NEW YORK — WWE is beating competitor AEW back to New York by less than two weeks.
Vince McMahon’s wrestling company will be running “Smackdown” live from Madison Square Garden on Sept. 10, WWE announced Thursday.
The Friday night show will run a day before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and 12 days before AEW brings its own massive event to Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens in that company’s first Big Apple appearance.
While the McMahons and the Garden have a long history, the WWE skipped the venue for a decade before returning in September 2019, reportedly due to the high costs of renting the space.
During the pandemic, WWE ran primarily out of the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, then several arenas and stadiums around Florida.
The show is going back out on the road beginning July 16 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
AEW superstar Chris Jericho, who spent decades wrestling for WWE, recently told the Daily News that there’s room in town for both of them.
“One of the reasons why AEW’s done so well is we’re different from WWE, and that’s obvious. We do things differently than the way they do it,” he told The News.
“They’re a huge successful company, especially in the New York market. That’s a WWE stronghold. But there are a lot of people who are excited to see things done a little bit differently.”
———
