Tony Khan remains optimistic about what the future holds for AEW.
More than 5 years on from the formation of the company, All Elite Wrestling has gone through major struggles in the past 12 months. With multiple top stars departing the promotion to join rival WWE, reports of behind-the-scenes unrest and many top stars in AEW sidelined with injuries, the promotion does not have the same buzz that it did in years prior. While there was a time when Dynamite would dominate the rings over NXT when both shows aired on the same night, the October 10th head-to-head in 2023 drew a disappointing result for Khan’s promotion.
Many are hopeful that fortunes can be turned around in 2024 with the imminent arrival of Will Ospreay and strong rumours that Kazuchika Okada will become All Elite in the near future. On top of this, there have strong ticket sales for Sting’s last match at Revolution and a high buy rate is also expected. With this in mind, Khan is hopeful that the lapsed fans will return in 2024 and revitalise the popularity of the company.
Through no fault of their own, the big news of All Elite Wrestling has also become lost in the news cycle due to the controversies hitting the headlines in other major promotions. January 25th saw a dark day hit the wrestling world as Vince McMahon was accused of sex trafficking and sexual assault by a former WWE employee. Within the next 2 weeks, Stardom founder Rossy Ogawa was fired by parent company Bushiroad and TNA terminated the contract of now former President Scott D’Amore. With an ever-changing landscape in wrestling, Khan believes that the future will be bright for his own promotion.
Speaking with Sports Grid, Khan was asked about his thoughts on all the changes made on the corporate side in the wrestling world. Focusing on his own promotion, Khan praised the company for the work that they are doing and feels that it is the best time for All Elite Wrestling:
“It’s a really exciting time for AEW right now. The company is doing some of our best wrestling ever. Right now is the best AEW has been. It’s an exciting time for the wrestling business. There are a lot of crazy things happening. It’s a really important time in wrestling for a variety of reasons. Somethings outside of wrestling that are bigger than wrestling. For us, we’re doing the best wrestling we’ve done in AEW right now.”
Tony Khan Prepares For Major Debut
February 7th saw Khan deliver his latest big announcement, which was that AEW would be presenting a special episode of Dynamite on March 13th at the TD Garden in Boston. Titled “Big Business,” it is all but confirmed that Mercedes Mone will be making her debut appearance at the event and will be announced as AEW’s newest signing.
During a separate interview, Tony Khan discussed a creative change that will not be happening.
H/t to Fightful.