The inaugural event was AEW's first event to take place entirely within a stadium, which was the Arthur Ashe Stadium, as well as the promotion's first event held in New York City. Grand Slam would subsequently continue to be held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium until 2025. The 2025 event will instead be held as a PPV event at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, marking AEW's first event in Australia.
History
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) held the majority of their professional wrestling programs from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida;[1] these events were originally held without fans, but the company began running shows at 10–15% capacity in August, before eventually running full capacity shows in May 2021.[2] In June, AEW announced that they would be returning to live touring, beginning with a special episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite titled Road Rager on July 7.[3] Shortly after, AEW announced that their September 22 episode would be another special episode of Dynamite titled Grand Slam. The event was scheduled to be held in the New York City borough of Queens, New York at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Grand Slam marked AEW's first event held in New York City, which is primarily known as home territory for WWE, as well as their first full event to be held in a stadium.[4][5]
During the September 15 episode of Dynamite, AEW announced that Grand Slam was expanded to a two-part event. The second part was announced to air on tape delay as the September 24 episode of Friday Night Rampage, which also aired for two hours instead of its usual one-hour. Additionally, three dark matches were taped to be shown as the September 27 episode of AEW's YouTube show, Elevation.[6]
On May 11, 2022, AEW president Tony Khan confirmed that Grand Slam would return to the Arthur Ashe Stadium later that year and the show would continue forward as an annual event at the same venue.[7] During the Forbidden Doorpay-per-view on June 26, the 2022 Grand Slam's date was confirmed for September 21, with Dynamite airing live that night and Rampage airing on tape delay on September 23.[8]
The 2024 event was announced on June 30, 2024, and scheduled for September 25. Unlike the prior three years, the 2024 event was announced to air as Dynamite on TBS and Saturday Night Collision, which premiered in June 2023 on TNT. Collision was taped the same night as Dynamite to air on tape delay on September 28.[9]
During All In on August 25, 2024, AEW announced that the 2025 Grand Slam would be held as a pay-per-view (PPV) event on February 15, 2025, at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, breaking Grand Slam's tradition of being held as an annual two-part television special at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in late September. This in turn marks the first Grand Slam to air via PPV, thus reducing Grand Slam to one night, and the first AEW event to be held in Australia, with the event branded as Grand Slam Australia.[10] Due to low ticket sales, however, the event was relocated to the smaller Brisbane Entertainment Centre.[11]
