Conrad Thompson On Tony Khan Making AEW Successful: ‘He Not Only Has The Passion, But He Has The Balls To Pull It Off’

Conrad Thompson recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam while promoting the upcoming Starrcast convention that will be held in conjunction with All Elite Wrestling’s Double Or Nothing event in Las Vegas.

Thompson, who is a friend of Tony Khan, says he has faith in the AEW President pulling this new venture off:

“It’s a huge game changer. Tony’s my buddy, so I’m going to brag for a minute—somebody that has passion for the business and the sport, because those are two different things, there’s the entertainment side, but there’s also the business side—he not only has the passion, but he has the balls to pull it off. What I really like is the ambition to say ‘hey, why not?’ He thought he could put together something that was different, that was better, that was sort of not par for course, and he’s [making it happen].

I’m really excited to see what his vision is, because I know he’s the type of wrestling fan that would be listening to something like this if he weren’t in a meeting somewhere. He’s a guy that used to post on message boards and send in house show results to Dave Meltzer. As a senior trip, I wanted to go to the ECW Arena, and years later I found out when I had become friends with Tony that he had his Dad take him to the ECW Arena when he was in school. The idea that we have so many of these parallels in our fandom, and now I not only know a guy that has the same passion as I do, but the ambition to say, ‘Why not us? Why can’t we do it?’ That’s never really happened before in wrestling. There’s been people before that tried to understand the business of it, but they didn’t really have a passion for wrestling, and there’s been people with the passion, but didn’t have the business acumen to actually put it together. Never has somebody bet on themselves the way Tony Khan has bet on himself, and now as a result, Cody, the Bucks, all of those guys are doing the same thing. Everybody saw how successful All In was; I expect Double Or Nothing to be no less than double what All In was.”

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Thompson also spoke about where he sees AEW a year from now, saying we should be seeing a weekly TV show, and may be talking about talent potentially switching brands as well:

“I think a year from now, we’ll be talking about their weekly TV show. I think a year from now we’ll be talking about whose WWE contract is coming up, whose New Japan contract is coming up, and who is going back and forth. Is there an All Elite Wrestling guy’s contract coming up, and where is he going? I hope that this means there’s more options for wrestling fans, and more options for the performers in the business. I think it will be a sustainable, profitable business, and one that we as fans enjoy on a weekly basis.”

Check out the full episode with Conrad Thompson below:

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