AEW Grand Slam France: A History-Making One-Off?
By: Félix Gouty
For over fifteen years, no non-European pro-wrestling promotions other than WWE had ever staged a show in France. Until now.
On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, All Elite Wrestling held AEW Grand Slam France, a double TV taping of Dynamite and Collision, at the Adidas Arena in Paris. It marked AEW’s first venture in continental Europe – excluding its presence at Gamescom 2022 in Germany.
France in particular has always been underserved by American promotions.
Until Backlash France in May 2024, WWE had never taped a show in the country, whilst it had been the case for years in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. TNA only visited on two occasions for three non-televised events in January 2010 and 2011 – and even had to cancel one of them to make way for a charity TV show at the Paris’ Zenith on January 24, 2010, following an earthquake in Haiti. The only other American promotion of note which graced France with its roster was Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. On October 26, 2007, during its European Vacation tour, the now defunct California-based company brought Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries, El Generico, Kevin Steen, as well as PAC to Studio Jenny, known to the Parisian area wrestling fans as the ‘Temple of Wrestling’, most of them wrestling for the first time in France.
Now, almost twenty years later, after two RAWs, two Smackdowns and two PLEs held by WWE in the country with great success in only two years, AEW seems willing to get in the market. But will Grand Slam France end up just being a one-night-only affair?
Closing the market gap
Shown on Warner TV Next, a small cable TV channel airing reruns of anime and comic-book superheroes, and now on the MyAEW platform, AEW doesn’t have much of a presence or reach in the French market compared to WWE. Available on Netflix since January 1, 2026, the TKO company surely has the advantage, built on a monopoly dating back to the late 1980s on the paid-network TV channel Canal+ and then on the major cable TV channel, AB1.
But AEW Grand Slam France was about testing the waters. AEW went a notch above what WWE typically does to promote its first entry in the market. The previous Saturday, several AEW stars – including Jeff Jarrett returning to France – were booked by the upstart KHAO promotion just outside Paris, with flyers given to spectators to promote AEW Grand Slam France. And on Tuesday, ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey was given a spot to teach a show-host the Boston Crab on the morning-show Télématin, an institution of public network TV – which came back to the Québécois’ ears during its match taped for Collision against Lee Moriarty. WWE never did that, especially on a news day marked by a massive strike by high-school students.
Despite these efforts, the show didn’t fill out the 8,500-seat Adidas Arena. According to a WrestleTix update published the day of the show, 6,407 tickets were distributed for a setup of 6,932 – with the cheapest ones being around 40€ (or 44$ US). As a comparison, WWE’s last event in the country, a live Monday Night RAW held on June 8th 2026, brought 8,678 fans (paying 93$ US or above) in the 20,000-seat Accor Arena, a year after their 53,000 cumulative attendance at Clash In Paris and its following RAW at the 45,000-seat Paris La Défense (now Plenitude) Arena.
Closing the generous 15-match double-taping (including the first-ever showings in France by international stars like Kazuchika Okada, Darby Allin, and Hangman Page), Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnioli tried to rally up the crowd one last time in an effort to keep the enthusiasm going and convince AEW’s boss, Tony Khan, seated backstage to try and bring its roster back someday (maybe as a stopover for future All In London weeks or European tours). The crowd seemed hopeful. Some even rejoiced with the Death Riders in their usual huddle at ringside while others in the bleachers flashed their smartphone lights in tribute to their fallen comrade, the late PAC. But even with Tony Khan’s generosity and excitement, business remains business. And with only the next AEW Dynasty and its following Dynamite scheduled in Liverpool in February 2027, there’s no indication for the AEW Grand Slam international brand to grace France – or even continental Europe – once again.
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Listing and translating every chant the French fans chanted during this show:
- ‘Allez les chauves!’ at the team of Jon Moxley and Gabe Kidd, for ‘Let’s go bald guys!’.
- ‘Tu l’as tué’, ‘C’est pas gentil’ and ‘Ça doit faire mal’ during several matches, for ‘You’ve killed him’, ‘That’s not nice’ and ‘It has to hurt’.
- ‘Qui ne saute pas n’est pas [Ospreay]’ (‘Who doesn’t jump is not [Ospreay]’) is a typical soccer chant in support of the French team.
- The dueling ‘Toujours championne’ and ‘Nouvelle championne’ chants during the Mercedes Mone vs Queen Aminata title match, for ‘Still champ’ and ‘Next champ’.
- ‘Il est vraiment phenomenal’ (‘He is really phenomenal’), in echo of its use during the Cody Rhodes vs AJ Styles match at Backlash France in 2024, and used here after Will Ospreay’s Styles Clash, is a reference to a hit song of the late 1990s.
- ‘Okada la salope,’ as in ‘Okada is a b*tch’, meant as a joke about Okada’s catchphrase.