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Cody Speaks On Adding Additional Programming To AEW
Earlier this year, WarnerMedia and All Elite Wrestling announced a contract extension agreeing to air Dynamite on TNT through 2023. The announcement also noted that AEW would launch another weekly show.
Cody Rhodes recently spoke with ESPN, and provided an update on future plans for AEW’s broadcast schedule.
He states he will have a firmer answer in four to six weeks whether a second program will be added to the lineup, or if they will add a third hour to Dynamite.
I think probably in four to six weeks I’ll have a firmer answer on that. That’s still very much the case. The format of that show might be different. It might rely on the production we have in place already, it might not. I know we’ve got all kinds of different plans converging on what we want. The goal of what the third hour would be is to showcase a different crop of talent from AEW. It’s very hard when you have this much talent and you only have a single weekly show. It’s hard to keep people in the mix. As a wrestler, it’s even hard to train for. The only way to train for wrestling is still wrestling. It’s been an adjustment, even without the pandemic.
When asked about showcasing a “different crop of talent”, Cody spoke on AEW not letting anyone go amid the current health crisis. He believes opportunities will be given to those who seize them. He noted there was no intentions to sign talent such as Ricky Starks.
One thing that’s really crazy is that throughout this pandemic, [AEW president and CEO] Tony Khan has not let anybody go. He has not furloughed anybody. If anything, opportunities have been given and some people have seized those opportunities. You look at Ricky Starks. That was never the intention to sign him. The intention was to diversify and offer this wide palette for the AEW open challenge, of all different challengers from different worlds. And kind of acknowledging that wrestling exists outside of our AEW space, which is very important, to stay honest. If I had my way — and maybe I will — that third hour is a space to see some new men and women, including men and women not on our current roster.
AEW currently produces two week weekly shows, Dynamite on Wednesday night’s and Dark every Tuesday on their Youtube channel.