Tony Khan has opened up on this controversial All In title match finish.
Following a thirty-minute-long match, Don Callis’ family member Kazuchika Okada was able to keep Omega down for the pinfall following a Rainmaker, and crown himself the promotion’s new Unified Champion. However, the finish was also called controversial by several fans watching the show, as they called out Callis’ multiple interferences, even pulling out the referee once.
Later, at the post-show press conference, the promotion’s president, Tony Khan, went on to explain the result and justified the controversial finish. Toward the final stages of the match, Callis had pulled the referee out of the ring and even proceeded to stomp on him. At the media scrum, speaking directly to Callis, Khan issued a stern warning and also explained why the title unification match did not end in a disqualification.
“We did it under AEW rules. In this case, for AEW rules, the referee’s decision is final. We’ve gotten through this amazing run, Kazuchika Okada has been the Continental Champion, and there has never been any outsider interference. If anybody ever interfered in a Continental Title match, they would be fired. Tonight, we fought a match under the unified rules of AEW, where the referee’s decision is final.
“In this case, the referee had no way of knowing who pulled him out of the ring or who did anything after you [Callis] incapacitated them. If we had been under Continental rules, I would have fired you for that. Going forward, as the Unified Champion, the prevailing rules will be the Continental rules, so there will never be outside interference ever again in a Unified Championship match, now that the Continental rules apply, with the Continental Champion winning.”
The new AEW Unified Championship will carry the legacy of the International Title and the Continental Championship.
Tony Khan Rules Out Infamous Mercedes Mone Rumor
Recently, during the All In media call, Tony Khan ruled out an ongoing infamous rumor about Mercedes Mone having creative control.
“That’s definitely not true at all. I would love to talk about that. Mercedes Moné is an incredible talent. I have wanted Mercedes Moné in AEW and she is a big star on the show. I really enjoy working with her backstage as a talent and she has done great things for the company doing media.
She’s a great person. Mercedes is a great addition to AEW. I also think it’s ridiculous, the idea that people would think because she’s a strong wrestler on the show that she must be the one dictating that. That is the complete opposite of what happens here.
We’ve done a really great job, this year in particular, with a really focused build and we’re on the best run of television we’ve ever had through the past six months in 2025. It’s been a great year for the company. I’m the only person with creative control over the show. At the end of the day, I’m responsible for what you see. I’m really proud this year because this has been one of the best years, six months into the year so far, we’ve ever done of television.
Philosophically, since the start of the year, in particular this year….I’ll go back. I’ve had the final say since day one of AEW. I’ve had the final creative control since the beginning of the company. We launched very successfully. When we started doing Dynamite those first few months, I was pretty open that around the holidays, I planned to comeback with tighter focus in 2020. It was a New Year’s Resolutions.
In January, like a lot of New Year’s Resolutions, it takes time to make a good transition into something you want to do. In that case for me, going into 2020, I said I was only going to do things I believe in and I’m not going to be talked into something I don’t believe in.
I’m going to focus on AEW doing things that I come in and bring to the table and say, ‘This is what I want to do’ or if somebody has an idea and I hear it and I say, ‘I strongly believe in that. That is the way to go. You’re right.’ If I don’t believe in it, I’m being talked into it, I’m being dragged across the finish line, I have just found that those things are the things that don’t work.
What’s even worse is when they don’t work, there is nobody to blame but yourself. In 2020, I said that’s what I was going to do. I feel like the shows in early 2020, at that point, were the best we had done and the build to the original Revolution in 2020 was some of our best work. Fast forward, several years later, we’ve done a lot of great work. We’ve built the company and secured a media rights deal that was really important for our future.
In 2024, we’re having so much success, yet I am finding at times that I’m having so many great people with ideas and I’m listening to so many ideas and I found there was a lot of input that I would take from people and I would listen to a lot of suggestions.
I made a resolution, 5 years later, around the holidays of 2024, that I made in 2019, which was that AEW is going to have a great year and I believe 2025 was going to be that great year, and I wanted to take a similar mindset and approach.
This year, you’re seeing the most focused AEW in many years and the best AEW in many years in part because there are less voices. I’m taking less input. I’m still listening to ideas, but if I don’t feel 100% about it, I’m not going to do it. That’s been a really positive change for the company and the shows in 2025, the way things have come together, reflect that positively. I have such a high opinion of Mercedes in particular, I also have a high opinion of her opponent Toni Storm.
They are two of the best wrestlers on the planet. They are two people I meet with every single week. At least once a week, but usually multiple times a week and hear out ideas they might have and they hear out ideas I have. For both of them, I’m very involved in the direction of their character personally.
They have people they work with. In Mercedes’ case, someone she worked with for a long time which is Jen [Pepperman], and I work well with Jen and Mercedes. In Toni’s case, I found somebody to help me work on it, which is RJ [City]. In the case of Toni or Mercedes or so many of the other great talents that I work with closely, I have the final say on what they do.
In the case of this match, it’s something I really wanted to have in AEW for a very long time and it’s something the fans have wanted to see in AEW for a long time and we’ve done a great job, in my opinion, building to this for over a year as a match the fans absolutely are going to want to see.
The idea that anybody in AEW has a creative control card and that’s why anybody would get a push here because they dictate it: that’s not how it works. We have a great company and we’ve having a great year and it’s because of, first and foremost, the people I mentioned earlier.
The group of people that all work together to make this happen. It’s a team effort between the wrestlers, the staff, and the fans all working together 52 weeks a year and none of us can exist without the others. Mercedes is a great wrestler. She’s a focus on the show. She’s the TBS Champion because she’s hugely followed and a hugely talented star who brings so much to the table.
I’ve seen people infer she must have some kind of creative card because she’s such a feature on the show, but that’s ridiculous to me because when you have somebody of that stature, you would want to feature them and push them strongly.
That’s why, frankly, in the case of Mercedes Moné, she is not only one of the biggest stars in AEW, but backstage she is a great person to work with. I found her to be very receptive and even if she comes in with an idea that points in one direction, I might have an idea that takes it 180 degrees in the total opposite direction. If I really feel strongly about it, I found that she is somebody that is going to do what I believe and is very trusting of AEW. She is somebody that likes working at AEW and likes being here.
One of the great things we’ve done in 2025 was try to focus AEW, this entire year, around the people that want to be here and care about AEW and the people that work really hard for us every week. I think Mercedes is a great example of that. Somebody is really hard working and a very talented pro wrestler.”
In other news: Despite his victory, Will Ospreay suffered a tragic fate at AEW All In 2025.