Another Example Of AEW's Long-Term Booking Philosophy
Backstage notes on Santana & Oritz vs. FTR, which has been in the works for months.
As if further proof was needed that long-term booking is alive and well in All Elite Wrestling, here it is: Fightful Select reports that internally, the promotion has been working on this week's Santana & Ortiz vs. FTR match for months.
The write-up states that the match has been listed for this week's Fight for the Fallen special episode of Dynamite in Charlotte, North Carolina since at least mid-May. Thus, AEW has had it pencilled in for over two months.
Ostensibly an extension of the wider Inner Circle vs. Pinnacle feud, Santana & Ortiz vs. FTR has. been heating up since Double Or Nothing 2021, where the two teams brawled in a nightclub setting as part of the Stadium Stampede main event. Last week's go-home angle saw the tandems engage in a curtailed press conference, the full version of which has since been uploaded to YouTube.
The report continues, stating that the COVID-19 pandemic's onset in early 2020 was a barrier to AEW pulling off several planned storylines, matches, and feuds, many of which had been planned several months prior. Despite this, the company was still able to execute a lot of what they had planned.
As far as 2021 goes, AEW already has at least one singles program pencilled in for autumn.