Tony Khan Compares AEW’s Growth to the AFL, Discusses What AEW Has Accomplished

– Following last night’s AEW All Out event, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan spoke during the post-show media scrum about the growth of AEW< comparing the company's market share to the AFL before the league merged with the NFL. Below are some highlights: Tony Khann what it means to be an alternative for pro wrestling: “Well, it’s a great question. The market share that AEW’s captured since we launched five years ago is unprecedented. We started with a market share of zero and we have a real market share we’ve now gone to England and twice we’ve sold over 50,000 tickets. We’ve set business records, we’ve done multiple multi-million dollar gates, and we’ve become an international success story. And we’re only continuing to build our worldwide business. As a historian of sports, as I’m getting ready for NFL kickoff and getting ready to head down to Miami for the Jaguars kicking off hours from now, I have to say that the last time that a challenger sports league in this continent had the market share, the percentage of the market that AEW has in their industry, would be the AFL. And the AFL was a great sports league. They had great stars. The NFL is the biggest media enterprise in the world and the AFL came in and they got real market share.” 

On NFL and AFL merging becoming the Super Bowl: “Of course, we all know they merged. It created the Super Bowl, the greatest game, the greatest entertainment property. Together, the NFC and the AFC form the NFL, the greatest sport, the greatest media enterprise, and the greatest marketing machine in the world.”

Tony Khan on what AEW has been able to do in the last five-plus years: “I think that for AEW, what we’ve been able to come in and do, it’s very true to our sport. You can tell I think that the people who work here really love professional wrestling. It’s something we really encourage no matter what you do whether you’re a wrestler, or whether you work in the production truck, or whether you work around the ring whatever you do in AEW, whether you’re working on a camera behind the camera, or whether you’re in front of the camera we really encourage people that love pro wrestling. And think that’s how we’ve kind of helped grow the market share here, and and also, I think we have a lot of like-minded fans and that’s what really I think helps us capture that excitement and that energy and you saw all kinds of different emotions and reactions but the crowd was on the edge of their seat all night in this building we’ve seen that many times before over the past five years, and that’s what we’ve come to expect from AEW. But I think also it’s getting be better and stronger, and the connection and the emotions are getting stronger and more intense. And tonight, I felt stronger about what we put out there than I ever have, and I feel stronger about the future of AEW than I ever have and I think that’s a really good note uh to say good night on because tonight took a lot out people in the backstage, myself included. It was a really intense night of wrestling, and when you saw what happened out there and when you know my personal relationships with the people that were out there in the ring and what happened tonight, I think that speaks for itself.”

Tony Khan on how much he loves pro wrestling: “I love pro wrestling and I love the people that I work with, especially some of the people you saw throughout the night. And saw what happened to them, but I wanted to come out here because I really appreciate all of you, and I wanted to come here and see you all face to face because I really appreciate all of you coming here to cover normally I would stay all night and answer every question. But tonight was a little different. I think it was a huge success as a business. I think it was a a great event, but some of the things that happened, some of the violence, and some of the outcomes and things that happened in the matches and after the matches, I think it would it’d be best to let those speak for themselves.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit 411mania.com for the transcription.