AEW shifted its programming this past weekend with AEW Collision airing as two one-hour episodes on Saturday and Sunday following the NCAA tournament.
According to Andrew Zarian on Beyond The Bell, Warner Brothers Discovery is willing to experiment with the AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision schedule with the NHL Playoffs coming up.
“Spoke to someone a couple weeks ago, and they were telling me that these are experiments that Warner is willing to try,” Zarian said. “College basketball takes precedence, the NBA All Star weekend takes precedence. Rather than canceling the show, let’s put it on a different time slot and see if we could do something with it, maybe you’re going to attract different types of fans. We have another opportunity for this during the Stanley Cup, during the NHL Playoffs. So listen, anything could change here."
He continued, “I heard from two sides, from Warner, that during the Stanley Cup, there’s going to be an opportunity to do something very big. The way that it was presented to me is that it is a possibility of a four-hour special happening, or multi-hour. The idea is still soft. It could be just Dynamite on and then followed by a Collision, so a four-hour block.”
Zarian noted that AEW has done three-hour blocks in the past with AEW Rampage airing after AEW Dynamite on certain occasions or AEW Battle of the Belts airing after AEW Collision.
"They are looking to do these more to see if they can do a large block of programming and make it feel special for TV. A pay-per-view level special for television," he said.
The NHL Playoffs are set to begin shortly after the conclusion of the regular season on April 17. TNT will air the NHL Stanley Cup Final, which begins in late May or early June.
