AEW Dark Will Reportedly Move To Studio Tapings, Possible Venue Revealed

AEW Dark will be getting a change in format in the coming weeks.

According to a report from Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, AEW Dark will be shifting to a studio taping format for “most weeks” in the future.

Until this week, AEW Dark was normally taped before Dynamite. This week, however, Dark: Elevation was taped before Dynamite, with Rampage taping after Dynamite in Milwaukee. It was noted that the addition of Rampage and the shift of the schedule will cause Dark to be moved.

The “most weeks” comment is notable, as there will still be some shows that have live episodes of Rampage, including the September 1 taping in Chicago and the October 15 taping in Miami.

Update: The Mat Men Podcast’s Andrew Zarian provided an update to the original story, noting that the possible new home for AEW Dark is a soundstage at Universal Studios in Orlando. This setup would be similar to how IMPACT Wrestling used to do run tapings when they took up residency at the park between 2004 and 2018.

Dave Meltzer has also confirmed the plans for AEW Dark at Universal, noting that the show will be open to the public when they are taping in Orlando.

Tony Khan spoke to PWInsider.com‘s Mike Johnson at a press event for AEW’s “Grand Slam” event at Arthur Ashe Stadium and revealed early plans for the format change in regards to AEW programming after the debut of Rampage. In addition to confirming a combination of live/taped shows, Khan said AEW would “procure a venue” to handle Dark and other content. He did not explicitly say it would be a studio setting at the time, but at the time spoke about how Dark will get more focus by having its own format.

“Before Dynamite, we used to tape Dark. That’s going to change,” Khan said. “I’m going to tape Elevation before Dynamite now. So it’s going to be a shorter Elevation and I may add matches that I’ll explain where I’ll add them from. I’m going to procure a venue for use to tape Dark and other content that’ll be great. And I’m really looking forward to this. I think it’s going to be tremendous and it will be where we’ll shoot Dark and we’ll do tapings. And it’ll be, as it’s been, it’s been a developmental situation and it’ll continue to be developmental. And it’s been great doing it all under one roof, all at one taping. And there’s been advantages, but there’ll be some advantages now to doing it as its own taping and being able to give 100% attention to these and not having also to think about Dynamite and soon Rampage and Elevation also.”

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