AEW President Tony Khan has discussed possibly making a huge change in the way the company produces some of its biggest shows.
Forbidden Door was the latest pay-per-view spectacular AEW had a hand in as they shared the stage with the stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling for the first official show between the two companies.
With chatter among wrestling fans in recent times focussing on the length of pay-per-view shows put on by AEW, NJPW, and WWE, Tony Khan has suggested he is open to a shift in format.
Answering a question posed by ComicBook.com’s Connor Casey prior to Forbidden Door, Tony Khan has suggested he is open to taking a page out of WWE and NJPW’s playbook and holding pay-per-view events over two days:
“There’s so many stars in pro wrestling right now between the two companies and it’s fascinating. WWE had an interesting approach to it, to be honest. I don’t think it’s something anybody in AEW besides me has ever entertained, but I see it’s not only lucrative business-wise but there are so many stars in AEW, and frankly, [NJPW] thought they had enough people to do two nights of a show, and now, Wrestle Kingdom has gone to two nights.”
“We have never done anything like that, but you all told me that I try to pack a lot into four hours. And plus, it’s a PPV, so I get that there are so many people it’s hard to [fit] all the stars in.”
New Japan Pro Wrestling began holding its annual Tokyo Dome Wrestle Kingdom show over two days in 2020 on January 4th and 5th. WWE followed suit with WrestleMania 36 just three months later, with this switch in large part due to the COVID pandemic. Since then both those shows remain held over two days with no sign of a return to a single day’s showing for either.