Tony Khan: "Most Important Time Ever in AEW History

Tony Khan declares this is the most important time ever in the history of All Elite Wrestling.

The AEW president recently appeared on Q101, expressing optimism about an impending media rights deal that promises to make the company profitable.

“Right now, it’s the most important time ever in AEW. We’re on the verge of the most important deal we’ll ever make, this upcoming media rights (deal),” Khan said on the show.

He further elaborated:

“Over five years, it’s really been building to this point where AEW’s going to jump into the media rights and be a very profitable, successful company that has lived up to every expectation we ever could have had because we’ve done so many amazing things in these years. We’ve had all these amazing pay-per-view records. We’ve done pay-per-view numbers, whether adjusted or straight-up, however you want to look at it, head-to-head, very strong compared to the last few years of WCW, and I think that’s really a success story.”

“It’s a really interesting business point that our business on pay-per-view has continued to get stronger,” he continued.

Khan also discussed AEW’s collaboration with WBD over the past five years, highlighting their promotion of Discovery’s Shark Week.

“Shark Week is something that’s very important to the company, and with good reason. It’s a huge tradition and something that helped get the company to where it is now. I know it’s really important to Mr. Zaslav, Bruce (Campbell), and Kathleen (Finch), and all the top executives and that’s why I took so much pride in putting together one of the best Dynamites we’ve done.”

AEW’s media rights future was a major topic in last week’s edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer wrote:

“For months the idea, coming from those on the WBD side, was that the deal would be made by the time the exclusive window ended. That window has ended. The deal is not completed. But there are so many questions and rumors about what the details will entail. Will Dynamite go three hours? Will Collision go three hours? Will the time slots change for Collision or Rampage? How will streaming factor into the television deal?”