Matt Hardy describes the pros and cons of AEW potentially expanding its pay-per-view schedule.
Since AEW launched, the company has held a handful of pay-per-views every year. The initial lineup consisted of AEW Double or Nothing, All Out, Full Gear, and Revolution. AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door joined the schedule in 2022, and the company will host the first AEW All In event in 2023. On July 12, Fightful Select reported that AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery are in negotiations to extend their dela, and WBD has proposed expanding AEW's pay-per-view schedule.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the AEW star was asked to share his thoughts on the report, and he initially discussed how AEW's current model is beneficial, as it allows the company to tell stories with every match.
"It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that makes AEW so solid and so great is that all the matches usually have a good and decent amount of time to tell a backstory, which leads up to that match. There’s history in all the matches, there’s a reason for these guys to be fighting, there’s a reason you want to see this fight, there’s a reason you want a certain guy to win and whatnot. That’s one of the beautiful things about pro wrestling. Even if you look at WWE back in the day, when they had the big four, when they had Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, it just felt like those pay-per-views were bigger deals. I think in some ways, that made the pay-per-view feel like a bigger deal, and you buy it like it’s a bigger deal. I feel like if you have a pay-per-view every month, you don’t have the time to have a story that builds up and festers for three or four months. You have to get it done within four-five weeks if you’re doing them monthly. So that’s different," Hardy said.
Hardy went on to describe how successful monthly pay-per-views would increase a company's financial intake. He then suggested a potential outcome where AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision rotate every month with brand-exclusive pay-per-views before they came together for a World Series-like show every few months.
"With that same thing being said, if you’re having great pay-per-views constantly on a regular basis and you can do it every single month, then that means you’re upping your intake when it comes to dollar value. So I could see that happening. Something I’ll throw out is you could maybe keep it fresh, if the rosters are big enough on Dynamite and on Collision, maybe you could have in January is a Dynamite pay-per-view, February is a Collision pay-per-view, March, Dynamite, and you alternate each and every month. Maybe one of those months, you have Dynamite versus Collision and it’s like the World Series pay-per-view of pro wrestling," Hardy said.
Hardy previously discussed the idea of a potential World Series between AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision. Check out his comments here.
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff recently shared his thoughts on AEW potentially expanding their pay-per-view schedule. Click here to see what he had to say.
Check out the card for the July 19 episode of AEW Dynamite here. Fightful will have coverage of the show as it airs.
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