Tony Khan says AEW has much bigger stars and better wrestlers than NXT

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

AEW President Tony Khan spoke with Todd Martin of the Los Angeles Times and expressed confidence in AEW Dynamite’s weekly battle with the NXT television series. “The AEW roster has much bigger stars and better wrestlers frankly than the NXT roster,” Khan said. “The AEW shows are going to be in major arenas instead of a smaller building in front of a few hundred people. But I think it’s a good competition for us. It attracts more fans to the idea of the Wednesday night wars. I think the most compelling story in wrestling these days in many ways is AEW vs. WWE. Fans see the competition between wrestling companies, which is the one thing traditionally everyone has known is real.

“People can question the validity of other things, including stuff you and I know is real stuff but other people think is wrestling trickery. The one thing I think everyone knows in real life is these companies don’t like each other and they want to stop each other from getting viewers and want to get the most market share they can possibly get for themselves. That realism to me was one of the driving forces of the resurgence of wrestling in the mid-90s and then led to the decline of the wrestling business after that competition ceased.” Read the full story at LATimes.com.

Powell’s POV: Khan seems to be channeling Kenny Omega with his comments about the NXT wrestlers. I like the bravado and confidence, though only time will tell which brand will win the war. There’s a lot more to the article than Khan’s quotes, as Matt Jackson and Cody are also quoted, and there’s a good overview written by Martin. A must read piece heading into tonight’s first battle between the two brands.