According to the company’s president Tony Khan, AEW roster cuts are unavoidable.

Tony Khan has confirmed that an exodus of AEW talent is imminent as the company will not be renewing every contract that is due for renewal.

During a recent chat with Scott Fishman of TVInsider, the AEW president addressed the issue of his promotion’s ever-expanding roster and acknowledged that the reason so few wrestlers have parted ways with AEW was that he didn’t want to fire people during a pandemic unless it was absolutely necessary.

“When we started a lot of people had contracts that were a couple of years long and a lot of them are coming up. I have really tried hard to be very considerate of the people on the roster, especially going through the pandemic,” Khan said.

TK admitted that he would be unable to renew all the contracts that are up for renewal, in part because AEW has brought in some big-name talent in recent months, including Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, and Keith Lee.

“Really only two places were running and the other place was cutting people left and right. I did want to give some job security to people. Now with so many wrestlers coming in, I can’t renew all the contracts,” Khan confessed. “I’ve had to make some tough choices based on ability, fan response, or both. I try to maintain the best roster I can for the company and fans,” he added.

Whereas WWE often releases talent who still have time left on their deals, Khan prefers to keep his wrestlers under contract until their deals expire, which means he technically isn’t firing them. In the wake of another wave of mass WWE layoffs last year Khan actually called into question the legitimacy of the contracts WWE offers to performers.

“Anybody who signs a contract [with WWE] these days, is not signing a real contract, in my opinion,” TK proclaimed during a Busted Open Radio appearance. “It’s a temporary arrangement. People who come wrestle with me, a lot of these people are frankly lifers and they know that. There are some people who are here and work really hard. There are some people who come in and work more than really hard.”

"I just think there's a lot more security with a contract here."

While discussing @The_MJF's promo on #AEWDynamite, @TonyKhan talks about talent releases & the pride he takes in being Owner of @AEW 🔊@TheMarkHenry @RyanMcKinnell #AEWRampage #AEW pic.twitter.com/KDhOh9osBG

— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) November 19, 2021

Source: TheSportster

AEW President, CEO, General Manager & Head Of Creative Tony Khan says a “dream signing” is coming soon to AEW.

Khan spoke to Josh Martinez of Z100 in New York City this week and was asked if there are any dream signings coming to AEW, and if so, if they are a North American talent.

“There is,” Tony Khan responded. “They are in North America, and they’re coming. And pretty soon, and it’s going to be awesome. I’m very excited.”

Tony Khan Says One Of His ‘Dream Signings’ Is Coming Soon To AEW. (via @YoJoshMartinez) pic.twitter.com/pZ8jkTP66U

— Robert DeFelice (@dudefelice) January 5, 2022

There’s no word on who the big talent acquisition might be, but rumored potential signings include Windham Rotunda (fka Bray Wyatt) and Johnny Gargano, but there’s no word on if AEW has been in recent talks with these wrestlers.

Below are the main take aways from the media call on Thursday with AEW CEO and President Tony Khan.

Khan also promoted and hyped up this Saturday’s Full Gear PPV.

He likes the four-hour length of the pay-per-view main cards.He didn’t say whether he was interested in signing any Ring of Honor talent or buying the tape library but to stay tuned to his product because you never know.

He said there will likely be some visual tweaks when Dynamite moves to TBS in January.

He confirmed that they will hold a Battle of the Belts show and said they are going to kick off 2022 strong.

He credited Sonjay Dutt with helping put together the Lio Rush/Dante Martin vs. Matt Sydal/Lee Moriarty match Wednesday. He loves Rush and after he retired, he was in his ear to get him to return.

He said his relationship with New Japan is great and likely that more talent is to come as a result.

He reiterated the importance of the TBS title and to think of it as a sibling title to the TNT title.

Sources: WrestleView and F4WOnline

Tony Khan was recently interviewed by PWTorch about the COVID-19 vaccination status of the AEW roster. The AEW President revealed that the majority of the roster is currently vaccinated, and he noted that international touring will create an issue for those that are not.

“I have got that most of the roster in AEW is vaccinated. For example, there have been some places we went where everybody had to be vaccinated and I think when the companies start doing international travel, we will see that for Canada and England, places like that, it will be very difficult for wrestlers to travel without it,” Khan admitted. “So, it certainly will present a challenge as we tour and I know California in the future is a place that has very strict mandates. Most of the roster is vaccinated and as we continue touring it’s something that I think may come up, so understand why for some people, especially with the return to international touring looming, why that would be an issue.”

For the first time on the record, Tony Khan also revealed his own vaccination status. He stated that he has been vaccinated and noted that his work within the NFL plays a big part in that due to how different the rules are for those who haven’t been.

“Yeah. That’s the first time anybody’s ever asked me that on the record, but yeah. I mean, I am in the NFL, and our access is very different if you’re not,” Khan said. “It’s different for plays and ownership, yes, but all of us are under the same mandates and there’s mass mandates in the locker room and it’s a very different set of rules for the unvaccinated people in the NFL. So, that’s definitely one of the major factors in the NFL as far as game day travel and how the team prepares for the games and who can sit with each other. So, yeah, the NFL was at the forefront of that in terms of spreading awareness.”

Finally, Khan admitted that he does not require his wrestlers to have had the vaccine. However, he revealed that everyone had to be vaccinated in order to be part of the Jericho Cruise, using that as an example for how wrestlers will need it for certain shows.

“It has come up several times. I have not required it, same with the NFL and same with, I think other wrestling leagues. But it will be a big challenge if you’re not for a lot of circumstances a great example was the Jericho Cruise where all the wrestlers on the Jericho Cruise had to be vaccinated,” Khan revealed. “So it’s definitely as touring becomes stronger and we start to get out of the U.S. and look to international touring, it’s going to be an issue for people.”

Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to PWTorch 

With Tony Khan mostly staying behind the scenes of AEW, an injury would seem unlikely. And yet the AEW President has recently found himself on the AEW Injury Report. In an interview with the New York Post, Khan revealed he had been hurt in an off camera incident at AEW Grand Slam, where American Top Team’s Junior dos Santos injured Khan’s ribs.

“He cracked them (my ribs),” Khan said. “I’ll be OK. But he legitimately cracked them. I’ll be OK. It’s been a few weeks, but I’m sleeping on my right side.”

The incident occurred following the match between Inner Circle members Chris Jericho and Jake Hager take on the Men of the Year (Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky), where American Top Team members (including dos Santos) laid Jericho and Hager out. Khan would confront American Top Team on the ramp right after, where the two, according to Khan, improvised a spot that led to the injury.

“It felt just right in the moment,” Khan said. “It was just kind of improvised. He’s a very strong man. I love the gasp pop it got. I was definitely asking for it.”

Khan doesn’t hold any ill will towards dos Santos, and even revealed that he no sold the injury to those in the back, returning to his seat in the GO position as if everything was fine. He’s also thrilled with the work dos Santos and American Top Team have put in thus far, both in giving AEW attention in helping to elevate Sky and Page.

“We built something very strong now with American Top Team and AEW,” Khan said. “We’ve gotten great crossover media opportunities because of dos Santos, (Jorge) Masvidal, Paige VanZant and Andrei Arlovski. It’s given good visibility and credibility to AEW and also Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page.”

dos Santos, accompanied by fellow MMA star Jorge Masvidal, will make his in ring debut for AEW this Saturday on a special AEW Dynamite, teaming with Sky and Page to take on Chris Jericho, Jake Hager and AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara. Given his experience with dos Santos, Khan expects him to be a handful for the Inner Circle members.

“I’m fine. I’m a not wuss,” Khan stated. “But he did break my ribs. So he’s going to be a handful in the ring for sure. I can tell you.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Last week a report came out on the AEW EVPs (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Cody Rhodes) having their creative powers “essentially completely taken away” and everything was now running through AEW President Tony Khan.

Yesterday, Dave Meltzer reported the roles of the EVPs hadn’t changed since December of 2019. Even with Khan taking on more control of booking, there wasn’t a recent loss of power for the EVPs.

Khan spoke with PWInsider this week and was asked for clarification on where things are when it comes to creative in AEW. Khan reiterated things haven’t changed recently, but he did take on more control to make sure shows were more organized.

“Yeah, I saw those reports this week and I thought that was pretty disingenuous stuff from some of the internet wrestling writers because nothing has changed in recent months and really, the structure changed for me at the end of 2019 and it was because of me,” Khan said. “I felt like I needed to take over and be more accountable as the CEO and as the Booker. I was the final say, but there were probably too many different people with input on segments and this show wasn’t as organized at the end of 2019 as I thought it could be.

“So for the past two years, we’ve been a lot more organized and I’ve written every show by hand, which allows me to know which segments are where and I think the shows have gotten significantly better. The fans have enjoyed them more. They’ve performed better in terms of the ratings and it’s been a good change for us, but I saw somebody reporting that recently in the news and it’s not because — we talked about this, like over a year and a half ago we talked about this, and I went on the record. I talked to you about it and Dave Meltzer, this week in The Observer, even wrote a pretty good account of it that nothing has really changed.”

Khan continued that it was actually his 2020 New Year’s resolution to take on putting the shows together and avoiding content he wasn’t in favor of airing.

“This is all stuff that came into effect at the beginning of 2020,” Khan recalled. “I had said my New Year’s resolution, myself, [was that] I was going to get very organized or I told myself if there’s something I didn’t feel good about, I wasn’t going to do it and that I was going to create much more of the work product myself, that I was going to lay out the matches, the stories and format everything into a nice package, myself, and I’ve been doing it for over a year and a half with the collaboration and help of a lot of great people, including the people I started with.

“I think the biggest difference has been instead of five people getting in a room and putting a format together, I get in a room and put a format together. I also get very amused when people refer to QT [Marshall], like the guy on the creative team. He’s effectively my assistant and he’s great. He works his ass off. He’ll show up in my room whenever I need him, and I sometimes will call him up at one in the morning to come up and I want to reorganize the show or make card changes, or I’m putting stuff together for Elevation or Dark or whatever I need. He’s usually there for me, but I’m very hands on with this stuff and it’s been that way for a long time. So I thought it was really disingenuous.”

With the signing of stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole, Khan believed their additions have obviously made a difference in the AEW product. Khan also said he has just gotten better at the job over the past couple years, allowing him to put together better quality shows.

“Somebody talked about it this week, like it was news and then people acted like there’d been some change, but there’s been no change,” Khan stated. “I’ve been in that position for a long time. And I think we’ve had our shows, in my opinion, have gotten stronger, recently. And there are a number of things you can attribute that to.

“One of the things I think you can attribute it to is the great star power that come in, and we’re getting a lot of great wrestlers who bring tons of great attributes, including their experience, their great ideas, and trying to integrate those things.  Then me — myself personally — I think I gotten better and more organized over the last couple years at doing this job and have learned a lot in the past two years.”

AEW Dynamite celebrates its two-year anniversary tonight at The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Tony Khan recently revealed he has spent eight figures of his own money on AEW’s video games.

Tony Khan recently revealed he has spent eight figures of his own money on AEW’s video game division, most of which will have gone on its upcoming debut console game.

AEW might still be less than three years old, but its early success makes it hard to imagine a wrestling landscape without it. Big names are joining the promotion’s ranks, and wrestlers who were relatively unknown when AEW launched are now household names in wrestling circles. Tony Khan also continues to prove he isn’t afraid to take risks to make sure AEW’s success continues to grow.

One area where Khan is very keen to make a splash is wrestling video games. The company has already released two mobile games, but its first mainline console game will be the real acid test. Khan mentioned during a recent media call that he has spent eight figures of his own money, so at least $10 million, on AEW’s video game division.

Although very little has been revealed about AEW’s first major video game, it seems likely that the majority of that investment has been on the console game. Development must be going well as Khan added he is confident he will make that money back. Since WWE and 2K don’t share specific development costs, it’s unclear how much it costs to create a wrestling game, but eight figures feels like enough that the game has to be a success.

AEW has shown off very little of the game so far. A trailer very early in development and some shots of what Darby Allin will look like in the game. However, the last we heard, Kenny Omega, who is close to the project, was hopeful AEW’s first big game will be here by early 2022.

That potential launch window was made a lot more interesting over SummerSlam weekend when WWE 2K revealed WWE 2K22’s has been delayed. The game won’t be here until March 2022 which might well coincide with the arrival of AEW’s first game. The Wednesday Night War might have ended, but six months from now we might have an all-new type of wrestling battle to watch pan out.

Source: TheSportster