Tag: Tony Khan

Tony Khan Addresses Whether AEW Will Have A Brand Split

In a new interview with Rasslin, AEW President Tony Khan was asked about the rumored brand split ahead of the June 17th launch of Collision.

According to multiple reports, AEW wants the brand split for Dynamite and Collision due to CM Punk, who is slated to be the top star for Collision, as he has heat with several wrestlers on the roster.

“I am going to feature certain talent on certain shows, but I haven’t drawn any hard lines or locked us into any kind of split of a roster,” Khan said (h/t Fightful). “I think people are gonna be featured on certain shows, but I also think that gives us a great opportunity to showcase certain wrestlers on both Dynamite and Collision at certain times and certain stories that can cross the shows. I think the champions of AEW will be the champions on every show, and frankly, every promotion in the world. We’re not shy about the AEW wrestlers going out and taking on the top stars, top competition from other companies.”

“The roster we have is so strong, I believe we have so many great wrestlers, it’s impossible to showcase them all in three hours of television,” he added. “Now, it’s a much better opportunity with five hours of television. Across five hours of television, we can really utilize the roster much more frequently and utilize our great wrestlers more than they’ve ever been used before, so I’m very excited.”

Source: eWn

Bryan Danielson’s Reported Influence On Tony Khan & AEW Booking

Bryan Danielson has had a hand in AEW’s creative department as of late, and according to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, he has become more important as of late in regards to that. 

The American Dragon has been described as someone that has added good input into any conversation regarding AEW booking, and he has been having an influence on Tony Khan himself. When the two men are in a room together, Danielson has been pushing Khan to thank harder and improve upon his thinking as he tends to add even more enthusiasm to Khan regarding this area of the business. 

The June 2 episode of “AEW Rampage” was an example of Danielson’s creative abilities as he added to the overall outline of it being a Championship Friday show, and the fact that the episode was well received showcases the impact he has brought.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Tony Khan Confirms CM Punk Return For AEW Collision Debut

Tony Khan took to the TBS airwaves during Wednesday night’s “Dynamite” to announce that former AEW World Champion CM Punk will indeed be featured on the “Collision” debut on June 17 at the United Center in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois. The announcement was met with a mix of cheers and boos from the live crowd in San Diego, California.

Tony Khan Confirms CM Punk Return For AEW Collision Debut
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
BY ROSS W BERMAN IV/UPDATED: MAY 31, 2023 9:19 PM EST
With “AEW Collision” on the horizon, one question has lingered in the minds of AEW fans, when will CM Punk return to the company?

Tony Khan took to the TBS airwaves during Wednesday night’s “Dynamite” to announce that the former AEW World Champion will be featured on the “Collision” debut on June 17 at the United Center in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois. The announcement was met with a mix of cheers and boos from the live crowd in San Diego, California.

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Punk had long been rumored as returning to the company, with his difficulties with some members of the locker room creating the necessity for “Collision” and what is rumored to be a roster split for AEW. Khan had been tight-lipped about Punk’s possible return, even as he continued to tout the “Collision” premiere. The announcement that the show would take place in Chicago’s United Center, the location of Punk’s AEW debut, further fed the speculation that Punk would be returning to action.

“AEW Collision” will air on Saturday nights at 8 PM ET on TNT and run two hours, making it the second major show for AEW behind its flagship program “Dynamite.”

Punk has not been on AEW programming since his infamous tirade after AEW All Out in September of last year that led to a backstage brawl between Punk, Kenny Omega, Matt and Nick Jackson, Punk’s friend and trainer Ace Steel, members of the AEW talent relations staff, and Punk’s dog Larry. Omega recently downplayed rumors of animosity, seemingly making light of the situation during his feud with the Blackpool Combat Club. 

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Tony Khan Comments On Rumors Of A Brand Split In AEW

With Collision set to debut next month, will AEW split its roster between their new show and Dynamite?

AEW‘s newest weekly show, a two-hour Saturday series called Collision, is set to begin next month, June 17, from the United Center at Chicago. Much of the conversation has been about whether CM Punk will be there (the location announcement seems to confirm that he will be), but there’s perhaps an even bigger topic to be addressed for the company’s long term future.

In a media call in the lead up to this week’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view, Tony Khan spoke about Collision and addressed rumors that AEW would be doing a brand split between Dynamite and Collision, similar to what WWE does with Raw and SmackDown. “I haven’t given a lengthy explanation yet for what I’m planning regarding the future of the roster and how people will be allocated across Dynamite and Collision and our other shows. It’s a great question, certainly. I can see why wrestling fans all over the world would be interested and curious about that. That’s frankly by design that we want to build that curiosity in and get people wondering exactly what you’re asking, ‘what’s the future of the AEW roster, and what does this all mean going forward after Double or Nothing?’ It’s a really good question and something we’ll be excited to follow up on.” (h/t Fightful)

Source: TheSportster

Tony Khan Set To Make ‘Huge Announcement’ On Next Week’s Episode Of AEW Dynamite

Let us know if you’ve heard this one before – AEW President Tony Khan will be making a “huge announcement” on next week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.

For those unaware, next Wednesday is the same day of Warner Brothers Discovery’s upfront presentation. At the presentation, it is expected that AEW’s new show, “Collison” will be announced and it’s expected to be built around the returning CM Punk.

You can check out a video of Tony Khan’s announcement below:

Source: eWrestlingNews

Tony Khan Refuses Comment Once Again On CM Punk’s AEW Status

After what seemed like a long silence, the situation between AEW and CM Punk returned to the news cycle in full force over the last week, after a message board post led to a since-deleted Instagram story by Punk that may have likely hurt his chances of returning to AEW. However, with Punk still recovering from injury, there is still time before AEW owner Tony Khan will have to make a decision on whether to bring Punk back, let him go, or find an alternate solution.

Till that time comes, the future of Punk in AEW will continue to be a topic Khan gets asked about, much like he has ever since the media scrum incident following All Out in September that began this whole situation. And Khan was indeed asked about Punk while speaking with talkSPORT, and for those who have followed Khan throughout this, the song remained the same regarding his answer. “I cannot comment on that,” Khan said.

Khan was a good sport about the question, however, realizing that these questions won’t stop until something regarding Punk’s future is decided. So he followed up the question with a joke that many will likely see as a shot at one of Khan’s nemeses, journalist and sometimes WWE correspondent Ariel Helwani, who repeatedly asked Khan about Punk, to no avail, in an interview between the two last October. “Well better to ask once than seven times in a row after I ‘no comment,'” Khan said. “Who would do that?”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Conrad Thompson: ‘Tony Khan Is Going To Take Care Of Jay Briscoe’s Family’

Tributes flooded in for Ring of Honor Hall of Famer Jay Briscoe (Jamin Pugh) following the news last week of his passing. AEW/ROH owner Tony Khan was the person to announce the news.

Speaking on What Happened When, Conrad Thompson explained that he’s heard that Khan will make sure Jay’s family is taken care of:

“I don’t mean to betray any confidences, but let me say this. There is lots of rumors and innuendo from really good sources that Tony Khan is who we thought he was and he’s going to do the right thing by that family as well.”

“I don’t think he would necessarily want anybody to know that information, and I know it’s not your [Tony Schiavone] place to talk about it, but I will say that for all the criticism that gets thrown around ‘Tony this, Tony that.’ When the chips are down, he’s a dude.”

Source: eWrestlingNews

Tony Khan Says AEW Will Run Live Events

AEW has mostly only run television tapings, with the exception being a special live event, “The House Always Wins,” in April 2021. However, that looks to be changing. 

Tony Khan discussed the possibility of AEW diving into the live event business while speaking on In The Zone:

“That’s something we are talking about. We have a great live events team. It’s something we’ve talked a lot about and building out the live event business. There is definitely a lot of demand for AEW live events, and now we have this great big strong roster that wants to do these live events, so it’s something we’re going to do,” he said (H/T to Fightful).

Source: ewrestlingnews

Tony Khan Teases Update On ROH Television Situation

While speaking during Wednesday’s media call to promote this weekend’s Ring of Honor Final Battle pay-per-view event, ROH owner and AEW President Tony Khan hinted that an update on the promotion’s television deal could be coming soon. Khan acquired Ring of Honor in May of this year. Tony indicated to Brandon Thurston that an announcement regarding ROH’s TV future could come this weekend.

ROH Final Battle 2022 will take place this Saturday, December 10th at 4:00 PM EST from Arlington, TX. It will air live on pay-per-view.

https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1600559192984768513

Source: EWrestlingNews

Tony Khan Provides Updates On Hangman Page, Adam Cole, Miro, & Andrade El Idolo

AEW President Tony Khan provided several updates on Miro, Andrade El Idolo, Hangman Page & Adam Cole during the post-AEW All Out media scrum.

As many of you are aware, both Cole and Page are out with concussions, while Miro and El Idolo have been off TV in recent months.

You can check out some highlights from the media scrum below:

On when Miro and Anrade El Idolo may return: “I think when we launched AEW, one thing I said was that we would build a big roster, and we would kind of have it be where I wasn’t really committing to everybody necessarily working every single week, or even possibly working people in and out of the cards. And I think that’s still something I’m committed to. So there’s people who aren’t on every event, but I would still like to get involved. And you know, you’ve seen people take some sabbaticals, absences, breaks from AEW for various reasons, come back and get very involved. And I think that’s still for both of those guys, potentially something that you could see.

“There are different reasons, I think they’re different [situations]. They’re apples and oranges in some ways, but I also think both of them are great, and I would like to get both of them involved in the future.”

On Adam Cole and Hangman Page’s statuses: “Well, I’ve been in contact with both of them. They’re both doing very well. I think again, they’re different situations. But for both of them, I think I’m optimistic we’d get both both of them back. But I can’t say when either of them would be exactly. But I do think they will both very well received and I there’s a lot of fans looking forward to both of the Adams returning. I think Hangman Page and Adam Cole would have a big reception on their return. The most important thing is, they’re both doing really well.”

Source: EWrestlingNews