Tony Khan has signed a lot of big stars to the All Elite Wrestling roster, but he’s also helped build a lot of homegrown talent too.
All Elite Wrestling owner Tony Khan was a guest on Busted Open Radio on Wednesday with Dave LaGreca and Tommy Dreamer to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about the homegrown talent that the company has built over the years, like The Acclaimed, Wheeler Yuta, and Wardlow, Khan spoke with great pride about what they’ve been able to accomplish in three years.
“Well, I think sports is all about signing the top free agents, you bring in the best big names, and that’s what free agency and making big signings is all about in the world of pro sports,” Tony Khan began. “You also need to be able to develop your own talent, and developing your own talent can mean recruiting and looking for ideas for people. Wrestling is different than other sports. It’s not just about putting somebody in a position and then practicing and trying to beat out the other people who play the same position as they do. It’s very different.
“Somebody has to find a hook or reason that the audience is going to want to connect with them. And The Acclaimed as a concept I thought had a lot of advantages coming in. When I first talked to Max and Anthony about teaming, but really so much of it is their own personalities, things they’ve put together. The scissoring is something organically they started doing. They really got over, and a lot of it was about giving them opportunities on TV, and they learned a lot as they were out there.
“They were learning as they were wrestling on TV, and that’s the idea with young stars with young athletes. They learn in the game, and The Acclaimed have really developed and come so far. So I’m really proud of it. It’s a really exciting time in AEW, and there are a lot of exciting things building. When we started the company, I think Chris Jericho is a great example of a star we were able to build around. And Chris Jericho, in particular, is somebody who we’ve seen him raise his game to a new level.
“If you had never seen AEW or if it’s been a really long time, I think the three-year anniversary show tonight is a great one to check out. When AEW started, Sammy Guevara and Chris Jericho actually got together as a protege and a mentor in the first segment. It’s crazy how far they’ve both come in that time. All the great matches and big events they’ve both been in; the championships they both won. Now Chris Jericho, in particular, talk about the competition and how it brings the best out of people.
“We’ve had our homegrown stars, like The Acclaimed, reinvent themselves as The Acclaimed and take the best of themselves, get better in the ring and become AEW’s top tag team and one of the top young wrestling acts in the world. Then you have Chris Jericho, who’s built this huge name for himself. And right now, in 2022, Chris Jericho is working harder and has been wrestling at the highest level we’ve seen since he came to AEW.
“I’ve been watching Chris for about 30 years over 27 years that I’ve followed Chris’s career really closely. And this is one of his best years in wrestling. He’s lost 31 pounds in this year alone. And he’s come in and had, I would say, most of Chris’s best matches in AEW and probably most of his best matches in the last five plus years of his career have all been this year. And it’s because competition brings the best out of people. And whether it’s the homegrown stars over the past three years of AEW or the big names from the beginning. So many people are at their very best right now.”
READ MORE: Tony Khan: Matt Menard And Angelo Parker Are Two Of The Most Improved Wrestlers In The World
What do you make of Tony Khan’s comments? Are you impressed with the roster of homegrown talent that All Elite Wrestling has been able to build over the last three years? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
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