Tony Khan on AEW’s Upcoming TV Broadcast Rights Negotiations, QT Marshall’s Exit

– During a recent interview with The New York Post, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan spoke on a number of topics including AEW’s broadcast TV rights, which will be negotiated later next year, the competition Collision faces on Saturday, the recent exit of QT Marshall from AEW, and more. Below are some highlights:

Khan on wanting to make Wembley Stadium a yearly destination for AEW: “I want to go back and build and have that tradition of doing the biggest stadium show of the year in Europe and having people from all over the world travel to London for that show.”

On AEW reaching a new TV broadcast rights deal in 2024: “A huge milestone for us will be in 2024, we will have our media rights agreements domestically put in place and we have all these great relationships all over the world. The very lucrative U.S. media rights will be settled in 2024 and that’s very exciting for us.”

Tony Khan on QT Marshall leaving AEW: “I really, really like Mike [Cuellari], QT. I worked with him for a number of years. He has very high aspirations and rightfully so. He’s a very talented person. He’s got a great mind for wrestling and he’s a very talented wrestler. He cares a lot about the people around him. He’s a very giving person. He also does want to have an in-ring career and I think that’s important to him and he is someone that offers a lot to any company and I have only very positive things to say about QT.”

On the competition AEW faces on Saturday with Collision: “Being on Saturday, that’s a big change from the launch in the summer and college football competition is very challenging and we’ve held up well. I think when the competition is taken into account it will be a pattern because this is our first year. I’ll expect that we’ll see growth. Year in and year out, as long as we’re doing Saturday wrestling you have to account for the strength of college football. In November, basketball really ramps up and there’s even more competition on TV. It will be important in their first year with Collision we establish these cyclical viewing patterns that become the norm.”

His thoughts on AEW World Champion MJF dealing with injuries: “He’s injured and he’s a very determined person, he’s an incredibly hard worker. He’s become a fighting champion and he wants to fight so he’s gonna fight on. … I respect MJF for fighting through a hard injury.”