Bull Ray Criticizes the Length of AEW PPVs – AEW’s pay-per-views continue to spark debate over their runtime, and Bully Ray believes the company needs to scale things back. During a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed AEW Full Gear 2025 and said the shows are simply running too long for the average viewer at home.
Bully compared AEW’s approach to ECW’s pre-pay-per-view era. He explained that ECW routinely ran long events at the ECW Arena, but those shows were designed specifically for the live audience. Since ECW didn’t debut on pay-per-view until April 1997, the length never had to factor in a national viewing audience. AEW, however, is producing shows for both live clients and fans watching at home, which he believes changes the dynamic.
“When it comes to the length of the show, I understand some fans being upset with that,” Bully said. “In ECW back in the day, we would have very long shows at the ECW Arena, but that was for the 1000 people who showed up to see the show. It wasn’t for the people watching on pay-per-view at home. There was no pay-per-view back then for ECW, so it was for the people in attendance.”
David LaGreca noted that the Newark crowd helped keep the atmosphere strong throughout Full Gear despite the extended runtime, but Bully emphasized that maintaining energy for such a long show is a challenge for any audience.
“Listen, five hours is a long time to keep an energy level up no matter what you are doing,” Bully continued.
He went on to say that AEW should establish a tighter timeframe for their major events, suggesting that four hours might be the ideal length. According to Bully, trimming an hour would likely solve many of the pacing issues without forcing the company to drastically change its match lineup.
“I think that for AEW, the sweet spot for them might be four hours. Knock it down one hour. We know you’re never getting this done in three.”
Bull Ray Criticizes the Length of AEW PPVs
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