WWE and AEW Are Ushering in New Era of International Destinations for Its Big Events

For certain stars in wrestling, there's no place like home.

A hot hometown crowd can make all the difference, as it did for Damian Priest, Zelina Vega and world-renowned rapper Bad Bunny when WWE took over Puerto Rico for Backlash weekend, marking the first time the promotion has hosted a premium live event in San Juan since January 2005.

It was abundantly clear from how electric the atmosphere was for Friday's SmackDown—which also emanated from Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, the same site as Backlash—that WWE had waited too long to return.

From an O.C. vs. Viking Raiders tag team match to Karrion Kross vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, everything on the show was enhanced by the unmatched energy from the fans in the arena.

Bad Bunny posing with The LWO to end the episode sent the crowd into a frenzy, the raucous reaction serving as a small taste of what viewers could expect by tuning into Backlash the subsequent night.

The most-streamed artist in the world played a pivotal role in the show's success. Once it was announced he'd be hosting the event, it became the highest-grossing and later the most-viewed Backlash in WWE history with a record attendance of 17,944.

That's in addition to the rave reviews his San Juan Street Fight with fellow Puerto Rico native Damian Priest received from the vast majority of the often-critical wrestling community, along with the 40 million views it garnered across multiple social media platforms.

Their match in particular was nothing short of a spectacle, starting with Bunny's iconic entrance that saw the crowd sing along to every word of his catchy "Chambea" tune and shower him with a thunderous reception that would make "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at his peak in the Attitude Era blush.

He alone couldn't steal the show; a seasoned dance partner was needed in order for all the pieces to fall properly into place. Damian Priest proved to be the perfect person for the job, especially given his history with Bunny and his roots on the island.

Together, they put on a performance of a lifetime. Bunny endured more offense than arguably any celebrity to ever compete in a WWE ring, and the returns of Puerto Rico's own Carlito and Savio Vega were excellent touches.

It encapsulated everything that makes the pseudo-sport of pro wrestling so special.

The San Juan crowd was as much responsible for that as anything, and the part they played was one of the top talking points at the conclusion of the weekend.

Last year's installment of Backlash, hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, couldn't compare. Although most of the matches exceeded expectations and outshined the original encounters from WrestleMania the month prior, it was an overall average event that featured little that was memorable or worth watching again.

The near-8,000 in attendance not making nearly as much noise should surprise no one given that was the norm in WWE for so long.

Triple H's string of international events in popular destinations has raised the bar for crowd reactions in WWE, to the point an audience as lifeless as the one in Jacksonville, Florida, for Monday's Raw can't be considered acceptable.

It was far from a thrilling three-hour program, and despite a valiant effort from the Superstars, they were met with total silence during their matches. It's a result of WWE running the same markets in the United States ad nauseam and not giving them a chance to miss it.

The enthusiasm from a city like San Juan is infectious and will cause fans watching from home to be that much more invested in the product. The downside is that the content WWE delivers on a weekly basis after these events isn't worth getting as excited about and the crowd reactions return to mediocrity.

The way WWE caught lightning in a bottle with Backlash this year was truly remarkable, not unlike how other stars have benefited big time from WWE's expansion into new markets this past year.

In April 2022, Andrew Zarian of The Mat Men Podcast reported that WWE intended to run more stadium shows moving forward. Previously, those were only ever reserved for the Big Four pay-per-views and the biannual Saudi Arabia events.

Clash at the Castle in Wales last September started that trend and was quite the show for Triple H to hang his hat on as the first one booked during his creative regime after taking the reigns from Vince McMahon.

It was built around Drew McIntyre, who grew up in the United Kingdom, fighting to finally get the moment he was robbed of at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic era. He challenged Undisputed WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns in the main event and had the crowd completely behind him by the time the bell rang.

The Scottish Warrior has been a main-event mainstay since 2020, but at Clash of the Castle, he was on a whole other level of superstardom. The stars had aligned just right, and the electricity generated by the fans in his home country was palpable.

Sami Zayn found himself in a similar situation mere months later when Elimination Chamber emanated from Montréal, Québec, Canada, in February.

Had it been anywhere else, fans likely wouldn't have seen Zayn as a threat to the top title, but having the home-field advantage made him the ultimate opponent for the unstoppable Reigns at the time.

His momentum was so strong that WWE could have made a main-event player out of him that night by booking him to unseat Reigns as champ. While it wasn't in the cards, Zayn also turned a lot of heads with his exceptional presentation and standout showing.

Decades ago, WWE held a handful of high-profile events outside of the United States, with some being more storyline-significant than others. For whatever reason, focus was shifted back on the domestic front until the last few years when international events became more commonplace again.

There's a noticeable difference between treating these events like glorified house shows and instead stacking them with star power and matches that make sense. Clash at the Castle, Elimination Chamber and now Backlash have had those two factors in spades.

After taking a little longer than expected because of the COVID-19 pandemic putting plans on the back burner, All Elite Wrestling is about to follow suit with All In at London's Wembley Stadium this August, a pay-per-view that has amazingly already sold over 60,000 tickets for a total of $7.7M to make it the promotion's largest gate of all-time by a wide margin.

Aside from WWE (and even including WWE in some instances), those are numbers no wrestling company has seen in ages. Thus, to call it an outstanding accomplishment for the business would be grossly understating it.

More tickets should be sold once matches are confirmed for the card in the next three-and-a-half months, but it will be a huge happening regardless of what goes down.

This will obviously be an avenue AEW explores more in the future, and not only in the United Kingdom. There are many markets they have yet to tap into and would undoubtedly do well in based on how big the brand has become since its inception four years ago.

Double or Nothing and Forbidden Door remain on the event calendar until then, but neither feel remotely as important as All In because of the sheer novelty of it.

Booking a stadium that fits around 90,000 was a massive risk on Tony Khan's part and one that paid off wonderfully.

It's a momentous feat that proves the passion of wrestling fans is widespread and not solely exclusive to WWE. The hunger and demand for more wrestling is there.

If received well, there's no reason to think a follow-up in London or elsewhere wouldn't do just as well. A healthy number two is necessary for the entire industry to thrive, and more shows the size of All In will ensure AEW sticks around for years to come.

With fans wondering what AEW needs to do to expand its audience, shows such as All In could be the key. The bigger buildings will be appealing along with the electricity they're bound to bring.

In sports and other forms of entertainment, the element of an international environment doesn't come as much into play as it does with wrestling. Soccer in Europe is known for its rowdy crowds, but American sports often rely on the same venues within the country without branching out, or at least not on grander occasions.

Wrestling has that working to its advantage, especially with that being a driving force behind why some fans pay extra attention to the speciality shows. Knowing WWE or AEW will be in a special market is enough to convince a contingent of the audience to tune in.

Looking ahead to what's next, Fightful Select reported Monday that WWE is in the early steps of "gauging interest" for a future show in Australia. Super Show-Down was the last major show to be held there in late 2018, but with stronger storyline support, it would be much more of an attraction this time around.

As for AEW, running an event in Japan should be seriously considered at some point given the roster's ties to New Japan Pro-Wrestling and the guaranteed draw they would be there for a Forbidden Door-esque super-card.

This era of international events has paid dividends for both WWE and AEW so far, and with wrestling being the hot ticket right now, the slew of stellar shows fans will be treated to this summer are merely scratching the surface of how much bigger and better they can become.

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Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.