Another AEW pay-per-view, another bad experience with Bleacher Report

I did eventually get to watch last night’s AEW-New Japan “Forbidden Door” pay-per-view, but it was no thanks to Bleacher Report.

My buddy Brian had excitedly organized a watch party at his house when word first hit that the two companies were planning the supershow. The one potential stumbling block: that he long ago cut the cord on cable, meaning we’d have to watch via Bleacher Report.

I’ve not had a good run with Bleacher Report for the live AEW streams, including last month’s presentation of “Double or Nothing,” for which I paid for the show through BR, then couldn’t access because of errors on BR’s side that didn’t resolve ahead of the scheduled 8 p.m. ET show start.

I ended up watching that show through Comcast PPV, asking Bleacher Report for a refund, which the company denied, reporting back to me that there had been no issues with access to the show, which was news to me.

Brian tried to get ahead of the game, ordering the show on Friday, but when it came time for the show on Sunday night, we weren’t able to access it.

Brian was miraculously able to get a live person on support when he called, but the woman on the other end of the line was not the best at English, and communication was difficult.

He called in around 6:50 p.m. I ended up watching the pre-show on my mobile phone, via YouTube, before deciding to leave around 7:50 p.m. to race home to order and watch the show on Comcast PPV.

I only missed the opening match. Brian texted me around 9:15 p.m. to inform me that he’d finally gotten access to the show.

By that point, though, after two and a half hours of scratching and clawing his way to access through the phone, he gave up and went to bed.

From several peeks at social media last night and today, Brian’s experience was not unique.

I tweeted a few times at AEW owner Tony Khan and the company’s main account, with no response.

It can’t be good for business when people want to give you money, and the systems you have in place can’t take their money.

I just hope, as an AEW fan, that the folks there can get this worked out, because I want to see the company succeed.