Bully Ray Suggests AEW Cut PPV Length to Four Hours

WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray voiced concerns over the extended runtime of All Elite Wrestling's pay-per-view events during a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, suggesting the company shorten its shows from five hours to four to better maintain viewer engagement. His comments came in the wake of AEW's Full Gear 2025, which took place last weekend at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Ray, a former star of Extreme Championship Wrestling known as Bubba Ray Dudley, drew parallels between AEW's current format and ECW's early days in the 1990s. He noted that ECW events often ran long at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, but those shows catered primarily to a live audience of about 1,000 fans. "In ECW back in the day, we would have very long shows at the ECW Arena, but that was for the 1,000 people who showed up to see the show," Ray said. "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."

ECW did not debut on pay-per-view until April 1997, after years of building its reputation through house shows and regional television. Ray emphasized that the dynamics have shifted with modern...