When AEW dropped the neon-drenched “Revolution” graphic—retro grids, electric pink palms and the Los Angeles skyline glowing behind the bold yellow logo—it wasn’t just a pretty poster. It was confirmation that All Elite Wrestling is bringing one of its flagship pay-per-views back to Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, March 15, 2026, marking a quick return to the City of Angels after this year’s highly attended show in the same building. 

With the announcement, AEW Revolution cements its place not only as a pillar of the promotion’s calendar, but as a show increasingly tied to California—and now specifically Los Angeles—at a time when the company is recalibrating its live-event strategy on the West Coast.

From New Kid To “Big Five”: The Evolution Of Revolution

Revolution didn’t exist when AEW launched in 2019. The event was added in 2020 as a winter/early-spring tentpole and has since grown into one of the company’s “Big Five” pay-per-views, alongside All In, Double or Nothing, All Out and Full Gear. 

• 2020 – Chicago’s Game-Changer:
  The inaugural Revolution at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena gave AEW one of its first genuinely era-defining nights. Jon Moxley dethroned Chris Jericho to win the AEW World Championship, while Kenny Omega & “Hangman” Adam Page vs. The Young Bucks for the tag titles was widely hailed as one of the greatest tag matches ever, even earning a rare six-star rating from the Wrestling Observer and helping the show win “Best Major Wrestling Show” honors for 2020.  
• 2021 – Exploding Barbed Wire & Pandemic Limits:
  The second Revolution, held at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville due to COVID restrictions, will forever be remembered for Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch. The bout itself was brutal and dramatic, but the final “explosion” underwhelmed live and on television, overshadowing what had otherwise been AEW’s highest-grossing non-WWE PPV in decades.  
• 2022 – Dog Collars & Debuts:
  Orlando’s 2022 edition was a sprawling super-card where “Hangman” Page turned back Adam Cole in the main event, but the emotional core was CM Punk vs. MJF in a blood-soaked Dog Collar match. Critics and outlets like CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated praised the show, calling Punk–MJF a near-perfect old-school grudge match, while the night also introduced Swerve Strickland and William Regal to AEW audiences.  
• 2023 – California’s First Taste & An All-Time Iron Man:
  In 2023, Revolution moved to San Francisco’s Chase Center—AEW’s first PPV in California—drawing around 9,000 fans. The card received heavy acclaim for a vicious Texas Death match between Jon Moxley and “Hangman” Page and, especially, the 60-minute (plus overtime) Iron Man main event where MJF retained over Bryan Danielson in what many reviewers called one of the greatest Iron Man matches ever.  
• 2024 – “The Icon” Says Goodbye:
  Greensboro played host to Sting’s retirement match, a tornado tag where he and Darby Allin defended the AEW World Tag Team titles against The Young Bucks. Sting and Allin retained, allowing the legend to leave undefeated in AEW and still champion, in what was framed as a deliberate nod to his long, storied career.  
• 2025 – Hollywood Chaos At Crypto.com Arena:
  This year’s Revolution shifted to Los Angeles and Crypto.com Arena, drawing an estimated 11,425 tickets distributed, qualifying as one of AEW’s 10k-plus attendance shows and its first PPV on Amazon Prime Video.  The main event was a wild triple threat with Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Championship against Cope (Adam Copeland) and Christian Cage, ending with Moxley still champion but immediately jumped by Swerve Strickland to set up the next chapter. Elsewhere on the card, Timeless Toni Storm and Mariah May tore into each other in a Hollywood-themed brawl, Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher nearly stole the night in a steel cage, and Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita delivered the kind of big-fight feel AEW banks its pay-per-views on.  

Put together, the Revolution brand has built a reputation as AEW’s “big moment factory”—from Moxley’s first world title win to Punk’s blood feud, from Sting’s farewell to a run of critically adored main events.

AEW And California: A Love Story With Some Bumps In The Road

The choice to keep Revolution in Los Angeles after 2025 isn’t random. California has quietly become one of AEW’s most important markets, in both prestige and revenue.

The LA Boom: The Forum & Monster Gates

AEW’s California debut came on June 1, 2022, with Dynamite at the Kia Forum in Inglewood. The show was marketed as a milestone—“AEW invades the Forum”—and it delivered at the box office. WrestleTix estimates put tickets distributed around 13,955, with a setup close to 14–15k seats, and reporting around that time noted the gate as one of the largest non-WWE wrestling gates ever, especially when paired with Double or Nothing 2022’s record numbers in Las Vegas. 

Variety’s coverage of AEW’s initial California expansion highlighted how important it was for the promotion to plant its flag in Los Angeles, treating the Forum debut and the subsequent Ontario show as statements that AEW belonged in the same big-league building rotation as WWE. 

The relationship continued:

• Dynamite – Jan. 11, 2023 (Kia Forum): Attendance sat around 9,636, still a strong TV crowd but down about 30% from the debut, part of a broader softening in AEW’s U.S. ticket sales that year.  
• Full Gear 2023 (Kia Forum): AEW’s first Los Angeles-area PPV drew 12,904 fans, outdrawing the prior year’s Full Gear in Newark and featuring major moments like Swerve Strickland vs. “Hangman” Page in a brutal Texas Death match and Will Ospreay’s official signing.  

Even as weekly TV crowds cooled off in 2024—Dynamite at the Forum in May was estimated at 5,553 tickets, a sharp drop from the heights of 2022 and early 2023—the LA market still turned out strongly for pay-per-view. 

Revolution 2025: LA As A PPV Destination

Revolution 2025 was arguably AEW’s biggest test of the LA market on PPV. Running Crypto.com Arena—longtime home of major WWE events—signaled confidence. Wrestlenomics’ tally of 11,425 tickets distributed put the show solidly in AEW’s upper tier of live crowds, becoming the promotion’s 26th event to cross the 10,000-ticket line. 

Ticket-tracking reports indicated that about 7,000 seats were sold before any matches were even announced, with the number pushing toward 13,000 once the card filled out and capacity was adjusted—evidence that the Revolution brand and the LA location together can sell on name value alone. 

Fan and critic reaction suggested that LA crowds gave AEW exactly what it wanted: a hot, engaged audience that treated Revolution like a big-fight night. Reviews from outlets like the New York Post and Cageside Seats praised the undercard and mid-card matches heavily, even if some felt the main event finish didn’t quite match the rest of the show’s quality. 

Why Returning To Crypto.com Arena Matters

By bringing Revolution back to Crypto.com Arena on March 15, 2026, AEW is doubling down on several key narratives:

1. Revolution as the “West Coast flagship.”
   Since 2023’s San Francisco edition, three of the last four Revolutions—including the upcoming 2026 event—will have taken place in California. San Francisco gave the PPV its first foothold out west, and Los Angeles is increasingly becoming its spiritual home.
2. LA as a PPV-first market.
   The data points are clear: TV tapings at the Forum have fluctuated, but major events—Full Gear 2023 and Revolution 2025—have cracked or flirted with the 11–13k range and generated strong gates.  For AEW, that suggests LA is best used for “event” nights rather than frequent TV runs.
3. A chance to add another classic to a stacked highlight reel.
   Each Revolution is now associated with a defining moment:
   
   • Moxley ending Jericho’s reign and the classic tag bout in 2020.  
   • The infamous exploding deathmatch in 2021.  
   • Punk vs. MJF’s Dog Collar in 2022.  
   • MJF vs. Danielson’s Iron Man and Moxley vs. Page in 2023.  
   • Sting’s storybook retirement in 2024.  
   • The Hollywood-chaos triple threat and Swerve’s coronation as next in line in 2025.  
4. 
   With that track record, any roster stepping into Crypto.com Arena in 2026 knows the bar: Revolution isn’t just another date on the schedule; it’s where careers tend to pivot.

The Road To March 15

AEW has yet to announce matches for the 2026 card, but the combination of:

• a visually striking cyberpunk-LA aesthetic on the promotional art,
• a market that has consistently turned out big for AEW’s premium events, and
• a PPV brand that has delivered some of the company’s most-talked-about matches and moments

means Revolution 2026 is immediately positioned as one of the most important nights on next year’s calendar.

If recent history is any indication, the City of Angels won’t just host AEW Revolution—it’ll help write the next chapter in its legacy.

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