On August 31, 2025, All Elite Wrestling was still advertising the All Out 2025 show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to start at 8PM EST. This would change on September 3, 2025, only 17 days prior to the pay per view, to 3PM EST.
AEW announced this in conjunction with AEW pay per view finally being shown on HBO Max for U.S. subscribers.
The reason for this time change has nothing to do with the AEW product or the new relationship with HBO Max. Instead, it’s because their competitor WWE announced that their first pay per view with ESPN would be on the same night. This show was booked for 6:30PM EST in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This is coward shit.
The Excuses
Trust me, I’ve heard all of the ways people have tried to argue this. I’ve heard Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer claim it’s a good business move because the WWE show will be big business. Going head to head is bad and it’s better to avoid the conflict. I’ll get to this later.
I’ve heard people say this happened with All In Texas so it’s fine to happen here. The reason that was okay was because the past two All In shows were in London, England, so it made sense to move it to the afternoon to keep it up as that. AEW also had that set for 3PM EST back on April 2, 2025 from a time of 8PM EST and then changed it to 2PM EST soon after. This was still two months prior to the show on July 12, 2025. People had two months to prepare, not two weeks.
Probably the strangest excuse I’ve heard is that AEW President Tony Khan is a football guy so he’s used to how the NFL will often change the timeslot for games. First of all, all flexible scheduling dates are known once the schedule comes out with the exact times it can be changed to known. Second, this isn’t the NFL. And third, Tony Khan runs a pro wrestling company, has held pay per views for six years, and grew up a pro wrestling fan. You can’t act like he doesn’t know how pro wrestling fans feel about time schedule changes.
I’ve also heard British AEW fans saying they don’t care if the time was changed since this works better for them, which misses the point. You’re not going to the show for starters. And if the time was originally scheduled for this to be an afternoon show? I would have no issue with it! Everyone would be fine planning for an afternoon pay per view because it was booked originally in the afternoon and not in the evening.
While the flex scheduling excuse might have been the strangest, the absolute dumbest are the people telling everyone upset with the change to blame WWE or that wanting the show to go head to head is wanting AEW to bomb versus WWE. The fact Dave Meltzer said that on Twitter was preposterous. Then again, this is the guy who wanted an injured and broken down Kenny Omega to keep defending the AEW Men’s World Championship instead of dropping it to Hangman Adam Page back in 2021 and called it PROMOTIONAL MALPRACTICE not to do so, and argued with Taz on Twitter that his Hardcore Hall of Fame induction should have been on TV when Taz didn’t want it to be.
WWE didn’t force AEW to change the timeslot. AEW chose to. WWE did book a pay per view to go head to head with AEW, but that doesn’t mean All Elite Wrestling has to do anything other than go forward with their pro wrestling show. As I said in Head to Head:
“What will ensure AEW’s success in the long term future isn’t avoiding the fight. It also isn’t trying to fight head to head. The best fight is a strong television program. The best offence is a strong live event.”
WWE is going to counter program AEW every single opportunity they get. There’s going to come a time where AEW TV is always going up against WWE TV. Every AEW pay per view going forward will likely go up against a WWE event or PPV program. This isn’t stopping. If WWE is fine making it obvious that they are trying to crush AEW and ruin the promotion then these tactics won’t quit. They will just get more and more. The fact that Dave Meltzer is well aware of this, and aware that WWE’s attempts at it cost them their relationship with NBC, and yet still supported running away from the WWE pay per view is why he’s a strange egg at times.
It’s not about wanting AEW to fail. It’s about understanding that WWE is going to do this again, and again, and again. And now they have proof that AEW is willing to hurt their own fan service, their own connection to their live audience, by ruining people’s travel plans and scheduling plans for going to the show (anyone who planned to attend the Smash Wrestling show Ante Up now has to either make time for it after the AEW show or not go at all) just to avoid them head to head on pay per view.
The Back Step
WWE has spent most of 2025 stepping on rakes when it came to their attempts at counter programming AEW. Almost all of their AEW signings have been poorly booked. They held Bill Goldberg’s retirement on the same night as All In Texas and ended up cutting the feed short and angering him. They essentially dumped a women’s pay per view the next night and gave it zero attention. They got Cody Rhodes still crying about how he wasn’t the last person of The Elite to sign with AEW to Bruce Pritchard when EVERYONE KNOWS IT WAS KENNY OMEGA LAST TO SIGN DUE TO HIS NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING CONTRACT EXPIRING AFTER EVERYONE ELSE but there he is still crying about something nobody cares about except him.
Every attempt WWE has made to counter program AEW has hurt them. They tried to fight NBC on showing John Cena’s final match the same night as World’s End in December and NBC told them they were no longer showing Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC, it would be Peacock exclusive, and then got out of their PLE deal early so WWE could sign the deal with ESPN. That isn’t a win! That’s a loss!
And yet, here AEW hands WWE their first victory. WWE caused AEW to flinch. They booked a show with Brock Lesnar, the Uso’s reuniting, and the possibility of AJ Lee showing up, and that was enough for Tony Khan to move his pay per view two weeks before holding it.
This is coward shit.
Am I personally upset because I’m going to All Out Toronto and this messes with my plans? Sure, but I’m also going the day prior, so this doesn’t ruin my way to the show. It does ruin it for friends of mine, and people have told me that some folks who were planning to go to the show now cannot because by the time their train arrives in Toronto the show will be half over now.
It upsets me as a critic because All Elite Wrestling has been on an absolute roll right now. Even if I didn’t like the build up to Forbidden Door? The show itself was fantastic. I’m sure this show in Toronto that I’m attending live will be fantastic to watch as well but it would have felt a whole lot better if AEW trusted their fans to buy the show regardless of WWE counter programming them and those empty seats were filled with those who could have made it in the evening.
This was an easy win for AEW. Stand your ground. Show that WWE cannot cause you to change your plans. Instead? They backed off. They showed their number one competitor that they are afraid of running against them. They are afraid of Brock Lesnar. They are afraid of the potential of AJ Lee. It didn’t have to be this way, but that’s what happens when you move.
The Right Thing
Last week, Tony Khan’s Ring of Honor held Death Before Dishonor. He said their streaming provider, Brightcove, had an issue with browsers watching the show paid for. Instead of telling people to just deal with it, he gave all HonorClub subscribers a free month and put the whole show on YouTube. He said it was the right thing to do.
I don’t know what the right thing to do is here. You’ve moved the time. What’s done is done. But I do think that Tony Khan needs to think of a way to make this right for the people who can’t attend the show in Toronto due to this schedule change. This isn’t the NFL with flex schedule. This isn’t just like All In Texas. This is All Out Toronto and you told your fanbase AEW can’t compete. Do what’s right for those who can no longer attend.
WrestleDream, Full Gear, World’s End, and beyond? You know WWE is going to counter program you. You know the day will come when Dynamite and Collision both have WWE shows going head to head with them. You know this counter programming is only going to get worse. The more you back away? The more you tell your fans your product isn’t worth their support.
No more coward shit.
