Tony Khan Thinks AEW Double Or Nothing ‘Kicked the Crap’ Out of WrestleMania, Talks Pandemic Changing Their Goals

Tony Khan may not be the most objective observer in this matter, but he thinks Double Or Nothing ‘kicked the crap’ Out of WrestleMania. Khan discussed the highs and lows of the last year of AEW and discussed how the pandemic has changed a lot. During the process, he talked about how he believes their May PPV was way better than WWE’s April show. He also talked about how the pandemic really changed what their goals were as a company from putting fans in arenas, and how AEW has had to adjust as a result. You can check out highlights below:

On the changes that have taken place during the pandemic: “Since [AEW Revolution], the wrestling business has changed dramatically. Last year, we were the number one company in attendance per show in the world of wrestling. And this year is not really about trying to put fans into arenas. The philosophy of the business has changed completely in the last six months, and I feel like we’ve tried to roll with the punches. This weekend is going to be one of the highs. This weekend, I can’t tell you how excited I am for Saturday. I held back in the second hour last night, too much maybe because I wanted you to really anticipate the wrestling on this show because the main card on Saturday, bell to bell, is going to be the best wrestling you’ve seen since the pandemic.”

On Double or Nothing vs. WrestleMania: “The pandemic has been the best example of this. There have been such highs and lows in this pandemic, trying to do great things. To come back and do Double or Nothing and do that — I thought Double or Nothing was like the bastion of ingenuity. To be able to sit back, and it’s like, ‘Okay, well with what we have, how can we do a great pay-per-view?’

“I thought and I’m sorry, I’ll just be honest. We were both operating during the pandemic. I tested everybody coming in. This might be the pullout quote of the press conference, but I’m going to say it. I thought Double or Nothing kicked the crap out of WrestleMania. It was a much better PPV. We were both operating under difficult circumstances. I think ours, we were fortunate. It was a little bit later in the pandemic, and we had implemented testing and we were doing testing at that time. But when we did Double or Nothing, we were still the only ones doing testing. So it wasn’t like — you know, we had a good testing plan at that point. And what we came out of and did at that point, to set up a bubble and do that PPV, I was so proud of it. We’ve come a long way since Double or Nothing.”

you use any of the quote in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.