Tony Khan says putting matches on the Buy-In before pay-per-views is a good opportunity for talent.
Khan took part in a media call on Thursday to promote this weekend’s AEW All Out pay-per-view and fielded a question from WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard about the placement of the ‘Tooth And Nail’ match on the Buy-In part of the event. When asked to explain to critical fans why this is a good opportunity and not a demotion, Khan agreed with that take and said they’ve always tried to feature talent on the Buy-In to get more people to buy the actual pay-per-view.
“That’s absolutely true and I’ve always felt that way. From the first pay-per-view we did, we put some of our biggest stars, including Hangman [Page] and MJF on the Buy-In. The idea of it, the reason it’s called the Buy-In, is because we try and put exciting stuff on this first hour of the show so that people will pay to see the whole show.
“I love wrestling fans and I’ve often said that wrestling is my favorite economy, and it is a strange economy. It’s the only place in the world where you’ll have people complaining about getting something for free, they don’t have to pay $50 for. I think that’s great—the prestige of the quarterly pay-per-views, it shows how important we made getting on the main card but at the same time this is a great important match for us. I think you’ll see a lot more of Britt and Big Swole and I’m excited about this. This isn’t going to be a traditional wrestling match. The pay-per-view is going to be very, very wrestling heavy and not as story-heavy.”
Khan talked about how they balance events with storytelling versus wrestling, and he says their match is going to be cinematic and great.
“We thought for the live crowd, given the kind of match they’re going to have in this situation, this isn’t—Britt and Swole can and will have great wrestling matches. I think this will be a little bit different but it will be a lot of fun and it’s going to be free for everybody to check out. I think all the great wrestling that everybody is going to get on the pay-per-view will be worth the money.”
“It’s a great question but I don’t think it affects the status of the match, it’s more about the tone of the match, frankly, and also it’s good placement. It’s a good advertisement for broad fans to AEW. We think it’s going to be a great match and it’s going out to a big audience.”
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Check out the full media call with Tony Khan below:
