AEW President Tony Khan recently did an interview with PWInsider.com and here is an excerpt regarding Chris Jericho and MJF’s musical segment from AEW Dynamite.
Mike Johnson: Were you surprised at how split the reaction to the Dinner Debonair was, because it literally was, “I hate it, I love it, I hate it, I love it” in my email right after it aired. So I was curious what the expectations were internally?
Tony Khan: I expected it to be a very polarizing segment and it was very polarizing and I expected it would create a lot of conversation and then the next week, those guys would pull a big number and that’s what happened. I think it worked out well to do the Town Hall segment coming off it because the Town Hall segment was probably more in the context of what people have come to expect from Max and Chris. so I thought the Town Hall was more conventional and probably that’s why I thought it was, you know…obviously it did a really strong number but also made more sense to go closer to the pay per view for the next show.
Mike Johnson: Do you think that segments open the door for more sort of, unconventional style vignettes in AEW or do you prefer things to kind of stay close to the initial sports-oriented everything that’s happening is happening in the ring…
Tony Khan: I thought it was pretty logical, man. I think that segment is sports-oriented. Like when I watch the ESPYs or when I watch…you watch music videos, it’s not unusual to see a big athlete in a musical number, and the key thing to me was that it wasn’t done in an unrealistic context because the idea that we ended up settling on to me was a very realistic idea. Chris Jericho and MJF are like two of the biggest showboats in wrestling, they’re really cocky guys and of course they would love to sing their own praises and go out and do this hammy performance together because they’re both egomaniacs and of course like the ambiance and the whole thing is very on brand for the two of them.
It was also key to me that it was not something behind an invisible camera where these two guys were just having a dinner and they weren’t aware they were being filmed and they just broke into a song. They were looking into the camera, they were singing to the camera, it was for the fans. Clearly they were doing it for themselves as these characters but it was very much for the benefit of the fans. So it’s like to me, in their minds it was for the benefit of the fans. So to me, it’s very much…it’s still a realistic segment. I don’t think it’s…people talk about a sports-based feel but I’ve seen athletes do tons of musical numbers and you know, the Super Bowl Shuffle? Was the Super Bowl Shuffle not real sports? Because that’s about as real sports as I can remember. That’s an era when sports felt very real and that’s the throwback era that all the people complaining about are probably fondly looking back at. So, if you’re going to take an honest look at it, look at all the times athletes that have sang and danced in music videos.
