Tony Khan Reveals If He Prefers Early Start Time For AEW PPVs
Tony Khan has discussed the advantages of starting AEW pay-per-view events early.
The last three AEW PPVs have started in the afternoon for fans in the United States and Canada.
- AEW All In Texas in July had a 3 p.m. ET start time because it was a six-hour-long show, the biggest AEW PPV of the year.
- The AEW-NJPW Forbidden Door PPV started at 1 p.m. ET, as it took place in London, England, which made sense due to the time difference.
- AEW All Out in Toronto in September was initially scheduled to be an evening PPV, but AEW moved it to 3 p.m. due to WWE’s scheduling of Wrestlepalooza on the same day.
After AEW Owner Tony Khan moved the All Out start time, reports emerged stating that WWE plans to make things difficult for Khan in the future as well.
AEW WrestleDream will take place on Saturday, October 18th, with the main show starting at 8 p.m. ET in St. Louis, so it’s the first AEW PPV in primetime in the US/Canada since Double or Nothing in May.
Tony Khan Is Clearly Okay With Doing Afternoon AEW PPV Events
When Lou Info asked Tony Khan about whether he prefers afternoon or evening shows, Khan made it clear he was fine with either, while also plugging the sports teams that his father owns.
“I think they’re both great. It’s interesting. Certainly it’s a very early call time for everybody involved (for afternoon shows), so it’s a different kind of a day, but the day ends earlier.
“So it just depends. I like them both. I think either way is good.
“But this is nice (WrestleDream being an evening show), in the sense of after a long week and we’ve got a lot of things happening with the Jaguars and the NFL, Fulham in the Premier League, and of course AEW’s having such a big year in 2025 and wrestling goes year-round week-to-week, so especially during football season, it is nice if you can get a couple hours of sleep here and there.” (H/T Wrestletalk)
AEW WrestleDream is currently scheduled to have nine matches on the pay-per-view and four more matches on the pre-show.
The lineup for the AEW WrestleDream PPV on October 18th is below.
- AEW World Championship: “Hangman” Adam Page (c) vs. Samoa Joe
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Kris Statlander (c) vs. Toni Storm
- I Quit Match: Darby Allin vs. Jon Moxley
- AEW Tag Team Championships: Brodido – Brody King & Bandido (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada & Konosuke Takeshita
- TNT Championship: Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Mark Briscoe
- $500K Match: The Young Bucks – Matt & Nick Jackson vs. Jurassic Express – “Jungle” Jack Perry & Luchasaurus
- Tornado Trios Match: The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and MVP) vs. The Demand (Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, and Toa Liona)
- Jamie Hayter vs. Thekla
- TBS Championship: Mercedes Mone (c) vs. TBD
There are also four matches on the Tailgate Brawl episode of Collision, airing on TNT in the US, before WrestleDream.
* FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (with Stokely) vs. JetSpeed (“Speedball” Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight)
* Roderick Strong and The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, Kyle O’Reilly, and Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, and Pac)
* Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale vs. Divine Vanity (Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford)
* Eddie Kingston and Hook vs. TBA
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