AEW asks for too much of my time | Opinion
I’m getting tired of AEW’s constant need for more, more, more.
When it was announced Redemption would start an hour early, I was optimistic that perhaps I could conclude my coverage of that show at an earlier time, which sounded really nice as I usually have to dedicate entire days to AEW pay-per-view coverage. Instead, the show ended up running for an extra hour, concluding just minutes before 9 pm PT. Worse, AEW Dynamite on Wednesday ran 30 minutes past the hour, a record for the program. AEW’s product is really strong, but I feel overwhelmed by the amount of time I have to dedicate in order to watch it. To be frank, I often feel like they ask for too much of my time.
It is true that my situation is different from others. As part of my job on this website I cover shows from WWE, AEW, NJPW, AAA, and most other top promotions in the evening. I enjoy my job, but at the same time it can be pretty exhausting! Everything changed when AEW came onto the scene in 2019 and the workload has only increased since then between two new two-hour shows, SmackDown going to three hours, and AAA having a consistent weekly television show, among other additions.
But let me take myself out of the equation. Between Raw, SmackDown, and NXT, WWE puts out 6-8 hours of content a week. AEW is roughly 4 1/2 to 5 if you add overruns. On a PPV weekend, WWE adds 3 more hours while AEW adds at least 5. Even if you just watch one promotion, that’s nearly or just about ten hours of wrestling a week, a far cry from back in the day when most weeks people just watched WWF Superstars for an hour on syndication.
For the sickos
Tony Khan has said that he does this in order for people to get their money’s worth when watching his show. And I believe him, as I think he’s a big fan of professional wrestling and is genuinely excited to put on shows with a ton of great matches. But while the “sickos” will appreciate another hour of PPV matches or 30 extra minutes of television time, to me it feels overwhelming. I should be excited about what happens next when an AEW show ends, not happy that the show is finally over. And more often than not, I just want AEW shows to end. I have a life believe it or not, I want to go outside sometime!
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about pacing. I remember plenty of five-hour NJPW shows back in the day that didn’t feel like they went that long because they were paced better, with a bunch of smaller matches taking place before the big matches, which were usually given more time. AEW’s problem is that every match has to be a “banger” that goes 15-20 minutes or more. Even if the wrestling constantly delivers, by the time they get to the main event, I’m ready to tap out. The mentality that everything and everyone constantly needs to go all out is flawed.
This isn’t an attack on AEW’s quality. I’ve questioned some of their booking heading into All In, but overall I like their product and it’s fair to say it has some of the best wrestling in the world. But sometimes it feels like too much, and this week felt like the icing on the cake. In an era where there is more wrestling than ever before, adding on more feels like a chore at this point, not a gift.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.