Tony Khan Reportedly Bought Extra PPV Time For AEW Double Or Nothing 'Months Ago'

Many people — including Jim Ross — believe AEW's pay-per-views are too long. The events regularly clock in at around four hours in length, with each event having a 90-minute pre-show that airs on social media and YouTube beforehand. However, AEW Double or Nothing 2024 ran for four-and-a-half hours, rising to six hours with the pre-show factored into the equation.

While it seems that AEW President will try and pack as many matches on to one card as possible at times, the extra length of Double or Nothing 2024 was a strategy Khan had in mind for a while. According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Khan purchased an extra 30 minutes-worth of time months in advance, in case the pay-per-view ended up going head-to-head with a major NBA game, which ended up happening for the 2022 edition of the show.

The reasoning for this plan was that the top three matches on the card would be able to air after the NBA game was over, meaning that fans who wanted to watch both could still catch the most important parts of Double or Nothing live, without the matches being rushed due to time constraints. This was the reason for the triple main event of Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Mone, Swerve Strickland vs. Christian Cage, and Anarchy in the Arena III closing the show.

Ironically, the NBA competition didn't end up being as much of an issue as Khan might have first feared. However, the structure and length of the pay-per-view was the plan all along.