Why WWE Will Use Wembley Stadium In 2020

SummerSlam 1992 was the first pay-per-view the company had ever promoted outside of the United States and Canada. It was the first pay-per-view the company had ever promoted without the mammoth raft of stars that f*cked off under a cloud after a WrestleMania doused in salacious scandal. It was the first pay-per-view the company had ever promoted without Hulk Hogan.

It was, without Wembley, destined for disaster.

Discussions had gone on for months about the location of the show before the company passed on Washington D.C to take the trans-atlantic gamble on a market that appeared on the surface to be in rude health. A triangulated assault on the United Kingdom via regular live arena shows, increased Sky Television coverage and, of all things, sticker albums, had resulted in WWE achieving popularity that somehow surpassed the first wave that jumped on with Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior years earlier.

With remaining Golden Era holdovers Warrior and WWE Champion Randy Savage promoted as the top match on television, the company steered into the Bret Hart/British Bulldog match as a co-headliner Davey Boy Smith's homeland. It was, by some margin, the biggest crowd he could ever lay claim to have drawn.

A sellout attendance of 80,676, merchandise sales going into the millions and a footprint deep enough to create generations of wrestling fans this side of the water justified the faith the company had in the British audience. Triple H's complaints about a time difference weren't even valid on their own terms - the show didn't air live as result of the location, taking place in a time before rapidly-shared results spoilers would have completely killed it.

It's the site of one of WWE's biggest legitimate success stories. Yet, unlike virtually every other old ground they beaten below the surface, it's a site they've never returned to. Why not? And why now?

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