The
latest episode of "AEW Unrestricted" had AEW President and CEO Tony
Khan. The podcast was recorded on the morning of the announcement that AEW and
WarnerMedia have extended their Dynamite contract through 2023. Khan discussed
the excitement of the TV deal and what is to come in the future.
"There's
gonna be more from AEW," Khan said. "We're gonna develop another show
with our partners at WarnerMedia, and I'm excited for Dynamite on TV for a long
time to come at least through 2023. Hopefully a long time after that."
Khan
noted how excited he was not only for the executives but also the people working
at AEW for the security the TV deal provides. He talked about the gamble of producing
AEW and the millions of dollars invested into the company. He proclaimed AEW a
success for getting an extension and said that his gamble has paid off.
Tony
Schiavone asked Khan about how AEW came to be. Khan revealed the original name
of what would eventually become AEW.
"It
wasn't AEW to begin with," Khan said. "Actually, my first idea was something
called 'World's Best Wrestling' which, at the end of the day, similar meaning
to All Elite Wrestling trying to say we're going great wrestling."
Khan
discussed meeting president of TBS and TNT and CCO of Turner Kevin Reilly in 2018
when networks were looking to sign big television contracts with WWE. Khan said
he saw that the landscape of wrestling was changing and that there was a lot of
money in wrestling on TV. The two met at two different occasions at a Halloween
party where Khan was dressed up as Macho Man Randy Savage. The third time they
met, Khan caught Reilly's attention when when he talked about how WCW was the
number one wrestling show on the network 20 years ago. He brought up the idea
of bringing wrestling back on TNT and filling the void that was lost when WCW
shut down.
Cody
has previously called the wrestling live event system "antiquated",
and Khan said he wanted to bring fans live weekly TV which he feels has been missing
in the wrestling business. He talked about wrestling promotions doing a taping
for four or five shows or taping at a theme park and how that can get stale for
wrestling fans.
"We
did this not so that I could do this job that I've always wanted to do for fun
but because I believe that if we ran this business and it's part of the business
plan that we had a really good chance to do exactly what we've just done: to get
a renewal from TNT, to stay on this great channel [and] to bring wrestling fans
weekly TV and not the kind of weekly TV that other companies have been offering
like taping in theme parks and taping four [or] five shows a month. Then you get
to week three [or] week four, things aren't fresh anymore," Khan said. "The
idea of taping TV three [or] four weeks in advance, it just did not sit well with
me, and it's not something that I wanted to do which is why we bare the great
expense we do every week like we are this week in going to a different city almost
every week and presenting almost always live shows. I think that's something that
had been missing from the wrestling business."
Khan
noted how WCW was big due to the fact that they were live in a different city
every week. He talked about how the technology of today can help make their shows
look bigger along with the investments they are making. He connected those investments
to the fact that they are a big company that can't be "bullied out of the
wrestling business."
"When
you look back, I mean Tony you were there, the most successful kind of new start-up
show in the mid-to-late '90s, Nitro, started to air. I think a big key element
was you guys went to different cities and that you were live and you had the state
of the art production values. Dynamite looks a hell of a lot better in terms of
being HD and all of the things we can do now with the technology vs. what SD Nitro
looked like, but definitely, for the late '90s, Nitro was a state of the art,
cutting edge show," Khan said. "I felt like, for us, if somebody were
to go do that, to make those investments in the quality and show people that they
care about the show and they're gonna invest in it. We're a big company. It's
not like we're gonna get bullied out of the wrestling business."
