1) More Allocated Time
The amount of time Continental Classic group stage matches receive adds to their drama and exhilaration. Matches often go long. Draws are possible and feel significant. They can feel earned or crushing. They can make you want more.
Watching Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita in person at Cardiff, I expected a draw. Both men held NJPW and CMLL’s top titles. Both had larger story arcs. A draw made sense. Yet those last five minutes, where each man was tearing chunks out of one another, in and outside of the ring, I was on my feet. The seconds counted down. I thought one of them would break through! Times up!
I worked. We want to be worked. That magic exists because key matches are allowed to go past the time limit.
Being optimistic, the bigger women’s matches on Dynamite might get just over ten minutes. AEW’s women are not allocated the same time and quantity of matches that the men receive on a weekly Dynamite. Even if AEW gave the women, like in other sports, less time, brought the time limit down to 15 or even 10 minutes, allowing for more distinct, fast-paced, punchier contests that wouldn’t expose some of the women’s lack of long-match experience, the women need more weekly matches to break the a spotlight issue that has larger ramifications on the division.
Without that time, the tournament drags on for months. If it were featured more on Collision than Dynamite, that would also send a clear message.
