AEW SVP & Chief Legal Officer Megha Parekh recently appeared on A2theK Wrestling Show for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Parekh talked about graduating from Harvard Law School and ending up Vice President and General Counsel for the Jacksonville Jaguars at 27 years old:
“I graduated law school during the recession. It was very challenging in terms of the job market for legal professionals in general. Luckily the place where I worked, they did start me on time, so when I started, I went to work in the transactional department and all financing activity pretty much stopped. But one of the very first deals that I did work on when the markets came back was the acquisition of the Jaguars for our current owner. I’ve been working with the Khan family in Jacksonville for the last 10 years. I did a little bit of everything. When I was at the law firm, I was there for about three and a half years, in addition to sports transactions, which at the time was challenging because that’s really what I wanted to go work on, but I learned so much during that time in the three half years that I was there. I remember when they offered me the position down here talking to a friend of mine, who’s still actually CFO of the Cleveland Browns and saying, ‘I don’t know that I have the experience to take this on.’ He said to me, ‘I think you could do it, and if they think you could do it, why don’t you think that you can do it? Just ask questions and take the chance.’ I thought I’d come down here for a couple of years and then go back up north and I never stop learning in my job. It’s always interesting.”
Working with Tony Khan:
“One of the things that I really enjoy is that his brain works so much differently than mine, and I like that because I feel like I am also just constantly learning from him in terms of his perspective on things. I want to be around people that I can either learn from or teach something to. He’s got one of the biggest, just kindest, most empathetic hearts in a leader and I think that it really shows that you can be a leader of a successful organization while still having such a huge heart.”
“I thought that the way that he was able to put together the show after Brody Lee, John Huber, not in a million years am I creative enough or thoughtful enough to come up with what he did for that show and that to me was still one of our most impactful shows that we’ve ever done. ”
If she was a wrestling fan growing up:
“I have an older brother who’s three and a half years older than me and I’d follow him around all the time. He watched a lot of wrestling, so of course, I watched wrestling. My birthday is actually right around the time of WrestleMania, so from, gosh, I don’t know, probably like six or seven until I was about 12, every year I would ask my parents to buy that on pay-per-view as my birthday present. The day I stopped watching was the day that Bret Hart turned heel, and I just couldn’t handle it. So I did watch a ton of it when I was a kid, but stopped around the time that I was about 12.”
Khan bringing safety and health protocols from sports into AEW:
“It’s interesting to me because there are times when I think that our talent, just because of some of the treatment they’ve received on the independent circuit, is shocked at the level of care that he otherwise provides, especially when it comes to health and safety. It’s been wonderful to have. AEW was a startup, but it was a startup that had two sister properties in sports. So for instance, when we were coming up with our COVID protocols, we were able to innovate and come up with our own, but we’re also able to look at how the other leagues and teams were doing things and that was incredibly helpful at a time when there was so much uncertainty. Is it different? Of course, but I also think that AEW really benefits from having these other sister properties and Fulham with its rich history and tradition and with the Jags too just so that we can sort of look across the companies. Where it makes sense to have differences, we’ll have those differences, but where it makes sense to be consistent, we’ll do that too.”
Why talent chooses to come to AEW:
“I would say that some of the feedback that we’ve heard is that they really do appreciate the environment. We work hard. People are on the road and that can be exhausting. When everyone has a moment to take a breath, there are so many good people there, and that’s what makes you want to give your discretionary effort. If you actually like your coworkers or you like the other people in the locker room, it makes a more fun environment.”
The idea behind AEW All Access:
“It was such a learning experience to see what their process is like and I enjoy it. I just enjoy learning new things. To me it was fascinating to see what it’s like for them as they’re putting matches together, getting ready to go out, and what goes into the process as it relates to storytelling. I think that the hope is obviously that it’ll help attract a different type of audience, attract more people to watch not just All Access, but also, of course, the main programming. What we found is that a lot of fans really enjoy the behind the scenes content, like even when we’re posting it on social and whatnot, and so it was an opportunity to do that at an even higher level.”
She discussed some of the upcoming shows for this year, stating that July should be a great month and that she’s looking forward to the show in London, while also confirming that All Out will take place a week after All In:
“London, it’s been a while since I spent any meaningful time (there) because of COVID. I’m excited just to go back (to London). We’ll have to come back here for All Out the week after but it should be really fun. I’m most excited to see a wrestling ring in the middle of Wembley Stadium…”
