Tony Khan Has Invited Warner Brothers Discovery Executives to Los Angeles Dynamite, Discusses Possible Double or Nothing Conflict With NBA

In an interview with The Sports Media Podcast (via Fightful), AEW CEO Tony Khan revealed that he invited Warner Brothers Discovery executives to attend the episode of AEW Dynamite in Los Angeles. He also spoke about the possibility of Double or Nothing going against Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals and what he plans to do about that. Here are highlights:

On inviting WB Discovery executives to the Los Angeles Dynamite: “We’re at The Forum (in Los Angeles) next week [June 1] and I’m really honored and it’s a great privilege for us because a lot of the top executives from Warner Brothers/Discovery are going to be at The Forum. We have a sold out show, a ton of fans coming. We’ve opened up more seats. It’s one of our biggest crowds in one of the biggest sports markets in the world and some of the greatest wrestling fans. It means a lot personally for me to be in The Forum to begin with, but I can’t tell you what it means that a lot of top executives from Warner Brothers Discovery are not only coming to the show, but they’re throwing a great event for us afterward in The Forum. Just to have their presence to begin with, it means so much they would come to the show, but also a lot of the top executives in the Warner Brothers Discovery family are going to have an event with us with a lot of people in AEW. We’re going to hang out and that means the world to us, getting to know each other better. They’ve been so supportive and great coming in. It means so much to us to be working with the largest producer of content now after this great merger and running such an efficient ship. To be a part of it, putting up numbers, working hard, showing up every week.”

On attending a boxing match that was delayed due to the NBA: “It made sense that, not only for Pacquiao, who is a big Celtics fan, was watching the game, but also for the fans at home who might be trying to watch both events. Nowadays, a lot of people who are buying the event might pick up a UFC or AEW show — My good friend Dana White, I don’t know their business, I would imagine that, on a Saturday, if there’s a big college football game, they might get people buying that weren’t watching the prelims that come in for the big matches at the end of their big fights. I don’t think that’s type of AEW, but there is a chance now, ten years later, that the Heat and Celtics are going to have a Game 7 and this time, the big ticket in Vegas, instead of Pacquiao-Bradley, is going to be Double or Nothing 2022.”

On booking around a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals: “If there is a Game 7, I’ve actually planned ahead, it’s a scenario I was hoping wouldn’t play out, but it will payoff. We’re starting very early on west coast time. The pre-show (at AEW Revolution), there was a lot of action for free. You got three great matches and it was a good one-hour wrestling show and then we did our second biggest buyrate we’ve ever done. I promise, there will not be any long gap, I’m not going to hold it up, I planned to where we’re going to start a little later in terms of when the action is going to start and we have a little more in the window. I expect a total night of wrestling, it’ll be similar to Revolution, but I planned ahead in case there was a Game 7, I didn’t know it would be Heat and Celtics again, but I had a feeling I would go back to Vegas ten years later and it would be something similar. I hope one of these teams can finish it off. One of them, it would be great if they could end it in six games and it doesn’t come to where we need to take advantage of it, but I have put it in play to where we have later, we’ve never needed to take advantage of that before, going longer on pay-per-view. For the live fans, it’s very early and it’s similar to UFC and boxing do all the time as far as when they put the big fight in the ring. I’m not going to have a long gap, we have plenty of action, it’s going to be a great night. I promise, if there is a Game 7, a lot of the best action will be at the very end. There is so much on the card and I plan to leave a lot late, also, the show would start before Game 7, so there would be great action before the game and after. I’m trying to plan around it and the pay-per-view window. The Buy-In, will maybe not have as much action as the last show, but I plan to put more in the pay-per-view. It’ll be the same total amount of wrestling we’ve been doing.”