Tony Khan has elaborated on the strong ratings AEW has received in the UK, the future of media rights and how fans disputed the attendance of the first-ever Wembley Stadium show.
Since All Elite Wrestling was founded back in 2019, episodes of Dynamite and Collision have been broadcast in the UK on the free-to-air channel ITV each week a couple of days after the live broadcast on Triller TV and are also free to stream on demand on ITV X.
In 2023, the promotion held its first show outside of North America in London, England at the legendary Wembley Stadium with more than 80,000 tickets sold for the inaugural All In show. AEW returned the following year to present the second All In along with a taping of Dynamite and Collision in Cardiff and will also return in the summer to present Forbidden Door in London over the August Bank Holiday.
Tony Khan Addresses AEW Media Rights in The UK
Speaking on the Revolution media call, Khan was asked about the recent deal between AEW and Amazon and if there was the potential for additional programming to be added as part of the such as Dynamite, Collision or ROH TV. Khan responded by first praising the long-running partnership between All Elite Wrestling and UK TV station ITV:
“I’m not sure yet. I think the most important relationship for us that we have in the UK has been for a long time the great collaboration with ITV. I’m very proud of that. It’s one of my original wrestling media relationships. They have been a great partner and there are a lot of opportunities in the market.”
Continuing, Khan then brought up the discourse surrounding how many tickets were sold for All In 2023 and how he is amused by people who think they did not sell over 80,000 tickets to the show:
“But I would be remised not to highlight what’s been happening around AEW and our partnership with ITV and some statistics that are kind of amazing in this day and age with so many great things to watch. The fan base we have built in the UK. We set the world record, as many of you know, for pro wrestling ticket sales with 81,035 tickets sold.
I find it very amusing, and a lot of you very frankly are witnesses to this. But I found the PR discourse when third parties tried to put it out there that allegedly [we didn’t sell 81,035 tickets], and we did sell 81,035 tickets. I have all the documentation and I’ve got the plaque from Live Nation in my office, the whole thing. It is the world record for wrestling ticket sales and people try to downplay it.
I saw people saying ‘Oh no there were only 73,000 people there.’ And then if another wrestling company did 73,000 it would be painted as a huge, huge success. It is not lost on me what goes on out there. It’s amazing the success we’ve been able to have. We set the record for pro wrestling ticket sales at Wembley Stadium with 81,035 tickets sold.”
Khan also touted the ratings for AEW programming in the UK and how Dynamite and Collision are both at an all-time high on ITV 4:
“Recently what we have seen just in the past few months is the biggest audience for AEW on UK TV ever. We’ve been on ITV for over 5 years with Dynamite and a couple of years now for Collison as well this summer and the ratings are at an all-time high in the UK right now.
AEW Dynamite and Collision on ITV 4 are both up over 50% year over year, both shows. Dynamite is at a 5-year high and Collision is at an all-time high year over year. That speaks of the great success we are having in the UK where we have already had the greatest success in the history of the promotion.
So there are a lot of opportunities there and something that is important to me is to maintain the great relationship we have with ITV because we have been really successful collaborators and that is a big thing for us. We’re very loyal who helped us get to this point.”
Also on the media call, Tony Khan clarified an AEW rumour.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit the source and leave a h/t to ITR Wrestling.