AEW President, CEO, General Manager & Head Of Creative Tony Khan has a back-up plan for Sunday’s Double Or Nothing card in case the NBA Playoffs go to Game 7.
AEW programming has dealt with various TV schedule changes due to the NHL Playoffs and the NBA Playoffs, but now Khan is forced to re-think plans for a major pay-per-view for the first time. The NBA’s Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are currently tied up 2-2 in their Best of 7 series to determine the Eastern Conference champions, who will then go on to the NBA Finals to face the Western Conference champions, either the Dallas Mavericks or the Golden State Warriors.
If the Miami vs. Boston series goes to seven games, which is likely, then that game would take place on Sunday night, at 8:30pm ET on ESPN. This is the same time that the AEW Double Or Nothing pay-per-view will be going on.
Khan spoke with Richard Deitsch of the Sports Media podcast this week and said he’s planned ahead. He noted that he will not hold the show up, but the show may be paced differently.
“If there is a Game 7, I will make sure, I’ve actually planned ahead,” Khan said. “First of all, there will not be any long gap, I’m not going to hold [the show] up. I planned where we’re going to start a little bit later in terms of when the action’s going to start and we have a little bit more in the window, so I expect the total night of wrestling to be very similar to what we did at [AEW] Revolution.”
The AEW Revolution pay-per-view included a three-match Buy-In pre-show with a nine-match main card. That show ran just over five hours. A significant number of wrestling fans are usually against long, drawn-out events, and Khan explained how he plans to combat those concerns.
“There would be some great action before the game and after the game, in case anybody does end up watching it,” Khan said. “The pre-show, as we call it the Buy-In, will maybe not have as much action as the last show, and the total night of wrestling will have more because I plan to put more in the pay-per-view, but it’ll be the same total amount of wrestling we’ve been doing. I’m not trying to keep people forever, but it’s a holiday weekend in particular, and the last one was not, so it might be even better received now. “
Khan continued and promised to book most of the best Double Or Nothing action at the end of the pay-per-view.
“I’m not going to have [the event last forever], we have plenty of action, it’s going to be a great night,” Khan said. “And I promise if there is a Game 7, a lot of the best action will be at the very end, including the main event … There’s so much on the card, so I plan to leave a lot for later.”
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more Double Or Nothing Week updates. Below is the current card going into tonight’s go-home Dynamite:
AEW World Title Match
CM Punk vs. “Hangman” Adam Page (c)
AEW Women’s World Title Match
Serena Deeb vs. Thunder Rosa (c)
AEW World Tag Team Titles Triple Threat
Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland vs. Powerhouse Hobbs and FTW Champion Ricky Starks vs. Jurassic Express (c)
AEW TBS Title Match
Anna Jay vs. Jade Cargill (c)
The Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Finals
Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly or ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe
The Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Finals
Toni Storm or Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander or Ruby Soho
Anarchy In The Arena Match
The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Daniel Garcia, Angelo Parker, Matt Menard) vs. Eddie Kingston, Santana, Ortiz, Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson
Trios Match
House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, Buddy Matthews) vs. Death Triangle (PAC, Penta Oscuro, Rey Fenix)
The Hardys vs. The Young Bucks
The Buy-In Pre-show
Hook and Danhausen vs. Tony Nese and Mark Sterling
(H/T to WrestlingInc for the quote)
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