All Elite Wrestling has been affected with the NBA Playoffs as well as the NHL Playoffs over the past few months and even a number of times this past year and the year before that, which has forced their programming schedule to change to an earlier timeslot or even to a later timeslot and that has proven to not be as beneficial to the company as they had hoped.
The NBA Playoffs in the Eastern Conference between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics is currently tied at 2 games a piece and if the series goes to a Game 7, then that game would take place on Sunday night at 8:30PM ET on ESPN, which is the same time that AEW’s Double Or Nothing PPV will take place.
AEW President and CEO Tony Khan recently appeared on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast, where he spoke about how he will surely plan ahead if the NBA Playoffs does go to a Game 7 as well as how certain things will be different such as how he will not hold the show up and how the PPV will be filled with wrestling similar to that of AEW Revolution.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“If there is a Game 7, I will make sure, I’ve actually planned ahead.” “First of all, there will not be any long gap, I’m not going to hold [the show] up. I planned where we’re going to start a little bit later in terms of when the action’s going to start and we have a little bit more in the window, so I expect the total night of wrestling to be very similar to what we did at [AEW] Revolution.”
Tony Khan also spoke about how majority of the action will take place prior to and after the Playoffs as well as how there will not be as much action in the Buy-In Pre-Show like there was on previous PPV Buy-Ins, but there will definitely be more action in the PPV Event itself and the same wrestling like they did during previous PPVs.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“There would be some great action before the game and after the game, in case anybody does end up watching it.” “The pre-show, as we call it the Buy-In, will maybe not have as much action as the last show, and the total night of wrestling will have more because I plan to put more in the pay-per-view, but it’ll be the same total amount of wrestling we’ve been doing. I’m not trying to keep people forever, but it’s a holiday weekend in particular, and the last one was not, so it might be even better received now.“
Tony Khan then spoke about how he will not have the PPV Event run for a really long time, but the PPV will surely have a lot of action and if there will be a Game 7, then a lot of the best action will be taking place towards the end of the show, especially the main event.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“I’m not going to have [the event last forever], we have plenty of action, it’s going to be a great night.” “And I promise if there is a Game 7, a lot of the best action will be at the very end, including the main event … There’s so much on the card, so I plan to leave a lot for later.”
AEW President Tony Khan’s comments are available at this link. H/T to Wrestling Inc. for transcribing the above quotes.
