AEW WrestleDream is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Launched in 2023, it is held each October as a memorial to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) founder Antonio Inoki. The name honors Inoki, whom AEW President and CEO Tony Khan described as “wrestling’s greatest dreamer.” AEW and NJPW have maintained a working partnership since early 2021.
Antonio Inoki died on October 1, 2022 (September 30 in Eastern Time). Prior to his passing, AEW had begun collaborating with NJPW in early 2021, a relationship that produced the annual co-promoted event AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, first held in June 2022.
In April 2023, AEW filed to trademark “AEW WrestleDream.” On August 27, during the All In media scrum, Tony Khan officially announced the event as a tribute to Inoki, someone he had long admired in the industry. It was scheduled for October 1, 2023—the one-year anniversary of Inoki’s death—at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. This marked AEW’s first PPV in the state of Washington. Although not co-promoted with NJPW, the show featured NJPW talent including Satoshi Kojima, TMDK (Bad Dude Tito, Mikey Nicholls, and Shane Haste), Katsuyori Shibata, Zack Sabre Jr., and Will Ospreay (who later signed with AEW), along with Inoki’s former student Josh Barnett.
The inaugural WrestleDream drew an attendance of 7,108 and a reported buy rate of approximately 110,000. It featured 14 matches, including four on the Zero Hour pre-show, and opened with a ceremony honoring Inoki that included his grandsons Naoto and Hirota. In the main event, Christian Cage defeated Darby Allin 2–1 in a two-out-of-three-falls match to retain the AEW TNT Championship. Other standout bouts included Bryan Danielson defeating Zack Sabre Jr. in a highly anticipated dream match, Swerve Strickland defeating “Hangman” Adam Page, and FTR retaining the AEW World Tag Team Championship against Aussie Open. The event was also notable for the AEW debut of Adam Copeland (formerly known as Edge in WWE), who appeared after the main event to intervene in an attack on Sting and Darby Allin by Christian Cage, Nick Wayne, and Luchasaurus; Copeland subsequently signed a full-time contract with the promotion.
On April 11, 2024, a second WrestleDream was confirmed for October 12, 2024, at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington, establishing the show as an annual October fixture. The third edition, held on October 18, 2025, at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri, was the first to take place outside Washington.
The series continues the tradition of honoring Inoki’s legacy through high-profile matches and international crossover talent.
