AEW made a programming shift this past weekend, airing AEW Collision as two separate one-hour episodes on Saturday and Sunday, following the NCAA tournament.
According to Andrew Zarian on Beyond The Bell, Warner Brothers Discovery is open to experimenting with the AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision schedules, especially with the NHL Playoffs approaching.
“Spoke to someone a couple of weeks ago, and they told me these are experiments Warner is willing to try,” Zarian explained. “College basketball takes priority, and the NBA All-Star weekend does too. Instead of canceling the show, why not shift it to a different time slot and see if it attracts a new audience? We have another chance for this during the Stanley Cup, during the NHL Playoffs. So, really, anything could change here.”
He added, “I’ve heard from Warner that there’s an opportunity to do something big during the Stanley Cup. They presented it as a possibility of a four-hour special, or multiple hours. The idea is still in the early stages. It could be just Dynamite followed by Collision, making it a four-hour block.”
Zarian noted that AEW has experimented with three-hour blocks before, such as when AEW Rampage aired after AEW Dynamite or AEW Battle of the Belts followed AEW Collision.
“They’re looking to do this more to see if they can create a larger block of programming that feels special for TV—something like a pay-per-view level special for television,” he said.
The NHL Playoffs are set to begin shortly after the regular season ends on April 17, with TNT broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final, which begins in late May or early June.
