On a recent edition of the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Bully Ray offered his thoughts on AEW’s choice to book two major pay-per-view events on back-to-back weekends.
AEW All In 2023 took place on August 27 at Wembley Stadium in London and AEW All Out 2023 is scheduled for September 3 at the United Center in Chicago.
Ray noted that AEW likely didn’t have enough time to market All Out 2023 sufficiently and might be risking overloading the fans without a proper build to the show.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the evidence pointing to audience burnout: How much can you possibly handle in such a short span? Obviously, there wasn’t enough people [at Dynamite] that wanted to go see that show live… The two callers that were in attendance at Dynamite, who called into After Dark, both said the same thing: There was nobody there, and the people that were there were underwhelming. This is Chicago we’re talking about. Nine out of 10 pro wrestlers would tell you, if they could wrestle in any city, it’d be Chicago.”
On the difficulty of keeping the audience draw high for All Out: “There’s no, ‘I have to be planted in front of my TV set.’ Now, Samoa Joe and Shane Taylor? Do I want to see that match? Yes. Is it absolutely ‘I must be in front of my TV?’ Nope.”
