In an interview with F4WOnline.com, AEW President Tony Khan talked about the struggles of running the company during the Covid-19 pandemic:
“There was a period in April where we weren’t running. We ran on April 1st where we did a live Dynamite and then on April 2nd we taped all the shows for the month of April and went over a month without getting together and taping. It was hard and keeping people who weren’t there involved in storylines and trying to be creative, I mean it was crazy.
I am so proud, as a booker, of the May 6th episode because when you look at the amount of stuff to come out of the May 6th Dynamite, it did a really good number, it was a huge bound-back show. I’m still just as proud of those April shows too because we were operating with literally like 29% of our roster and so many of our biggest stars weren’t available for good reason with the shutdown affecting different states different ways, and it was completely voluntary to come in but those shows in April really kept us going and really kept our stories in position.
We came out of those shows with one match set for Double or Nothing with Cody and Lance Archer. And then its like ‘okay you have one match set, you only have three Dynamites to get the whole Double or Nothing card set up’. And that pay per view has been one of my favourite pay per views. I still think it’s the best one anybody’s done in the pandemic by far but I’m biased about it. I just love that show and I think we have the chance to do something even more special with more fans in attendance thankfully and thanks to things being opened up a little bit.”
Khan also discussed the struggles of having a growing roster:
“Outside of [the pandemic], I think that the thing I didn’t expect to happen so quickly was accumulating so many talented people as quickly as we did because we started with a great roster but one thing I said heading into the Casino Battle Royale at All Out was that over fifteen months or so that you would see how much more depth the company had. To be able to do the battle royale on the card and still put on a strong pay per view card and there would be so many more strong full-time AEW performers across the battle royale and we had big people that we weren’t even able to get into that.
So, utilizing everybody has been a challenge, and finding ways to develop everyone is a challenge because we have so many great people but for a good reason because A: we’re adding another hour of television and looking to expand other platforms too and expand our roster. Dark has effectively become our developmental program in a lot of ways, you know, for the people who are ready to be on Dark.”
(quotes courtesy of WrestleTalk.com)
