Jim Ross, Chief Brand Officer at AEW and a former WWE announcer, has addressed critics whose view is that pay-per-view events are just too long.
AEW recently held their event, Forbidden Door, and had a main event match between Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi. The 16,000+ people at the United Center saw Moxley defeat Tanahashi to become Interim AEW World Champion.
That match was the last of nine held on pay-per-view, but there was also a pre-show that hosted four more matches, extending the run time for that intent on not missing any of the action.
On his podcast, Grilling JR, Jim Ross spoke on the show that was too long for some fans but it was really about the talented wrestlers.
“I thought the Forbidden Door was excellent. It was quite long, I can see that being a turn-off to some, but the performers worked hard and that to me is what counts. Great effort and preparation … We had a lot of amazing matches as well as many spots where people put forth very strong performances.”
Jim Ross singled out Orange Cassidy for his entertaining match with the IWGP US Champion, Will Ospreay.
For example, the very unique comment on the match between Ospreay and Cassidy was that it was a hell of a match. The sole thing about the whole encounter is that Cassidy could wrestle. He lost, so what does that matter? I just enjoyed watching the show.