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The September date AAA has a hold for on New York City's Madison Square Garden is indeed for the historic 20,789-seat arena.
PWInsider.com is told that while WWE would technically have the right of first refusal on the date based on their agreement with the venue, the larger story at play here is that MSG management isn't happy that WWE has been running the majority of their events in the New York City market at the nearby Barclay Center in Brooklyn, NY.
The tipping point appears to have been WWE making the decision to run all of their Wrestlemania 35 week events in 2019 at Barclays, leaving MSG out in the cold. Wrestlemania 1, 10 and 20 were held at MSG as was the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in 2013, the last time Wrestlemania was held in the NYC market.
With WWE electing not to run Wrestlemania week at the legendary venue, MSG management has been more open than ever before to allowing other pro wrestling groups into the venue. We are told they have sent feelers out to different groups and are more open to booking non-WWE events than ever before. That may or may not have been why Ring of Honor teased "All In 2" potentially coming to the Garden over the weekend.
Of course, MSG and the Barclays have been competing for the same touring acts since the Barclays officially opened in 2012, so all of these moves may be the Garden's way of trying to leverage WWE into running their facility more often. The Garden historically was WWE's most important venue for many, many, many decades.
No other wrestling promotion has ever run MSG since the advent of the McMahon family's relationship with the legendary venue. From time to time, the adjacent Theater in Madison Square Garden has hosted pro wrestling events, including WCW, AAA and the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, but those events have been very rare.
As all of this comes out, it's interesting to note that this week, WWE announced the first appearance of The Undertaker in MSG since September 2010 will be on 7/7 when the company returns there for a Raw live event. That event will also feature the WWE MSG debut of former UFC Bantamweight Champ Ronda Rousey.
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