By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Tony Khan appeared on the Battleground podcast on Wednesday. The following are among the highlights of the interview, which can be viewed below or via YouTube.com
-Khan on why he created the AEW National Championship: “Well, we’ve never had any champion from AEW go to Ring of Honor to defend a title,” Khan said. “There’s never been that, so that was something interesting. But also knowing that CMLL and New Japan are very interested in booking an AEW champion, and all of them had asked about Ricochet specifically, so that worked out very well. Ricochet has gone and represented AEW in New Japan, he’s represented AEW in CMLL, and he’s also a great TV star on our show. He’s somebody that I would love to have in any kind of a championship match in AEW at any time.”
-Khan on AEW in 2025: “I think AEW is where the best wrestle. I think that we have the best roster of wrestlers in the world today, and we’re putting on consistently awesome shows. This has been an awesome year for AEW. We’re the challenger brand in pro wrestling, and I think we’ve really closed the gap in a very meaningful way in 2025 in a number of key metrics, and this is a big year for us because we’ve been doing wrestling every Wednesday night on TBS, and every Saturday night on TNT for many years, and we continue to do that… But we’ve also added millions of new homes that can reach AEW this year with AEW on HBO Max.”
Powell’s POV: Khan’s comments about AEW’s 2025 stemmed from the host asking him about his booking philosophies. I have no idea which “key metrics” he was referring to when he claimed the company has closed the gap, but perhaps that will come up during his ROH Final Battle media call on Thursday. Khan also spoke about what he would consider success for AEW five years from now, balancing his work in AEW with his Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC duties, and the state of the AEW roster.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
They closed the gap in cocaine infused delusions. The company will never be good as long as the dipshit is in charge.