President, CEO, General Manager, and Creative Director of AEW Tony Khan has a backup plan for Sunday’s Double Or Nothing card if the NBA Playoffs stretch to Game 7.
The NHL and NBA Playoffs have forced AEW programming to have various TV schedule changes in the past, but Khan is now forced to rethink plans for a big pay-per-view for the first time. The NBA’s Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are now locked 2-2 in their Best of 7 series to determine the Eastern Conference champions, who will then meet the Western Conference champions, either the Dallas Mavericks or the Golden State Warriors, in the NBA Finals.
If the Miami-Boston series goes to seven games, which is likely, the seventh game will be broadcast on ESPN on Sunday night at 8:30pm ET. The AEW Double Or Nothing pay-per-view will take place at the same time.
In an interview with Richard Deitsch of the Sports Media podcast this week, Khan stated he’s prepared. He said that he would not disrupt the event, but the show may be timed differently as a result.
“If there is a Game 7, I will make sure I’ve 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.”
A three-match Buy-In pre-show warmed-up the AEW Revolution pay-per-view, which included a nine-match main card. That show lasted a little more than five hours. Wrestling fans are generally opposed to extended, drawn-out shows, and Khan revealed how he intends to address such 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, promising to book most of the best Double Or Nothing action for the pay-per-view’s conclusion.
“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.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
