AEW is doing something different this coming weekend with Collision, as the show won’t air in its regular time slot on March 23rd. Instead, AEW is experimenting by splitting it into two one-hour episodes.
One episode will air on Saturday at 11 PM EST, while another will air the following night at the same time slot. This is due to NCAA March Madness. Both episodes will air after the games, giving it a big lead-in. Dave Meltzer discussed the strategy while speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Meltzer said, “So on the 22nd and 23rd in two weeks here with Collision, they’re doing an experiment for Collision. It’s going to be taped on Wednesday in Omaha. Just like they did last week in Sacramento, and this is the reason why…because TNT has the NCAA basketball tournament on that weekend. And because of that, they’re trying to give them beneficial time slots. I mean, they could, they just, could just cancel Collision if they, you know, and that would probably be the normal thing to do is just say, like, look, you know, in prime time, we got NCAA basketball championships. That’s a lot bigger deal than AEW Collision or Dynamite or anything. NCAA Tournaments a big freaking deal.
But instead, they are going to do the thing where on both Saturday and Sunday night, they are going to go after the eight o’clock game. So that should be about or maybe it might be a nine o’clock game. The estimated time to start, you know, could be a little later, probably not earlier. It would be 11 pm Eastern and 8 pm Pacific because they’re going to be on staggered feet. Saturday and Sunday. They’re gonna do a one-hour show on Saturday night, and they’re gonna do a one-hour show on Sunday night.
They will be two different one-hour shows. They’ll be taping two hours of Collision, but one hour on Saturday and one hour on Sunday. And the idea is, is to give them the benefit of two call it, rather than go from, you know, rather than do a two hour show with the second hour being from midnight to one, which where the ratings would fall, they’re going to give them one hour each night, coming right after the tournament game. So, in theory, they should get two big ratings, or at least the Saturday rating should be big the Sunday because it’s unfamiliar, maybe not, you know, because AEW doesn’t do well with unfamiliar time slots. So that’s the deal, you know, that’s the deal there.”
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