Several AEW wrestlers don’t know whether they’ll be working Collision until Dynamite is already underway.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Alvarez revealed that while Tony Khan has long-term plans for AEW’s biggest stars, the same isn’t necessarily true for the rest of the roster. According to Alvarez, he’s spoken with multiple people in the company who have described arriving at television without knowing if they’ll even be booked for the second show that night.
“For the top stars and the big stars, Tony clearly has plans. But beyond the tip-top guys, I think there’s an idea that he intricately books everything, but he doesn’t.”
Alvarez said the uncertainty often continues well into the Dynamite taping. According to Alvarez, talent simply waits backstage until the lineup is finalized.
“I’ve heard from many people in AEW that they’re at Dynamite on a night when they’re doing both Dynamite and Collision, and they’re halfway through the Dynamite taping with no idea whether they’ll even be on Collision or not. They have no idea. They just sit around and wait during Dynamite to see when the Collision lineup will be posted and whether they’re even on the show.”
Those comments closely mirror claims Jake Hager made during a recent appearance on Off the Rails, where he said AEW had drifted away from the long-term planning it enjoyed in its early years. Hager claimed that when the company first launched, wrestlers often knew a month’s worth of creative in advance, but later found themselves waiting until just hours before Dynamite went live to learn what they were doing.
Alvarez didn’t go as far as Hager in criticizing AEW’s process, but his comments suggest that the uncertainty surrounding weekly television isn’t an isolated complaint. If his sources are correct, many wrestlers outside the company’s top names are still arriving at television without knowing whether they’ll even be part of the second show that week.
Do you think AEW should have its television plans finalized much earlier, or is flexibility part of running a weekly wrestling show? Let us know in the comments below.
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