AEW President Tony Khan recently spoke with Ariel Helwani for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, Khan spoke about the future of the company, as well as several other topics, including some of the developments that have taken place in the ongoing conflict with WWE and MJF.
Khan was asked if Rampage would eventually go live every week:
“I don’t know what it will do permanently, but I know going forward for the next month, really through Full Gear, most Rampages are live. That’s the idea. We’re going to step it up going into Full Gear and step it up for Rampage. So we have Rampage live this week. We’re doing a separate Rampage show, it’s actually a standalone show, but we are doing it on a Thursday in Canada, to be honest, because it makes a lot of sense with the traveling crew and with everybody up there for a lot of reasons to do it over the Wednesday-Thursday, rather than keep everybody up there the extra day. But there’s also great opportunities with keeping that venue for two days and the business deal we made was a really good deal.”
If he was comfortable with MJF calling him a mark on AEW Dynamite a few months ago:
“This is one of those things that I don’t want to talk about. But I do think I agree with everything you lead off with. I think he’s one of the best wrestlers in the world. It’s amazing how much he’s accomplished already at such a young age. He’s a great talent.”
MJF’s contract coming up in a year and a half:
“Yeah, but I don’t see how going into detail about it other than talking about his wrestling and what he brings to the show, and of course, you know, everything he brings, his great promos, his great ideas, there’s a lot there. But you know, I think if you want to get into the contracts and that aspect of it with me, same as my other jobs. If you wanted to talk about the contracts at Fulham, I would probably be kind of vague. I would say I really liked the player. I think it’s good business we’re doing and I think it’s a great transfer that we’re making and we’re doing a smart move for the club, but getting into the numbers and stuff, rarely will I do that.”
His reaction to the WWE regime change:
“I’ve been open to say that I think there’s been a lot of improvements there and I definitely think for us, we’ve had a lot of big improvements in recent weeks. I think both are very competitive and had been very competitive in the past, obviously. I think in this case, now hopefully going to be good for everybody. There’s probably a bit more similarity in what we’re looking for in terms of the profile of a free agent, which I think is already going to start being a thing. So we’ll see how that goes. I think we’re looking at more similar people. There was definitely something happening this year where there were wrestlers being released from there that came here that I definitely believe belong on national television, worldwide television that are huge stars in AEW. Some of those people I think would have made sense, and I don’t think if there hadn’t been a switch in the person who makes that call, I’m not sure any of those people or at least many of those people would have been released. I think we were the benefit. The benefit of that was for AEW.”
What he was thinking during the post-AEW All Out media scrum:
“I cannot share any of that with you. I appreciate and understand that you had to ask.”
His relationship status with CM Punk:
“I appreciate that you asked, but I cannot answer that.”
If Punk makes a return:
“I can’t answer that.”
What happened in the alleged incident afterward:
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
If he talked to Bray Wyatt or his management team about coming to AEW:
“I don’t want to talk about people I haven’t talked to, but he’s a great guy. I think I’ve said this in interviews before, so I wouldn’t be giving anything away. He was at Chris Jericho’s birthday party. I’ve never talked to him about that kind of a thing in person or anything. I think he’s a tremendous talent. Same as I said before, I wouldn’t want to comment on stuff with people’s specific negotiations.”
If he worked hard enough to keep Cody Rhodes:
“Again, we’re in the realm of stuff I can’t talk about, but I have a ton of respect for Cody and really like Cody a lot and wish him the best in everything he’s doing.”
Helwani informed Khan that he had previously stated that the inmates were running the asylum and that Tony needed to rein things in and be the boss. Khan was asked to comment on that by Helwani:
“Well, like I said, I’m not Bill Watts. I’m not enforcing things that way. I think the world has changed a lot. I have a lot of really good relationships with the people here. I think it’s come across in the way we’ve been able to put a great company together so quickly to build this great roster, and now we have this great track record of success. I don’t necessarily think that was the case, but I do think, you know, right now we’re in a really good place as a roster as a company.”
Would he have done things differently when he first started:
“No. I also don’t like looking backward. You can’t really do that unless you’re going to look at how you’re going to look forward off of it. I don’t think it serves well. Also, like you said, I’m pretty busy. I don’t necessarily have the time to do that. So it’s pretty important to me, to make sure that we’re surrounded by really great people, and most importantly, I want to make sure that everybody comes to work and feels like it’s a good place to work and I want to make sure that everybody gets opportunities. But really, at the end of the day, everybody who’s come to AEW knows coming in there’s a sense of security here that they haven’t necessarily had at other wrestling promotions. A lot of the people I’ve brought in were part of layoffs and cost cutting, and not like desperate cost cutting times are tight cost cutting, it’s like record profits cost cutting. If I was making record profits, I probably wouldn’t be laying off dozens of people. So that’s some of what I’m talking about when I talk about compassion and being a good boss, and frankly, when I talk about, you know, I’m not necessarily the same guy as some person who shares a surname.”
Tony was also questioned about his interactions with Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon. He stated that he had spoken with Nick but not in person, but he did not specify when that conversation occurred. Tony also claimed that he was once friends with WWE management and that he had spoken with Stephanie previously. He didn’t say when, but it’s most likely pre-AEW because he said they were friendly with him when he was the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. It is also no secret that Khan visited backstage at least once before the launch of AEW.
For those who missed it, you can click here for Khan’s comments on why AEW has been taking shots at WWE on television.
You can watch the complete interview below:
(h/t to Wrestling News for the transcription)
