Tony Khan Wants To See Shaq Back in an AEW Ring, Discusses Potential Untapped Markets

During a recent interview with Sportico at the Invest In Sports: New York event at the Nasdaq HQ, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan discussed potential untapped markets for AEW. Khan noted that he’d be interested in bringing AEW to France and Germany.

Additionally, when asked what dream signing would be for him who’s not a pro wrestler, Khan named NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who previously wrestled one match in AEW several years ago. Below are some highlights:

Tony Khan on Potential Untapped Markets for AEW

“Well, I absolutely love doing the shows here in the USA every week and 90% of our shows are here in America. We’re on every Wednesday on TBS and every Saturday on TNT and all the shows live stream and we’ve got a library of them on HBO Max. So, we’ve got a great collaboration with Warner Brothers Discovery here in America, which is first and foremost. That’s really the lifeblood of AEW is that the TBS, TNT, HBO Max relationship. I think for us, having great shows all over the world, having, uh, a roster, like I said, there’s great talent pools in Mexico, England, Japan, great places to recruit pro wrestlers, a lot of great wrestlers out of Canada. These are great markets for us, but there’s also some untapped markets. So, it’s a great question that you’re asking. I think that we’ve never done a show in France. I’d love to go to Paris for AW and all over France. I’d love to go to Germany, which has a great wrestling market. There’s a lot of great wrestling fans in Germany. I think that’d be a great place for us to have AEW at some point.”

On His Dream Signing for AEW That Isn’t a Wrestler

“That’s a great question. Some of the players, the Jaguars and Fulham over the years, people have asked me about getting them in the ring. That’s a tremendous question. If I thought about it for a moment, I think that if you look at the history of pro sports, pro boxing, there’s been some great uh pro boxers that have come into pro wrestling. There’s been some great MMA stars that have come in and done really well in pro wrestling, of course, a lot of the top athletes that are crossover stars. For me, the best person we had, and I would love for him to come back anytime, would be Shaq [Shaquille O’Neal]. Shaq’s 1-0, but then he’s been away from AEW. He disappeared out of the ambulance in 2021, and we haven’t seen him since. So, I would love to get Shaq back in the ring. He’s got to be one of the all-time greatest stars ever in basketball and he’s undefeated in AEW.”

Tony Khan on What He Thinks Separates Him From Other Great Minds at the Conference

“I don’t think there is a any difference. So, I think we’re all the same and 52 weeks a year, pro wrestling is the only sport without an off season. So, that’s a little different, but everybody here loves what they do and seems like a great group of people, and I really appreciate Sportico for inviting me to talk about AEW and the Jaguars and Fulham. But I think we’re all the same and there’s a lot of similarities with everybody here. So, uh, I don’t put myself anywhere different than anybody else here. It’s a great group of people here.”

Shaquille O’Neal competed on the March 3, 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite, successfully teaming with Jade Cargill against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet.nAEW presents a special Blood & Guts edition of Dynamite later tonight on TBS starting at 8:00 pm ET. It will also be simulcast on HBO Max.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Sportico with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.