AEW President Tony Khan recently spoke to DAZN about a variety of different topics, including how he always knew launching this promotion would work and how the previous ALL OUT pay per view ending felt huge for the industry. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says his father thought AEW was a bad idea but he knew he had the drive to succeed:
“I fully believed that AEW was going to work so no on would’ve persuaded me otherwise. There’s another interview that I did and it’s clear that my father thought it was a bad idea, but I always knew I had the drive, desire and knowledge to make it work. I back myself in a big way in these situations and I like to think that I’ve built up the business acumen to make AEW the best wrestling company in the world. When you have that fire inside you to make something work then why would you listen to anyone else?”
How he wanted the ending of ALL OUT to feel huge:
“Do you remember Bash at the Beach 96? That’s what I wanted at All Out, but I also wanted to go one step further. You’ve already this great show with great action and then Adam Cole comes out and you think he’s there to take on The Elite. Instead, he joins the group the way Hogan turned heel. Is that the close to the show? No but it would’ve been a good ending regardless. [Then] here comes Bryan Danielson. One of the best wrestlers there’s ever been and he’s here in AEW. Cole and Danielson in one segment. That was pretty cool.”
Whether WWE booked shows out of reaction to AEW:
“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. That’s what drives us. We can’t base our product on what WWE are doing. How can that ever work? 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. I also admire them for that because trying to run a show whilst watching another show is something else. I put everything into producing our shows so there’s no way I’d be watching something else whilst trying to get on with things.”