We’re probably never going to stop talking about runtimes when it comes to AEW shows, mostly because they run some four hours long. That’s untenable for fans anywhere, but especially folks on the east coast who want to keep a relatively reasonable sleep schedule.
Naturally, in the wake of Full Gear, AEW boss Tony Khan was asked about events finishing up before midnight for the east coast. His response from the post-show media scrum:
“For Saturday night, I could see that. I like the feedback, so I do
think, to your point, after Dynasty I said I probably on the east coast wouldn’t do a Sunday night like that late again. Then we started doing, which worked really well, a lot of afternoon start times. I thought tonight was really great and obviously there was a lot of captivated people throughout the night. I am interested.
“I thought having epic pay-per-views with earlier start times was interesting also. When the show, to your point, like is on the west coast it’s not as… you can play with the start times a little more. Also it will be interesting going back to Sundays because I look at Sundays and Saturdays a little bit different from each other. You know, I go to boxing matches and MMA where the main event is not getting into the ring until like 1 in the morning and the cards are like several hours longer with the prelims, and there’s like 37 minutes between fights with video, you know, where the action doesn’t pace the same. I really like it but at the same time I like the feedback. So after Dynasty I really… last year or this past year in Philly I was like, you know I probably, I love the show, but I probably on a Sunday wouldn’t do that on the east coast.”
He went on to say they have a history of doing more Saturday shows late in the year during football season, and they may want to play around with earlier start times. The big one, though, is they are contracted to go as long as they do.
“Our contracted time for the shows has always been close to four hours. If you look, every AEW pay-per-view has gone over three-and-a-half hours. There’s never been an AEW pay-per-view that went under three-and-a-half hours in the history of the company because we were contracted to do shows that go about 3:45. If we didn’t, I’d have people talking to the end.”
There you have it.
