On the latest edition of the AEW Unrestricted podcast top superstar and current ROH World champion Chris Jericho spoke about his WrestleKingdom 12 classic against Kenny Omega, and how that one match helped NJPW do big business, sell tickets, and eventually lead to Tony Khan launching AEW. Highlights from the interview are below.
On his match with Kenny Omega at WrestleKingdom 12 doing big business for NJPW World and ticket sales:
“I think it was the fact that there was so much of a buzz, but the cold hard fact of the business that it did, because New Japan World, which is New Japan’s streaming service, I believe subscriptions went up like 300 percent, if not more, when that match was announced,” Jericho said. “I know in the arena, in the [Tokyo] Dome, it sold an extra 15,000 tickets, which out of 50,000 tickets, think about that. That’s 30 percent of the tickets sold just from that match. So, I think a combination of the tickets and the business of the streaming is where Tony really thought, ‘I could do this.'”
How the demo number they did was so good Warner Media gave AEW a huge TV deal:
“The demos that we were getting were so big, that’s when the network decided to sign us, rip up the [ad revenue] share, and sign us to a four-year, $160 million deal.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)