Reason Why AEW Introduced Tailgate Brawl Before PPVs

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AEW’s new “Tailgate Brawl” pre-show, which was introduced before the All Out pay-per-view last month, is reportedly a strategic move by the company to fulfill its contractual broadcast hour requirements with its media partner, Warner Bros. Discovery. The one-hour show, which is also being utilized for tonight’s WrestleDream event, provides fans with several bonus matches before the main card begins and helps AEW meet its annual programming obligations as part of its lucrative media rights deal.

A new report from Fightful Select has confirmed the business reason behind the new show format, noting that the addition of the “Tailgate Brawl” was not a random decision. The report states that the show was specifically created to help AEW meet its annual broadcast hour commitments as part of its media rights agreement.

“AEW Tailgate is added as a part of AEW’s deal with WBD to reach their committed hours as a part of their deal.”

The “Tailgate Brawl” concept is in full effect for tonight’s WrestleDream pay-per-view, which will air live on TNT and HBO Max starting at 7 p.m. EST. The bonus one-hour show features a lineup of FTR taking on the high-flying duo of JetSpeed (“Speedball” Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight), and Willow Nightingale teams with Harley Cameron to face Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford. Eddie Kingston and HOOK are also scheduled for a tag team match. There is a eight-man tag team encounter, as The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, Tomohiro Ishii, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong) battles four members of The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, Wheeler Yuta, and Daniel Garcia).