AEW Full Gear 2025 was a show stuffed with twists, turns, and surprises, however the one thing that when again has people talking is the show’s length. Including the Tailgate Brawl pre-show that aired on TNT, Full Gear 2025 ran for nearly five-and-a-half hours, which has turn into a typical runtime for AEW pay-per-views. WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray was asked about Full Gear and its runtime on a recent episode of “Busted Open Radio,” where he stated that there’s a sweet spot that AEW can hit as he knows all too well about long shows from his time in ECW.
“With regards to the length of the show, I understand some fans being upset with that. In ECW, back within the day, we’d have very long shows on the ECW Arena, but that was for the 1,000 individuals who showed as much as 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. Listen, five hours is a protracted time to maintain an energy level up, regardless of what you might be doing, and we all the time compare things to rock ‘n’ roll, I believe that for AEW, the sweet spot for them could be 4 hours. Knock it down one hour, we all know you are never getting this done in three, possibly 4 hours.”
Bully went on to say that there are variety of things that last around 4 hours that manage to maintain people interested from start to complete, comparable to a football game or perhaps a concert from the likes of Bruce Springsteen. With that in mind, Bully believes that 4 hours is the mark AEW must be hitting to maintain everyone completely satisfied. AEW President Tony Khan recently spoke concerning the length of the AEW pay-per-views, stating that they’re contracted to supply events that last around 4 hours, but that may not including the pre-show, or any time beyond regulation that they might be allowed depending on the town they’re in.
Please credit “Busted Open Radio” when using quotes from this text, and provides a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.