Tony Khan has been a full-time wrestling promoter for right at six years and seven months. The ROH owner sees AEW as his top priority, where he wears many hats: President, CEO, General Manager, Head of Creative, Executive Producer. One of Khan’s very curious processes was leaked from within AEW, but sources are also revealing a major change made to improve the company.
Khan recently made surprising statements on how he views himself in AEW. As a young company, All Elite Wrestling has faced immense criticism over various creative decisions, and for the final say always coming down to the inexperienced Khan.
There has been some praise in recent years for upgrades to the creative team, which includes names like Bryan Danielson, Jennifer Pepperman, Dean Malenko, QT Marshall, Sonjay Dutt, Jerry Lynn, Pat Buck, Christopher Daniels, and Will Washington. Certain top talents also provide creative input at times, such as Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, among others.
AEW’s actual creative process, or lack thereof, has also provoked the ire of fans and industry insiders at times. Word now is that up until now, Khan has had meetings to go over shows and storylines, but many people did not consider these meetings to be production meetings, according to F4Wonline’s Bryan Alvarez. The previous process saw Khan meet with one group of people, then another group, and another, then talk with an agent to bring it all together. The lifelong wrestling fan would hold these meetings throughout the day, and he saw these as production meetings, but others would say these were not actual production meetings.
Tony Khan’s AEW Creative Change Revealed
A major aspect of the AEW creative process recently changed. Bryan Alvarez further noted on Wrestling Observer Live that Tony Khan is holding actual production meetings these days.
Instead of the aforementioned method, Khan now gathers announcers, top agents, certain executives, and others, in one room, and from there they will go over whatever show is being presented that night. These proper production meetings have been a thing for a few months now.
It's an honor tonight, right before
Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite, to stand beside these 2:
my childhood hero Ricky Steamboat + the great Bryan Danielson!3 @TBSNetwork legends from 3 different eras:
@RealJeffJarrett vs @bryandanielson,
with Ricky Steamboat on commentary TONIGHT pic.twitter.com/tag85rIcwS— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) August 7, 2024
Tony Khan still meets individually with various people involved, but before showtime, the sports executive brings together key behind-the-scenes workers in one room. From there, this core group of AEW employees work cooperatively to nail down plans for the night.