AEW Needs To Add Second Hour to Shows
With All Elite Wrestling about to launch a brand-new show called Collision, it’s time for AEW and Warner Bros Discovery to come together and make the shows running times two hours as opposed to just the one hour that they’re currently running. The only program that AEW currently has that runs for the two hours is their flagship show Dynamite.
All Elite Wrestling has quite a large roster of workers that could fill the time slots and add extra storylines and use the workers so many of them aren’t just sitting around watching the goings on. The Dark, and Dark Elevation shows can remain the one hours without any issues, but the company and their network needs to make these other shows a lot longer than they already are.
Collision is expected to see the long-awaited return of CM Punk to AEW, with Punk reportedly making amends with everyone. It’s expected that Punk will be battling Chris Jericho upon his return to the company which is meant to help debut Collision. AEW have the hopes that CM Punk’s return will help garner enough attention on the program to make it a hit upon debut.
For AEW they need more than one show that carries a two-hour running time to get enough out of their talent, their storylines and build on what they’ve been trying to achieve. One-hour programs are fine if they aren’t going to be mainstream television shows for the company. WWE had several one-hour programs that featured lesser-known talent in enhancement roles, with the occasional main talent appearing on Sunday Night Heat back in the day to promote storylines heading into main PPVs.
It seems a bit of a waste of AEW to have the five programs, a large roster of talent and only have the one program that features a length of two hours. It has been suggested that AEW looked into a type of brand split, with their ever-growing roster and their acquisition of Ring of Honor but what they really need is for Rampage and Collision to be two-hours long.
They don’t need Dynamite to ever go to three-hours like Monday Night Raw has, they just need to be able to sustain either both of Collision and Rampage as two-hour shows or just the one and invest the time into Collision and building it up before expanding the second hour of the show.
Rampage has been airing since August of 2021, and has enough behind it to now add an extra hour to the broadcast, and perhaps even move the timeslot should the network agree. An earlier start by an hour with two hours of quality wrestling would be good for the network and for AEW themselves.
It could be also good for the talent to get even more TV time, so that fans start to get to know more of these people on their roster. It would certainly make sense for them to be able to utilise more of their roster, instead of them being paid to just sit in the back and do nothing.
AEW talent would be happy with the extra television time as well, to help build their characters and their storylines going forward. It could still be that a talent purge might be in order for AEW as well, with their roster looking quite bloated and some maybe best served being released.
But for now, having a bit more programming could assist in many different areas, including their ability to sell ad space as well as get more people excited about the AEW product as well. An extra hour on a show would be better than a series of one-hour shows from AEW every week.
News Writer. Living in Tasmania Dave is a lifelong wrestling fan, formerly working for Mix It Up Radio’s Wrestling Asylum Radio program, and Wide Bay Pro Wrestling working backstage and writing articles. Podcaster with 15 years of journalism experience across different sports mostly AFL and professional wrestling, photographer for local footy in Tasmania.
