wrestling / News

Tony Khan Explains What Went Wrong With the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch

July 6, 2021 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
AEW Revolution Ending, Eddie Kingston, Tony Khan Image Credit: AEW/Twitter

– During The Dan Le Batard Show, AEW President & Owner Tony Khan discussed the infamous ending to Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch from this year’s AEW Revolution. According to Khan, they tried to play it “too safe” with the match. Tony Khan also added that their expenses were refunded by the company they paid to work on the pyrotechnics. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

“I’ll never let the non-wrestling people…I was trying to be too safe and I let the professionals handle the stuff and they are guys who don’t understand wrestling. A professional pyrotechnic guy. They totally s*** the bed. I ended up not paying them. It was like $100,000 they ended up refunding for all the expenses of the match. I ended up not paying for the (exploding) barbed wire deathmatch, which I shouldn’t have. They screwed up royally. We put together something great. Kenny and Jon worked their asses off and all they had to do was set up the final explosion. This is because we used professional pyrotechnic people who are supposed to know. The next time we do this, and I will do it again because the match drew. Everything Jon and Kenny did up until that point was outstanding, it wasn’t their fault it didn’t go off. Long story short, it was a long time ago and we’ve bounced back since then. That was three months ago and everything has been pretty perfect and couldn’t have gone much better. I was really grateful that the next pay-per-view was up and did a big number.”