The relationship between Tony Khan and the AEW roster makes for intriguing conversation, as proven by an interaction with Dante Martin.
Speaking on the latest episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Alex Marvez and host Aubrey Edwards discussed the work put in behind-the-scenes by Tony Khan. The AEW founder has been known to work irregular hours than what is the norm for someone in his role.
Marvez recalled a story where Tony Khan woke up Top Flight’s Dante Martin to work a taping at half-past-two in the morning (h/t WrestleTalk):
“We tracked down Dante Martin at 2:30 in the morning to come to a taping. His brother Darius – who I cannot wait to see back in the ring by the way and I think he’s gonna be fantastic – he drove 30 minutes across town in Minneapolis to wake up Dante and say, ‘Dante, we need you at a taping, please come in, because Tony had an idea’. And he did it of course. And that’s happened with Matt Sydal before. It happens.
And sometimes, Tony will get word from medical, ‘This person tested positive for Covid, or because of a situation he’s not medically cleared or she’s not medically cleared for an injury. And then suddenly weeks and maybe even months of planning of where things may be going get thrown out the window and he has to adjust on the fly.
But this has been the benefit of having such a deep roster and so many talented people, that there are ways to elevate others, but we’ll eventually get to where Tony wants to go with the story, but the whole thing is that it may take a couple swerves that none of us expected along the way, because of unforeseen circumstances.”
On the podcast, it was also discussed how natural Tony Khan is at booking wrestling shows. One example saw Alex Marvez reference being out with him early in the morning where he’d be losing his mind over PAC being unable to wrestle, while another saw Khan go in a frenzy if he has to make changes to a pay-per-view card.
Tony Khan has served as the President, CEO, and Booker of AEW since its inception in January 2019. He was recently awarded both the Promoter and Booker of the Year awards in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, joining the likes of Vince McMahon and Giant Baba in winning both awards at the same time over consecutive years.