AEW Tony Khan recently appeared on Pardon My Take and discussed varous topics, namely All Elite Wrestling and the Jacksonville Jaguars. In one highlight, Khan explained how the failure of World Championship Wrestling, which at one point was the most popular promotion in the world, is responsible for the birth of AEW.
“AEW exists in my opinion because of the failure of WCW,” said Khan. “Because they vacated this great time slot, this great relationship with TNT and TBS that we have, and that was the success of WCW is the outlet, the penetration they have in TNT and TBS. and of course the fans. And there are all these fans that wanted an alternative.”
AEW’s remarkable rise has given fans that alternative, and while the company continues to grow, its critics continue to draw links between AEW and WCW. But Khan explained how he has learned the latter’s fatal flaws in order to strengthen his own promotion.
“I think that some of the things that went wrong for WCW, in my opinion, were the creative control, they gave creative control to a lot of the wrestlers, and some of the storylines were asinine,” said Khan. “And some of the ideas were great, but it was a very disorganized show. And then when they brought somebody else in from the WWF to be a writer, named Vince Russo, he made it ten times worse. And he took a problem, and they had a massive hangnail and he just chopped off the arm. And so that was a part of the problem.”
Khan also explained how WCW’s mismanagement was also problematic, and he believes that the most successful wrestling companies have had one “commander” at the top, so he has followed that model.
In another highlight, Khan recalled how he pitched the concept for AEW at a party, where he was with some friends and he had the mindset of “let’s just try some s***.”
“I was at a party with some friends in Beverly Hills, and I saw my friend, who was a president of TNT and TBS, and it all just kind of clicked,” said Khan. “It’s probably something I’d thought about a million times, but I’d never, until you get in the moment, and I went up to him. And I said ‘Kev, are you looking at bidding on the WWE TV rights?’ And he said, ‘Yes, yes I am.’ And he said, ‘I’m not looking at bidding on both packages, I’m looking at bidding on one of them.’ And I said oh, knowing that that’s of course SmackDown.
“And he said, ‘It’s gonna go for probably over 150,’ and it ended up going for 205 million annually to FOX, but they were in on the bidding, at least initially.”
Khan then described how he told his friend about TNT’s relationship with WCW in an early pitch for what went on to become AEW.
“I said, ‘Kev, that’s interesting, but have you ever considered maybe we could do this?'” said Khan. “And he was like what do you mean? And I said, ‘Well, the company that you operate owned and operated 20 years ago today, which was true the day I said it, the number one wrestling company in the world. And he said, ‘Really?’ And I said, ‘Have you ever heard of WCW?'”
Of course, the rest is history.
The full episode is available here:
