Did AEW All In: Texas Run Long To Counterprogram WWE Saturday Night's Main Event?

However, All In also managed to go head to head with the first hour of Saturday Night’s Main Event, with the Tony Khan-produced show going nearly six hours for the main card to break the previous pro wrestling pay-per-view runtime record set by WrestleMania 35 back in 2019.

The question is, was that intentional?

Dave Meltzer shared his opinion on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio , noting that he believes AEW had the aim of starting its ‘Hangman’ Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley main event for the AEW World Championship when Saturday Night’s Main Event went on the air at 8 p.m. ET.

"The reason that the show went so long was because they were not going to be bullied,” Meltzer said. “They were going to go head-to-head with Saturday Night's Main Event and that's part of the overriding theme of WWE did this, and did this, and they did this all to screw the show and AEW answered whether they went too long or not ... I'd never talked to Tony Khan about it, but I thought if I'm in this situation, I'm going 15 minutes into that show even though I know its too long."

Saturday Night’s Main Event opened with Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton, which featured a post-match angle that saw McIntyre hit a Claymore on music superstar Jelly Roll.

McIntyre will team with Logan Paul to face Orton and Jelly Roll in a tag team match at the first-ever two-night SummerSlam on August 2 and August 3 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

When asked about WWE counterprogramming AEW events, AEW president Tony Khan stated ahead of All In that he was focused on his own company's success.

"I think we're going to put on a great event, and we have to focus on putting on the best event we can with the best wrestlers in the world," Khan told WFAA. "So that's a lot of fun. So we're going to have a great show next Saturday afternoon, and we're very focused on what AEW is doing, and AEW fans, and I think that's served us really well."

AEW will kickstart the Hangman era on Wednesday’s Dynamite before looking ahead to Forbidden Door on August 24 at the O2 Arena in London.

WWE announced on Saturday that NXT Heatwave would also take place that day at the Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the partial transcription.