“What I wanted to do. I wanted those guys to have the same match, but at the end, instead of leaving my laying there like that, just keep me on the outside the whole time. At the end, as Sting is standing there and those guys are gone, I jump on Sting, boom, boom, boom, he does one big move to me, puts the scorpion (death lock) on me, and we go out the way we started 31 years ago. It would have blown the roof off the joint and it would have made me a heel so I had somewhere to go. It’s hard to get the people to get mad at me now.
“I haven’t heard back from them since. ‘Ric that’s a great idea. We’ll call you later on.'”
Would have been better than “Oh, hold on. I’m being told we’re going off the air.”
Seriously. What was that???
In addition to the various streaming platforms, AEW pay per views are still aired via “traditional cable and satellite providers”. These still have timeslots just like regular TV channels. So they had to end the show then and there, or risk getting cut off. It’s live TV and their timeslot was coming to an end, Sting was informed of this, and he repeated it. Yes, it was awkward, but could have been worse.
TL:DR
Timeslots exist and “we’re live, pal”.