“Going Broadway” is an old term in wrestling. It refers to a match going over it’s allotted time limit and ending in a draw. Usually referring to a match ending a draw so that the champion can keep the belt while still making the challenger look good.
The term is most commonly used in reference to Ric Flair. As the travelling NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, he would routinely travel from time to time, last 60 minutes and just escape with his title.
AEW has utilised these draws in the past to great effect. Cody Rhodes drew with Darby Allin in the latter’s AEW debut in a match that absolutely made him. However, the 60 minute draw has been a very rare occurrence, has has any match lasting for 60 minutes altogether.
So far, only two AEW matches have lasted 60 minutes or more. You can expect that to increase over the years as the company grows and the likes of Bryan Danielson, Adam Page and Kenny Omega continue to put on excellent matches on a weekly basis.
In this article, we’ll look at every 60 minute match in AEW history. We will also keep adding to the list as more hour long AEW matches occur, so keep checking out this page to learn more!
AEW 60 Minute Matches
Adam Page vs Bryan Danielson – AEW Winter is Coming 2021
The first 60 minute match in AEW history was the AEW Championship match at Winter is Coming 2021. The bout saw Bryan Danielson facing Adam Page for the first time, only months after singing for AEW.
He won the AEW Eliminator Tournament at Full Gear 2021, the same show in which Hangman defeated Kenny Omega for the AEW Championship. With victory of Miro, Danielson booked his ticket for Winter is Coming to challenge for the title in what would become a legendary match in AEW.
The bout opened the episode of AEW Dynamite, which was curious for a title match on Dynamite. However, it became all too clear when the match started fast and simply continued. And continued. And continued.
The pace did not let up. Page looked spent half way through while Danielson was doing star jumps and skinning the cat three quarters of an hour in. It was an incredible display of cardio and an even more impressive example of heart from the AEW Champion.
The match ended with Page looking dead on his feet. However, with seconds to go he hit the Buckshot Lariat, but couldn’t pin The American Dragon before the clock hit 60 minutes and the match ended. Page retained the AEW Championship in the companies first hour-long match.
MJF Vs Bryan Danielson – AEW Revolution 2023
Bryan Danielson earned his shot at facing MJF well before facing the AEW Champion’s classic shenanigans. He rose up the ranks by beating everyone who set foot in front of him and wanted his shot at winning the AEW Championship.
MJF famously hates defending his title or wrestling in general, so elected to offer Bryan a solution. He would put him through a gauntlet of wrestlers of his choosing and if The American Dragon won all those bouts, he got the match for the title.
However, Bryan Danielson is smart. He said that he would just keep winning and Tony Khan would have to put him in the title match. This enraged MJF as he had lost control, something he craves after years of anti-semitic bullying suffered in his childhood. He cracked and offered Danielson the chance to pick the match stipulation if he did what he asked of him.
Danielson accepted and revealed that when he beat all of MJF’s hand-picked goons, the match at Revolution was going to be a 60 minute Iron Man Match – the first of it’s kind in AEW.
One by one, he defeated Takeshita, Brian Cage, Timothy Thatcher and Rush to make the AEW Revolution 2023 main event a 60 minute Iron Man match for the AEW Championship – Bryan Danielson vs MJF.
In a match that went 67 minutes and is the highest rated AEW match on Cagematch, MJF defeated Bryan Danielson 4-3 to retain his AEW Championship. In doing so, this became the longest match in AEW history.