AEW President Tony Khan recently joined Sports Media with Richard Deitsch to discuss the promotion’s upcoming Double or Nothing pay-per-view in Las Vegas, which will be headlined by CM Punk battling Adam “Hangman” Page for the AEW world title.
During the interview Khan speaks on AEW’s increasing pay-per-view buy-rates over the last year, and credits Punk, as well as Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, for helping elevate their business. Highlights can be found below.
Credits CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole for elevating AEW’s PPV buy-rate since signing:
“We did our second-biggest buyrate we’ve ever done. All of our pay-per-view shows for those in sports media who don’t know, have gone up year over year. I mentioned the Grand Slam earlier. We’ve got four big events, all of them year over year have done a better number than they did the year before…So this Revolution of our dozen events, this is the second biggest event we’ve ever had, it was by far the biggest Revolution we’ve ever had. And since CM Punk came in, we’ve seen a big jump in our pay-per-view business. CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and some others. And it’s helped a lot the agency like you mentioned, and then having them mixed with the great stars of AEW.”
How great Punk has been in AEW, and how he really looks forward to the Double or Nothing main event:
“We’re back in Las Vegas this week for the first time since we launched. And it is awesome to be back. And I think it’s going to be a really special night on TBS, and leading into our biggest event ever this weekend. We’ve got Hangman Page, the World Champion who’s been on such a great run, he won the championship at our big pay-per-view at the end of last year, beating Kenny Omega and he’s been on this insane run….From when he won the title from Kenny Omega and what I think is the greatest long-term story in terms of over the course of many years and, and even tag team partners who won the championship and then had the split. They’ve had many matches. I think there’s a lot of great stories in the company including MJF and CM Punk, and Hangman and Kenny Omega, I think those would probably be our top two or near the top. Hangman winning the title from Kenny Omega was certainly a big deal. And since then, he’s had some of the best matches in the history of the company, wrestling on TBS, and our debut show debuting with him wrestling Bryan Danielson. They’ve had a 60-minute draw and Hangman came back to beat him. He’s won a pair of matches with Adam Cole. He’s face to the company. And now he’s taken on a wrestler who really added new life to AEW, both backstage and certainly on TV. And as a business (Punk) created just so many new business opportunities and taking us to new heights in terms of our live events and our pay-per-view revenues and just as a business on TV, CM Punk. CM Punk versus Hangman Page, I just think it’s a great match. And with Hangman being a great champion, and CM Punk being a great number one contender, I think it’s gonna make for a great pay per view.”
(H/T and transcribed by WrestlingNews.Co)