Tony Khan is claiming that this weekend’s episodes of AEW shows are not about competing with WWE. Instead, it’s about producing the best show they can. The AEW president recently made an appearance on Moose & Maggie on WFAN. Among other things, he discussed the upcoming AEW shows.
The first half-hour of Rampage on Friday this week will be competing against SmackDown. WWE has announced that the final half-hour of their show will be running commercial-free, while AEW has confirmed a buy-in featuring Bryan Danielson for their show. The Dynamite episode will be airing on Saturday instead of Wednesday the next couple weeks to avoid a clash with NHL.
Tony Khan discussed these changes during his interview. He claimed that their shows this weekend are not about competing with the opposing promotion:
“We have Friday night Rampage on TNT at 10:00 and we have Saturday night Dynamite on TNT at 8:00. Right now, we have all this momentum. The number one show on all of cable and satellite TV six straight Wednesdays.
It’s bad timing to be moving off Wednesday when you’re on such a great recent run, but this weekend’s huge for us, and the shows have been so good. It’s not about competing with them. It’s about doing our best show.”
Though while Tony Khan is claiming that their shows are not about competing with WWE, he also isn’t leaving any chance to take shots at the promotion. The AEW president claimed on Twitter that he can’t wait to beat SmackDown when the clash was first confirmed. He also recently took a shot at this Monday’s Raw, saying it sucked.
It’s worth mentioning here that both Dynamite and Rampage suffered big rating drop last week. So it would be really interesting to see how the shows perform with all the announced changes this week.
AEW head honcho Tony Khan has hurled quite the shot at WWE.
Khan finds himself in an interesting situation. A scheduling conflict with the MLB playoffs has forced WWE to move SmackDown to FOX Sports 1 on Oct. 15. SmackDown usually airs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on Friday nights, while AEW Rampage begins at 10 p.m. ET.
Things are a little different this week. SmackDown will now be running an extra half-hour and WWE is bringing the big guns. Brock Lesnar has been advertised for the show as well as a match between SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks.
Speaking to Robbie Fox on My Mom’s Basement, Tony Khan said he expects Rampage to be a better show than SmackDown on Oct. 15 since Raw “sucked.”
“On Friday, they’re doing a half-hour head-to-head with Rampage, which is new. I put my show on consciously after SmackDown knowing there is a huge audience of people that watch that show and a lot of people are going to watch Rampage, which has been a hit for TNT. They’re literally going to do a half-hour head-to-head, that’s fine. We’ll see what happens. I’m not saying for sure we’ll win and maybe the odds are against us in some ways, but we’re going to do the better show, I know. If you don’t believe me, watch the go-home show [Raw] they did last night because it sucked.”
AEW has also been building interest with their Rampage show. The promotion has even announced a “Buy In” preshow, which will be free on YouTube beginning at 9 p.m. ET. On the preshow, Bryan Danielson will go one-on-one with Japanese wrestling legend Minoru Suzuki.
As for the Rampage show airing live on TNT, it’ll feature CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal, The Men Of The Year & Junior dos Santos vs. The Inner Circle, and Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny.
AEW will be airing a “Buy In” show on its official YouTube channel beginning at 9PM est before Rampage this Friday night. The show will go head-to-head with Smackdown which will be airing from 8PM est to 10:30PM est this week. AEW is notifying various media outlets about this today.
“We’re going to do what we normally do what we do for a PPV, you know how we do the preshow the Buy In? Rampage is a huge event on Friday night so we’re going to have a Buy-In live on YouTube Friday night live from the Knight Center,” Khan said on WFAN Sports Radio today.
Khan then announced that Bryan Danielson and Bobby Fish will both wrestle on the YouTube show. Daniel Bryan will face Minoru Suzuki and Fish will take on Lee Moriarty. Fish and Danielson will wrestle each other the following night on Saturday Night Dynamite.
If I’m not sweating it, you shouldn’t be either. This is what sports are about, set a goal & try your best. We’ve got a great #AEWRampage card Friday + big Dynamite matches Saturday. I expect to do well, but regardless of next Friday’s stats, it’ll be a great weekend for the fans
Matches announced for this Friday’s live Rampage from Miami include:
CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal
The Bunny vs. Ruby Soho
The Men Of The Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) & Junior dos Santos (w/Dan Lambert & Jorge Masvidal) vs. The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager & Sammy Guevara)
The following night, AEW will be back in Miami for a special Saturday night episode of Dynamite. Here are the matches scheduled for that show:
Malakai Black vs. Dante Martin
AAA World Tag Team Championships The Lucha Brothers (Fenix & Pentagon Jr.) (c) vs. TBD (w/Andrade El Idolo)
Mick Foley has noticed fans wanting to see All Elite Wrestling book the anticipated rematch between Thunder Rosa and AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker.
The WWE Hall of Famer took to Twitter to try to convince the man who can make it happen and that’s AEW President Tony Khan. It all started when Foley had an exchange with Baker after Foley posted a backstage selfie with Rosa while at the GCW Fight Club event over the weekend.
Foley called her the true women’s Hardcore Legend while also apologizing to Baker, who saw the post and responded with “Try again Mick. [face with tears of joy emoji].”
The Hardcore Legend responded by calling for Khan to help settle the argument by simply booking the bout. He wrote, “Last time I checked, Britt, it was @thunderrosa22 who picked up the W. Maybe a rematch is in order. @TonyKhan… want to help settle this argument?”
Khan has not responded to Foley’s tweet. Rosa and Baker last wrestled each other in a bloody unsanctioned main event match on an episode of Dynamite earlier this year.
In August, it was reported the promotion wanted to save the match for next year with it taking place at a pay-per-view or on a special episode of Dynamite.
Per the report, All Elite Wrestling has considered various stipulations ranging from a cage match to a hair match. Whatever stipulation is decided upon, the idea is to build it to be the biggest women’s match in company history.
AEW President Tony Khan believes that wrestling is on the cusp of another golden era. He spoke recently with DAZN and mentioned that “All Out” was AEW’s Bash at the Beach 96 moment, and the future is looking bright.
“I think wrestling fans should strap in for a big ride,” stated Khan. “We’re not there yet but I feel it’s close. Things are happening and I don’t think it’s going to be too long before wrestling fans are going to feel what I felt in the late 1990’s when WWE and WCW went at trying to provide the best entertainment possible.”
There is some debate to be had as to when the true “Golden Age” of professional wrestling was. Some will say the Hulkamania boom of the 1980s that coincided with an exciting period for Jim Crockett Promotions, Ric Flair and the 4 Horsemen. Others will say it was the late 90s when WWF and WCW were competing with each other on Monday nights. Going back even farther, others will say the 1950s when television sets became more common in households and wrestling was featured prominently.
“I feel like we’ve come so far in the brief time we’ve been around but there’s still a lot more to come and that’s what we are trying to work on all of the time,” Khan continued. “We arrived with some short-term goals relating to talent and TV deals, and now we can aim bigger because we still have a lot to achieve.”
Twitter’s the child of the boards/chat rooms that thrived during the 90s wrestling war; part of my business plan is recreating that competitive spirit while avoiding WCW’s errors, which is why I pace/don’t blow thru matches. @AEW has many years’ worth of big matches up my sleeve.
Do you believe Tony Khan is correct? Are we about to enter another Golden Age of professional wrestling? Let us know in the comments section below. AEW Rampage and WWE Smackdown will go head-to-head (for 30 minutes anyway) next Friday night. Khan commented on this in the below Tweets:
If I’m not sweating it, you shouldn’t be either. This is what sports are about, set a goal & try your best. We’ve got a great #AEWRampage card Friday + big Dynamite matches Saturday. I expect to do well, but regardless of next Friday’s stats, it’ll be a great weekend for the fans
Dude, people online were absolutely furious over that in 98. Eric already had crazy online heat before that too. I’ll never take it that far; I’ve never claimed I could physically best Vince, I just think AEW can put on a better wrestling show than them & I want people to know it
A great (and as a wrestling fan myself, exciting) exclusive here from DAZN's @officialwalks speaking to @AEW chief @TonyKhan about the 'golden era' he believes is very, very close to full bloom: https://t.co/tYyXyAxjIi
Tony Khan created a lot of buzz for his promotion when he brought in people like CM Punk, Adam Cole, and Bryan Danielson to AEW in close successions. Many believe that WWE reacted to these big debuts by bringing back Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch at the SummerSlam PPV. Though the AEW president is not sure about it.
Khan was asked if he thinks the SummerSlam returns were a reactive booking from WWE during an interview with Dazn. Replying to it, Tony said that he can’t be sure:
“I can’t say for sure what’s on their minds; Summerslam is a big deal for those guys over there so maybe they had it long in their plans that it would be the place that Brock and Becky returned. We’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing so far and that’s trying to give people, our fans, the best possible wrestling product we can.
WWE has tried to undermine AEW as a competition every chance they have gotten. Discussing whether they actually think AEW is a rival for them, Tony Khan mentioned how he has heard that his shows are watched in the gorilla position in WWE:
“Do they see us as rivals or competition? They say we’re not, but I’ve heard that AEW shows are on monitors in the Gorilla position over there, so I take that as a compliment if they’re watching us whilst trying to run their own show.”
Khan went on to claim that he admires them for doing this. According to him, trying to run a show while watching another one is something else. He said that he puts everything he has into producing AEW shows. There is no way he can watch something else while trying to get on with things.
All Elite Wrestling talent Chris Jericho calls AEW President Tony Khan a genius for running Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Jericho appeared on Reinvented with Jen Eckhart and discussed AEW’s first show in New York City. Eckhart asked him what it was like wrestling at Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 22nd. Jericho shared that he enjoyed the experience and praised Khan for hosting an event in that venue.
“It was unbelievable. There is a little bit of genius on Tony Khan’s part because everyone was talking about the Garden in NYC, Madison Square Garden,” said Jericho. He continued, “What people don’t understand is to play the Garden is very expensive for one. So you don’t really make money when you’re at the Garden. You just do it because it’s MSG.”
Khan Decision to Host AEW at Arthur Ashe Stadium
AEW became the first wrestling company to have an event at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Khan called their NYC debut event AEW Grand Slam, promoting a live AEW Dynamite show and a taped AEW Rampage show for September 24th. However, fans attending the event were able to watch the four-hour event on September 22nd. AEW Grand Slam was so successful that Khan wants to run Arthur Ashe annually.
In the interview, Jericho explained what made the stadium unique and thought it was better than MSG. “…The moment I went in there, I was like, oh my gosh. This place is amazing. It’s better than the Garden,” said Jericho. He continued, “…The seats go straight up in the air, so all the noise comes right down into the ring. People are just kind of just over top of you, and it was just really cool to see this place. I was going this atmosphere is off the charts crazy. We don’t need to go to the Garden now because we’ve created a new place for us.”
He suggests other wrestling companies may be trying to run an event at Arthur Ashe Stadium. However, Jericho also believes that the stadium will always be the home for AEW in professional wrestling.
AEW will make its return to New York on December 8th. It will be AEW’s first event in Long Island, NY, at the UBS Arena. Both AEW Dynamite and Rampage will be taking place at the venue.
Tony Khan has responded to the recent reports about the behind the scene changes in AEW and adjustment to the creative process within the company. The AEW owner spoke to Mike Johnson of PWinsider and tried to clear the air on the changes that have been made since their inception in 2019.
Khan mentioned that he saw the reports that came out earlier this week and thought that they were pretty disingenuous. He claimed that nothing has changed in recent months. The AEW president explained that the structural changes occurred back in 2019 because he felt like he needed to take more responsibility:
“Yeah, I saw those reports this week and I thought that was pretty disingenuous stuff from some of the internet wrestling writers because nothing has changed in recent months and really, the structure changed for me at the end of 2019 and it was because of me, I felt like I needed to take over and be more accountable as the CEO and Booker.
“I think the biggest difference has been instead of five people getting in a room and putting a format together, I get in a room and put a format together.”
TK discussed how it was part of his 2020 revolution to take on a more organized approach and create more of the product himself. He said that his goal was to lay out the stories and matches and then format everything in a nice package himself. He has been doing that for almost a year and a half.
Fans of AEW are in for a treat on the Oct. 6 episode of Dynamite.
Tonight’s Dynamite show will emanate from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA. AEW is celebrating the two-year anniversary of Dynamite. The show first aired on TNT on Oct. 2, 2019.
During an interview with PWInsider, Khan promised a “huge announcement” on the show.
“So, there’s a lot of great wrestling and I’m going to have some fun announcements, and it’s going to be a really special show. And I can tell you right now, I have one huge announcement on the show. It is going to be a lot of fun, and it should be just a really, really good night of wrestling for Wednesday Night Dynamite, two-year anniversary show.”
Khan doubled down on his announcement claim with the following tweet.
Thank you to you amazing fans who’ve made the #AEWDynamite 2 year anniversary show possible! We’re Live on TNT at 8pm ET/7pm CT TONIGHT with a great card packed with great wrestlers and great wrestling matches, + I have a huge announcement that’s been a long time coming TONIGHT! pic.twitter.com/leknxr5LZi
“Thank you to you amazing fans who’ve made the AEW Dynamite 2 year anniversary show possible! We’re Live on TNT at 8pm ET/7pm CT TONIGHT with a great card packed with great wrestlers and great wrestling matches, + I have a huge announcement that’s been a long time coming TONIGHT!”
Tonight’s show will get started with an eight-man tag team match. It’ll be Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Adam Cole vs. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage, and Jurassic Express.
Also set for the show will be a Casino Ladder Match. Announced for the match are Jon Moxley, Andrade El Idolo, Pac, Lance Archer, Orange Cassidy, Matt Hardy, and the surprise Joker entrant. Plus, Sammy Guevara puts his TNT Championship on the line against Bobby Fish. Hikaru Shida goes for her 50th win in AEW when she takes on Serena Deeb.
SEScoops will update you with results once the show has wrapped up. We’ll also let you know of any major announcements.
AEW may be going international in 2022 starting with the UK.
The COVID-19 pandemic ruined plans for all businesses. AEW was no exception. The company had plans to make its way to the UK sometime in 2020. With the global lockdown in place, that just wasn’t possible. Things are looking up, however, as travel restrictions have been easing up.
AEW head honcho Tony Khan appeared on Busted Open Radio and expressed his desire to run shows in the UK next year.
“I do really want to do an international tour next year in 2022. I’m not sure if we’ll hit a lot of different cities or if we’ll focus the international trip primarily on Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham Football Club. You know [the stadium] is very, very near and dear to my heart. With our relationship or ownership of the Fulham Football Club and our relationship with the fans and having such a great venue to do a show in such a historic venue, and I would really want to put my focus on that if we do go overseas and I don’t know when we’ll do it, but it’s something I’d really like to do.”
Of course, there are other countries that AEW would like to explore. The main priority in terms of international endeavors seems to be the UK given that initial plans were foiled thanks to unforeseen circumstances.
We’ll keep you posted on any progress being made towards AEW making its way to the UK once those updates become available.
AEW appears to have another surprise in store next week when it presents the Casino Ladder match on the special 2-year Anniversary episode of Dynamite.
Company President Tony Khan appeared on Busted Open Radio Friday morning to promote tonight’s edition of Rampage. TK revealed the Casino Ladder Match will feature a “Joker” mystery entrant similar to what we’ve seen in the Casino Battle Royale matches.
Khan will announce the Casino Ladder Match participants on Rampage. Also scheduled for the show:
Next week’s show will take place from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to the Casino Ladder Match, 3 other matches have been signed:
Serena Deeb will face Hikaru Shida in singles action. This will be Deeb’s first match since July.
Sammy Guevara will also defend his newly won TNT Championship next week. He’ll face Bobby Fish, who will be wrestling in his first match for AEW.
An 8-man tag-team match is also scheduled for next week pitting Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage & The Jurassic Express against The Elite (Kenny Omega Adam Cole & The Young Bucks)
AEW has seen a shift in duties behind the scenes. According to a report Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, the company’s Executive Vice Presidents have been less involved in the creative aspect of operations.
Sources within the Jacksonville-based promotion indicated that AEW President Tony Khan has taken an even greater role in crafting storylines and angles. While talents are encouraged to pitch ideas and give suggestions, it ultimately comes down to Khan, and “creative is absolutely Tony Khan’s prerogative now.”
It’s unclear when this transition happened but the report notes that at one point, Cody Rhodes was the only EVP who regularly attended office meetings. Though now his office role, as well as his creative input, has ‘greatly diminished.’
Matt Jackson’s EVP role has been assisting his wife Dana with merchandise while Nick Jackson is focused on handling Being The Elite. Kenny Omega is focusing on the gaming side of things. He is very hands-on with the upcoming AEW Game. Although Kenny still helps put together the women’s matches.
After these changes, members of The Elite do not have the final say in the creative or hiring talents anymore and they are basically ‘EVPs in name only’ now.
Cody’s relationship with other EVPs appears to have been affected as well. Per sources, “Cody doesn’t really have much of a relationship with any of the EVPs, anymore. The others are still great friends, but Cody is very much on the outside looking in.”
Tony Khan has announced that this week’s episode of Dynamite from Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY will be dedicated to the memory of Brodie Lee. The AEW president made the announcement on Twitter. He noted how Rochester is the hometown of the late star and claimed that they will have a great show dedicated to the former TNT champion’s memory:
“It’s Wednesday. You know what that means. Tonight #AEWDynamite is Live from Rochester, home of Mr. Brodie Lee.” wrote Khan, “Tonight we’ll have a great show dedicated to his memory with a special card including a huge TNT Championship match, a title forever synonymous with his indelible legacy.”
It’s Wednesday. You know what that means. Tonight #AEWDynamite is Live from Rochester, home of Mr. Brodie Lee. Tonight we’ll have a great show dedicated to his memory with a special card including a huge TNT Championship match, a title forever synonymous with his indelible legacy pic.twitter.com/6Wb86Zn51C
Brodie Lee, real name Jonathan Huber passed away on December 26, 2020, after battling with lung issues for a while. His death shocked the entire wrestling world. Tony Khan and AEW had dedicated an episode of Dynamite to the late star’s memory back then as well. The Brodie Lee Celebration of Life Dynamite aired on December 30, 2020.
The lineup for this week’s episode of the show includes Miro vs. Sammy Guevara TNT championship match, Cody Rhodes & Lee Johnson vs. Matt Sydal & Dante Martin, Adam Cole vs. Jungle Boy, and Penelope Ford & The Bunny vs. Anna Jay & Tay Conti.
Tony Khan made his weekly appearance on Busted Open Radio where he talked about a number of things. He also opened up about AEW’s partnership with the Owen Hart Foundation. The AEW president first said that the upcoming tournament is going to be a tremendous event and he called their partnership with Martha Hart and the Owens Hart Foundation great.
Khan also explained how this partnership came together. He first praised Martha saying that she is a very principled and intelligent woman and revealed that they had been talking about it on regular basis for over a year:
“She thought long and hard about this, and we talked for a long time about this. I talked to Martha about this for over a year on a regular basis. She put a lot of thought into it. We put a lot of thought into it and that’s how this came together. She’s a really good person and I think she wanted to make sure we’re good people too.
Tony Khan Teases Big Plans For Upcoming Tournament
Talking about the upcoming tournament, the AEW owner said that it will be a great opportunity to celebrate Owen Hart’s life. Tony Khan then teased some ‘big booking plans’ he has up his sleeve that he is really excited for people to see:
“I’ve got a few match announcements and a few big booking plans up my sleeve that I’m excited for people to find out about. And that’s all coming in due time. The Owen Hart announcement is really big for us. When we get through this huge night for us, I think next week, we’ll have a lot of cool stuff when the dust has settled.”
AEW announced earlier this week that they were partnering with the Owen Hart Foundation. In addition to promoting Hart’s legacy, AEW confirmed that they will hold an annual tournament to honor the legends’ memory.
Tony Khan has not forgotten WWE’s comments about their rivalry being a marathon and not a sprint. He is using it to tout the latest success of Dynamite. After pulling off another impressive rating success with this week’s episode of their flagship show, the AEW president took on his Twitter to thank the fans.
Khan interestingly also referenced WWE’s statement on the premiere of Dynamite. He reminded everyone how they are already catching up to WWE despite the fact that their competitor had a 40 year head start:
“2 years ago, our competitors said this is a marathon, not a sprint. They were right. They’ve also had a head start of >40 years & in <2 years we’ve made up more ground from scratch than anyone in wrestling history.” wrote Tony Khan, “Let’s FN GO TONIGHT. Let’s make #AEWRampage #1 on cable TONIGHT!”
<2 years ago, our competitors said this is a marathon, not a sprint. They were right. They’ve also had a head start of >40 years & in <2 years we’ve made up more ground from scratch than anyone in wrestling history. Let’s FN GO TONIGHT. Let’s make #AEWRampage #1 on cable TONIGHT! https://t.co/JRzlBkiZce
AEW Dynamite managed to beat Raw in the much talked 18-49 demo in the past two weeks. It narrowly missed on extending this streak to the third week with this Wednesday’s Grand Slam special of the show.
The show still saw a significant increase in viewership. It created another record with the third-highest viewership number since Dynamite premiered. As Tony mentioned, it also ranked #1 on cable on Wednesday for the fifth week in a row.
The Acclaimed’s Max Caster took to social media recently to challenge Tony Khan to a rap battle in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Last night, Khan came out to answer the Acclaimed’s challenge but also brought in a little help.
Between Dynamite and the taping of Rampage, the Acclaimed came out and again challenged Tony Khan to a battle rap. Khan came out and answered the call.
“I’ve written a lot of wrestling shows but never in my life have I written a rap song,” Khan can be heard saying to the Acclaimed in the video below. “I’m not going to start today so I brought somebody in to help me. Ladies and Gentlemen Lil Uzi Vert!”
Tony Khan brought out Lil Uzi Vert to help him in a rap battle, AEW is crazy. ?https://t.co/xbU9z9dYav
Caster was off of AEW television for most of August following backlash to lyrics of one of his raps that aired on Dark. The episode was pulled, re-edited, and then re-posted. Khan spoke about the incident later on an episode of Busted Open Radio.
“Last night on Dark, Max Caster’s rap was terrible. I was not out there in the moment when he did it, it was not during Dynamite,” Khan said. “I had not heard it until last night, truthfully. In the editing process, it should have been caught. We deleted the episode and re-posted it with that edited out but it shouldn’t have aired.”
“This would never have happened (on Dynamite) because Max’s raps, I have always gone over them with him,” he continued. “I don’t script or write wrestler’s promos, but the bullet points I give. In this case, it shouldn’t have happened and what will happen going forward is I will take over the editing of Dark and Elevation myself.”
According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Caster was sent to sensitivity training as a result.
“After what happened last week and the fallout, Max Caster has been sent to sensitivity training,” wrote Dave Meltzer.
AEW presented another eventful episode of Dynamite tonight with their Grand Slam special which gave people plenty to talk about. Though the show wasn’t over when the cameras stopped rolling.
After the show went off air, The Acclaimed came out on the stage. The duo called out AEW president Tony Khan for a rap battle in front of the live audience.
Khan came out after Dynamite and said that while he has written a lot of wrestling shows, he has never written a rap song and he is not going to start doing that today.
However, the AEW owner then brought out rapper Lil Uzi Vert, who was in attendance for the show for some assistance. Khan went on to deliver a couple of short verses for The Acclaimed.
Tony Khan brought out Lil Uzi Vert to help him in a rap battle, AEW is crazy. ?https://t.co/xbU9z9dYav
At one point Tony joked about the reports of Max Caster’s suspension saying that he was suspending them for ‘another 30 days’.
Though he later came out again and clarified for ‘all the clickbait sites’ out there that he wasn’t actually suspending the duo.
The AEW president eventually brought out the Varsity Blonds. Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr had a short brawl with The Acclaimed to culminate the segment.
Tony Khan has addressed the question of whether or not he thinks AEW has captured WWE’s attention.
AEW was founded in 2019. The company’s first airing of Dynamite was held on TNT back in October of that year. That episode brought in 1.409 million viewers.
Since that time, AEW has been riding a wave of momentum, signing a new deal with TNT and adding the Rampage show. While WWE isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, many believe the promotion has at the very least been keeping tabs on AEW. Tony Khan agreed with that notion when speaking to AP.
“I’m a big wrestling fan and I would say, objectively, AEW is the hottest wrestling company right now. So many people who watch wrestling know that AEW’s gaining ground, AEW is hitting all-time highs. It’s helping us build new fans, it’s helping people want to take the leap and check the shows out. I’m sure other wrestling companies are paying attention to that. We have great relationships with a lot of wrestling companies that know what’s going on with AEW. I think if you work in the wrestling business, you’re following what we’re doing and the success we’re having. We’re catching a lot of eyeballs outside of the world of wrestling and mainstream attention, so you better believe in the world of wrestling people are paying very close attention to it.”
AEW is set for its biggest show to date. The promotion will be hosting Grand Slam editions of Dynamite and Rampage. The action will be held inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. Dynamite airs live on Sept. 22 and Rampage airs on Sept. 24 via tape delay.
On Dynamite, Bryan Danielson will make his in-ring debut for AEW against Kenny Omega. Omega’s AEW World Championship will not be on the line. The AEW Women’s World Title will be at stake as champion Britt Baker takes on Ruby Soho.
The Rampage episode will see CM Punk take on Powerhouse Hobbs. There will also be a Lights Out tag team match between Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer.
AEW has found great success under the leadership of its President Tony Khan who just two years ago took the leap of starting his own wrestling promotion.
In their first year, they reached a television deal with WarnerMedia that would see them air a weekly two-hour flagship series every Wednesday night in primetime on TNT. In January 2020, they reached an extension through 2023 with a fourth-year option for 2024 that would give AEW a significant pay increase.
It was reported around this time by Dave Meltzer that the new deal was worth $175 million, just under $45 million per year.
Khan talked about AEW’s finances in a new interview with the Associated Press. It was noted that Khan stated to them, “AEW has already turned a profit.”
“Our TNT deal is very fair. I think we’ve performed at such a high level that we’ll justify a big increase on our next deal,” he said. “We are very fortunate to have their support. The timing of that deal was great, to get that in January 2020, that is a huge revenue stream for us.”
It was announced earlier this year that Dynamite will move to TBS in January 2022. Part of AEW’s deal was to introduce a new one-hour show, AEW Rampage, that premiered in August. Also in 2022, AEW will air four “supercard” specials on TNT.
Tony Khan is hoping to make AEW Grand Slam an annual event.
This Wednesday night (Sept. 22), AEW will be making its big debut in New York City. Arthur Ashe Stadium is the venue for the show. Dynamite will be airing live, while Rampage is going to be taped.
Khan has been making regular appearances on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio. During his most recent session, Khan discussed the future of AEW’s Grand Slam events.
“I’m really hoping it’s something we can do in New York with Arthur Ashe Stadium every year.”
Khan also said the significance of holding an AEW event inside a stadium that is known for hosting the US Open isn’t lost on him. AEW will also be a part of history as Grand Slam will be the first wrestling show held inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Here’s a look at the final card for AEW Grand Slam.
AEW Dynamite (Live On Sept. 22)
Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson (Non-Title Match)
Britt Baker (c) vs. Ruby Soho (AEW Women’s World Championship)
Malakai Black vs. Cody Rhodes
Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer
Sting and Darby Allin vs. FTR
MJF vs. Brian Pillman Jr.
AEW Rampage (Airs On Sept. 24)
Adam Cole & The Young Bucks vs. Christian Cage & Jurassic Express
Powerhouse Hobbs vs. CM Punk
Lights Out Match: Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer
Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page
Lucha Bros & Proud N Powerful vs. Private Party & The Butcher and The Blade
AEW Dynamite beating WWE Raw ratings in the 18-49 demographic has been the major story of the wrestling world for the past couple of weeks and Tony Khan is very happy about it. The AEW president recently had an interview with Bloomberg Business of Sports. Among other things, he talked about the AEW TV audience in detail.
Khan mentioned how they have the ‘youngest skewing audience’ of all sports programming. He then discussed how both Dynamite and Rampage are doing great in the 18-49 demo on their respective nights:
“Well, it’s the youngest skewing audience of all sports programming on all of television, there have been more weeks than not in the past several months where we’ve beaten every major sporting event in terms of having the youngest skewing audience. Our Wednesday night show and our Friday night show have both been rated as the number one show on cable in the 18-49 demographic.”
‘More Affluent Fanbase’
Tony Khan added that their audience is consistent and you can count on AEW fans to watch the show every Wednesday. He didn’t forget to mention how the AEW audience is more likely to be a college-educated audience and it’s attractive for advertisers.
“We have a more affluent fanbase than other wrestling organizations, but really, people from all kinds of backgrounds. They are more likely to be a college educated audience. They’re a very attractive audience to an advertising base — particularly, with the age demographic that they add.”
Tony continued his explanation saying that having such a young and engaged audience is really important for them. He also revealed that the male-to-female split of the AEW audience is currently about five to three. Apart from this, the AEW official opened up about the vaccination policy of the promotion. You can check out his comments on the matter at this link.
Tony Khan recently had an interview with Bloomberg Business of Sports. Among other things, he also discussed the vaccine policy of All Elite Wrestling. The AEW president revealed that vaccines are not mandatory in his company as of now. Though he claimed that there are protocols in place to encourage vaccination:
“Most of the roster has gotten [vaccinated] and we have encouraged people to do so, I haven’t put in mandatory,” said Tony Khan, “but I’ve also strongly encouraged and put in protocols to encourage everyone to do so.
He was also asked if they have done anything to motivate the wrestlers to get vaccinated. Replying to it, he said that they have created a great backstage environment where people want to spend time together.
Khan explained that not being part of rigorous levels of testing and having the ability to live your life like before makes it encouraging for people to get vaccinated.
AEW saw its fair share of covid outbreaks in the past year or so. However, things have been in control ever since their return to the road in July. This is a good news for the fans as the company prepares for their biggest show in terms of live attendance in Dynamite: Grand Slam this Wednesday.
Tony Khan has touted the immediate success of CM Punk in AEW.
Punk had been away from the wrestling industry for seven years. While it appeared as though Punk once lost his passion for the business, AEW shot some new life into his love for wrestling. The self-proclaimed “Best in the World” made his AEW debut on Aug. 20 and had his first match since 2014 at the All Out PPV, defeating Darby Allin.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio, Khan said Punk’s merchandise sales have set records for AEW.
“What he’s done for our attendance, record TV ratings, record PPV buys. We set a live attendance mark in Chicago. We’ve set all new kinds of merchandising records. We sold over 100,000 CM Punk shirts. We’ve sold thousands and thousands of ice cream bars since he started giving those away. You know, he’s absolutely changed our business. And that was the expectation when he came in. I spent years literally talking to CM Punk, talking to him about AEW, what it could be and how much it would mean to us if he could come back to the ring in AEW. He’s doing it.”
Punk is currently involved in a feud with Team Taz. He’ll go one-on-one with Powerhouse Hobbs on the AEW Grand Slam edition of Rampage. The action will be held inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. It’ll air on Sept. 24. Punk will also appear on the Sept. 22 Dynamite to talk about his match with Hobbs.
Ruby Soho was one of the surprise debutants for AEW that showed up at All Out and helped the PPV cross 200,000 buys. Tony Khan has nothing but praise for the former WWE star for her performance on the show. During his recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, the AEW president talked about things such as the TV ratings of the post All Out episode of Dynamite and more.
Discussing the debut of Ruby Soho during the Casino Battle Royal on the PPV this past Sunday, Khan revealed that he was the agent for that match. He also explained how Soho came prepared for the bout:
“I just have to say what an organized, intelligent, competent and professional Ruby Soho is. She was really well prepared and she had notes on everyone in the match. She knew what she was doing. I thought ‘wow this is a really hard working person’,
And also just a really good person who really has a lot of integrity and a lot of pride in what they do but she interacted really well with everyone. She interacted really well with everyone. It was her first day at AEW and she really really is a great fit. Her Dynamite debut was tremendous”
Ruby Riott was released from her WWE contract back in June this year. She decided to keep the name for her post-WWE career but had to change her last name due to WWE’s copyright. She made her debut for Tony Khan’s promotion during the All Out PPV earlier this month. Soho entered the Casino Battle Royal as the surprise Joker entrant and won the match.
Tony Khan was on Busted Open Radio this morning and touted the success of his company’s All Out PPV. The total number of buys is not yet available for, Khan said the show did “well over 200,000 buys” – making it the most purchased AEW PPV of all time by a longshot.
Below is a list of AEW PPV buys, estimated and compiled by Wrestlenomics:
All Out 2018 (ROH/Elite): 45,000.
Double or Nothing 2019: 98,000.
All Out 2019: 88,000.
Full Gear 2019: 80,000.
Revolution 2020: 90,000.
Double or Nothing 2020: 105,000.
All Out 2020: 90,000.
Full Gear 2020: 85,000.
Revolution 2021: 135,000.
Double or Nothing 2021: 115,000
AEW All Out 2021: 200,000+
This is the first time a non-WWE PPV had over 200,000 buys since WCW Mayhem in 1999 (estimated at 200K). WCW PPVs fell off after that. The company’s final 8 PPVs all brought in less than 90K buys following the Bash at the Beach PPV in 2000.
TNA PPVs never managed to get higher than an estimated 60K buys.
AEW All Out did over 200,000 buys, actual number not available yet – straight from Tony Khan on Busted Open Radio.
The biggest non-WWE Pay-Per-View buyrate since WCW Mayhem 1999 which did 200k buys. Way too successful for a T-Shirt company, I guess.
WWE PPVs in the years before the Network also struggled to get above 200K. Typically, WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam would all bring in monster PPV numbers while most other PPVs would bring in less than 200K buys.
The Money in the Bank 2011 PPV from Chicago which featured John Cena vs CM Punk brought in an estimated 146,000 buys. The last WWE PPV to bring in more than 200K buys was WrestleMania 30 (420,000 buys) which featured Daniel Bryan winning the WWE Championship in the main event.
Speaking with Busted Open Radio today, Tony Khan confirmed that All Out did over 200k buys.
To put that in perspective, the last non-WWE wrestling entity to do 200k buys was WCW Mayhem in 1999.
