Scheduling Conflict Causes Shaquille O’Neal’s Match With Cody Rhodes To Be On Dynamite
AEW announced the long anticipated match between Cody Rhodes and Shaq last night on Dynamite. The tag match has now been made official when Rhodes teams with Red Velvet against Shaq and Jade Cargill on the March 3rd Dynamite, days prior to AEW’s Revolution pay per view.
A match like this usually makes pay per view headlines, but instead has been moved to a Dynamite. While it seems like AEW has at least positioned it so a part time star or celebrity doesn’t take a pay per view spot from an internal talent, Wrestling Observer Radio revealed that Shaq is unable to work the date of Revolution. Dave Meltzer pointed out that the March 7th date of Revolution conflicts with the NBA All-Star game. To avoid scheduling conflicts for Shaq, they moved the match to the go-home edition of Dynamite.
“March 7th is the All-Star game, so he couldn’t do the pay-per-view because it’s the same day as the All-Star game, so it’s gonna be on Dynamite. If nothing else one would think this would draw a good television rating.”
They also noted Shaq’s appearances on AEW “have done very well.” It should be an interesting situation over the next few weeks, as many have doubted Shaq’s commitment to AEW in the past due to many wondering if he’d do the things to properly take the angle seriously. Those doubts also caused WWE to pass on things with Shaq previously as well. The match is booked now, and it remains to see how much in-ring work Shaq will do in this match, but the dynamic has changed now as well. With Brandi Rhodes being pregnant, there needs to be time to build up the new star Red Velvet to make this a match about far more than Shaq and Cody.
h/t to Ringside News for the quote
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