All Elite Wrestling President and CEO Tony Khan appears on Talk Is Jericho this week, and reveals why the time is right to launch his wrestling company.
“There a number of factors, including economic factors,” Khan says. “I think for advertisers now, wrestling has become attractive. Advertisers can see there’s a huge base of wrestling fans all over the world that are really passionate.”
Khan goes on to say that the notion of wrestling fans being second class citizens in the advertising world has been dispelled.
“They’re good people, they’re educated people, and it’s a really diverse group,” says Khan.
Another factor in the timing of the AEW launch was the unique opportunity to have a group of talented performers all be free of contractual obligations at once.
“There’s a lot of really passionate fans around this group of wrestlers,” Khan says. “Jericho, The Elite, and a number of the competitors that we have coming into this.”
“You’ve got all these great talents with their contracts coming up, and we’re in a market where there’s TV money to be had to try to make a deal with a major network for a wrestling TV show. I think it’s the right climate for a number of reasons.”
“We’ve got a male and female roster with great engagement among the fans,” says Khan.
“To me, that makes it the right time to strike.”
You can hear much more from Khan on the full episode of Talk Is Jericho below.
When referencing this transcript, please credit SEScoops.com. This transcript has been edited for clarity.Â
