Update On AEW Ending “Dark” And “Dark Elevation” Shows

There are some new details about All Elite Wrestling’s decision to pull AEW Dark and Dark Elevation from their regular lineup featuring pro wrestling matches.

When All Elite Wrestling launched in 2019, the first TV show they had was Dynamite, which premiered that October. They also launched a YouTube-only wrestling show that was free to watch for anybody around the world. It was called Dark and later, they also launched a second show called Dark Elevation.

Over the last four years, Dark and Dark Elevation were sometimes taped before Dynamite and/or Rampage tapings while the company also did specific tapings for the shows at Universal Studios in Orlando.

Since AEW is set to launch its new show called Collision in June, they have ended Dark & Dark Elevation on Youtube. There was no major announcement by AEW about it. They just stopped doing it and relied on the word to spread among wrestling fans.

Part of the reason that AEW has ended Dark & Dark Elevation is a report that Warner Bros. Discovery, who run TNT & TBS where AEW programming runs, wants AEW content to be on their networks and not on YouTube.

As for the end of All Elite Wrestling Dark & Dark Elevation, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer wrote about the ending of the shows and what it means for AEW shows moving forward.

“It is now official that Dark and Dark Elevation are done and it’s notable that ROH will tape seven hours worth of programming on 5/6 and 5/7 in Orlando. So, based on this week, the Wednesday tapings look to be a few warm-up matches, and then Dynamite, followed by Rampage, making for much shorter shows, which is a good thing for the live crowd.”

“The story is that as part of the new deal with WBD with the beginning of the Saturday show, that WBD will have the exclusive on all AEW shows for television. AEW hasn’t confirmed nor denied that as the reason. Even though it uses some of the same talent, ROH is considered a separate company which is owned by Tony Khan specifically as opposed to being AEW which is separately owned by Tony and Shad Khan and whether WBD has an official stake, they do have considerable interest and have participated in decision making on major business things.”

“However, Tony Khan would not negotiate to sell ROH as a television show to a non-WBD station even though WBD turned down airing of the show. With the major declines in the streaming numbers of both shows, they weren’t being watched but the company has found new stars bringing in independent talent for those shows. There is also a ton of talent that rarely and almost never wrestles on television that appeared on those shows.”

What that means for potential roster cuts is unknown. All Elite Wrestling rarely releases wrestlers unless it’s for disciplinary reasons. Instead, they usually let contracts expire before moving on from a talent.

In other AEW news, the company is rightfully celebrating All In pre-sale tickets going very well with over 50,000 tickets sold already.