Tony Khan Explains His Storytelling Philosophy As Being ‘Authentic To AEW’

Tony Khan recently detailed his philosophy toward storytelling in AEW, noting that he seeks a focus that is “authentic” to the company. AEW was largely been seen as having a rebound in 2025 after a lackluster year or two. The company essentially concluded its year with Worlds End 2025, which saw a new World Champion crowned in MJF.

Khan appeared on Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown with Jon Alba and was asked about his approach to storytelling. Alba asked about the criticism online toward AEW leaning more on great matches over stories. After running through AEW’s big stories of the year in detail, Khan talked about his own approach to how to tell stories in AEW. You can see highlights below:

On His Storytelling Philosophy:

“I think it’s best for AEW to tell stories and put on wrestling matches with a focus that is best described as authentic to AEW. I think we found a really great presentation when we launched into 2020, 2021. There’s great stories that people could talk about at length if they’re AEW fans and want to point out, ‘Oh, there were a lot of stories in the early AEW.’ Hangman and Kenny is a great example of that.

“And looking at what happened in the early days of AEW — well, if you want to look back at some of these early shows and see how great the wrestling was, see how great the TV was. And there’s lots of wrestling out there. There’s lots of movies and TV. But in the world of wrestling, there’s there are some accepted practices of how to put on a wrestling TV show. And I thought we carved out a really great path for ourselves.

On Bringing That Philosophy Back In 2025:

“And this year, I’ve been trying to make sure that the presentation is authentic to AEW. Not trying to be like any other wrestling company. We can take the best wrestling we have and focus on the characters, the wrestlers in AEW, their presentation, their relationships between each other, but with the focus on the wrestling. And you don’t have to sacrifice the wrestling to tell great stories. And we’ve shown that in 2025. I think we’ve had more great wrestling matches across the TV and pay-per-views, and told more interesting stories.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Takedown On SI with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.