wrestling / News

Tony Khan Says AEW Not Actively Looking For New Signings, Talks Intergender Matches and Creative Team

June 30, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
AEW Logo Sandra Gray, AEW Figure Fighters, Kevin Kelly Image Credit: AEW

– During the media scrum after AEW Fyter Fest, Tony Khan weighed in on whether the company is looking to fill out their roster further, why they won’t do much (if any) intergender wrestling and more. You can see the scrum below via Chris Van Vliet as well as some highlights:

On how they plan to incorporate the roster on the shows: “You’re not gonna see everybody on the show every week, stuffed in just for the point of having them on the show, just to get them into small segments. I want to try and get people in meaningful segments every week on every show. So it means that some people, not everyone’s gonna be on every show. A lot of our best performers weren’t on this show and a lot of top people, and at Fight For the Fallen there’s gonna be top people who aren’t on the show. The biggest PPVs, we’re going to try and get every big name, you know, at Double or Nothing and All Out. And [in the] future, the biggest PPVs that are on our roster whether it’s four or five of them a year, you’re going to see everything but the kitchen sink. But I think that there’s a difference with like a four-hour PPV with a one-hour pre-show [in terms of] how many people you can get on, to this [Fyter Fest] where it’s a streaming special where you’re scheduling a one-hour pre-show and then a little under three [hours]. And then you’re planning, ‘Well okay, a two hour TV show,’ you’ll obviously be able to use even less people. So I just think rotating performers and trying to make sure you have everyone keeping storylines, that’s where social media will be involved, and trying to do hopefully more hours of content trying to incorporate more people. But in a schedule that is manageable, because I think you can keep people relevant and give people things to do in wrestling without keeping them on the road like five, six days a week.”

On how much space is left on the roster for more talent: “We’re not actively out trying to sign people to fill out the roster. I don’t think we need depth across the roster, I think we have like a really deep, awesome roster and we have top stars, too. So it would have to be something really, really captivating. So you know if we’re making moves in free agency, it’s because we feel really strong [about the performer].”

On how the creative team has evolved: “Since its inception, it’s been a committee. I think it’s like, a lot of wrestling companies probably function with one person who at the end of the end of the day has to make calls and go over everything. But with a bunch of people working together, we have a system. We have a group of coaches that go through each match and every match as a coach, and then we have the EVPs who creatively are working together on everything. But not everyone’s necessarily working the same amount on everything. For example, Kenny Omega, super involved and personally coaching the women’s matches. But me, I’m going everything with everybody to some degree, and so yeah. I mean, it’s a committee and we have a lot of people who are really involved at different levels. But yeah, to answer your question, I think it’s probably set up like a committee.”

On intergender wrestling: “Probably won’t see it in AEW. If there was one thing in at, I’ll just be like super-frank about this. How many of you guys were at All In? The battle royal, does everybody remember when Jordynne Grace got hit in the face? That was probably the one thing I didn’t like about All In … and I don’t think that’s cool. I’m really against, you know, domestic abuse and I don’t think — I’m not saying that is [what intergender wrestling is], and it’s a really complex question and I knew it would come up sooner or later, but it’s probably not what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna focus on a men’s division, singles and tag, and a women’s division, singles and tag, and have those divisions. Could it be some mixed division, I haven’t thought that much about it. But mixed matches are probably not what we’re gonna focus on.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.