Tony Khan discusses AEW‘s introduction of house shows.
AEW will launch the House Rules series of non-televised live events on March 18 with a show in Troy, Ohio. The move comes after the company hired Jeff Jarrett as the Director of Business Development in 2022. By holding liv events, the company will bring its product to markets that might not typically get to host televised events, and wrestlers will gain more reps by competing at the shows.
Speaking with Stew Myrick for Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, Khan discussed the upcoming house show and noted that he has been working with Rafael Morffi on the live events. He also highlighted the impact that Jeff Jarrett has had, and he praised the WWE Hall of Famer’s mind for the business.
“It’s great. We have these great opportunities. We have a great team working on it,” Khan said. “We’ve had great AEW live events. I’ve worked closely with Rafael Morffi and the team for a long time. Now, we’ve had, on top of that we brought on Jeff Jarrett, who is one of the greatest minds in pro wrestling, on the promotional side but also in the ring. What a strategist, and truly still one of the best. It’s great to have Jeff Jarrett wrestling in big matches.
“You see Jeff Jarrett out there almost Wednesday night on TBS. He’s come in and been a great wrestler for us. I have so much respect for his mind in and out of the ring, in the wrestling side and also on the promotional side. He’s had a great impact on our live event business, and Jeff is a great person to have in my locker room, and I love working with him, but also, the live event business I think will add a lot, and The House Rules is the next step. I started this movement, and that’s why I enjoyed working with him on it.”
Khan also looked back on AEW’s first non-televised live event. The House Always Wins, which was held in April 2021, and noted that he has been waiting for the right time to release the footage.
“[Rafael] and I had put on an event with our team in Jacksonville that was actually our first quote-on-quote house show, The House Always, and now it’s become almost mythical because I’ve never released the tape, I’m waiting for the right time,” Khan said. “But people still talk about, for example, the main event was a TNT Championship match with Darby Allin versus The Butcher. The Butcher ended up, he was dominating the action, he ended up getting injured, and he had a hand injury that not only put him out of the music business, where he’s a big name, but also out of the tag team and wrestling business. It’s great having him back.”
Jarrett previously commented on his work on AEW live events. Check out his comments here.
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