we can!