AEW Executive Rafael Morffi Reveals They Had Conversations With MSG

AEW once approached Madison Square Garden about hosting shows at the historic New York City arena, but the building's long-standing relationship with WWE was delicate enough to nix its rival booking shows there. Rafael Morffi, AEW's vice president of live events and touring, opened up about the promotion's efforts to set up a working relationship with a venue in NYC during a recent interview on "Talk Is Jericho."

"I appreciate their loyalty and how they feel committed to WWE," Morffi told host Chris Jericho, a former AEW World Champion and top backstage advisor to CEO Tony Khan. With Madison Square Garden off the table, AEW looked elsewhere and landed a partnership with Arthur Ashe Stadium, a venue Morffi had originally eyed for WWE events when he used to work for the McMahon family. Morffi said his dreams of seeing wrestling inside Arthur Ashe didn't come to fruition during his time at WWE because there was concern about the stadium being fully open air at the time. The stadium had an upgrade completed in 2016 which gave it a retractable roof, opening the possibilities for AEW in later years.

AEW ran its first show out of the stadium in 2021, with its inaugural Grand Slam event drawing more than 20,000 fans. Morffi said AEW has continued to have "great dialogue" with Arthur Ashe Stadium and called its owners "great people," noting the promotion has run two successful shows out of the New York City venue to date with back-to-back Grand Slam events, establishing a dependable home in the city for AEW.