Jim Ross spoke about some fans’ criticism of AEW’s most recent PPV’s being too long.
Many of AEW’s recent PPVs have run over 4 hours, with the main event sometimes going over 20 minutes. While this would excite some AEW enthusiasts, many have criticized the company for overstuffing their shows with long matches. Legendary commentator Jim Ross tends to acknowledge this criticism; however, he also says it’s not the length of the shows that matters to him.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross discussed the length of AEW’s most recent PPV Forbidden. Although JR said the length of the show was a negative for some, he was more into the quality of each match.
“I thought that [Forbidden Door] was exceptional,” Ross said. “It was long, that was maybe a negative for some people, but the talent worked their asses off and that, to me, is where it starts and ends. Great effort and preparation … We had a lot of show-stopping matches and a lot of matches where guys put on spots to raise their game.
“For example, the very unique Orange Cassidy, who is a gimmick guy, had a hell of a match with Will Ospreay, who’s a much better wrestler than is Orange Cassidy, but we saw Orange Cassidy could wrestle. He did the honors, he lost the match, so what? I just enjoyed the hell out of that show.”
Orange Cassidy’s match against Will Ospreay was one of many matches to go over 15 minutes on the show. The match lasted 17 minutes and ended with Cassidy failing to capture the IWGP United States Championship. AEW’s next confirmed outing will be All Out on September 4 in Chicago.
H/t – Wrestling Inc.