Tony Khan was interviewed on the “In The Kliq” podcast to talk about AEW, the possibility of Tony and his father buying WWE, Adam Cole, and more.
Khan talking about the hiring of Mike Mansury:
“Mike comes in with a ton of experience in TV production. Now a lot of that set and those elements had actually been designed before Mike arrived, but as far as integrating the new set, Mike’s been essential. As far as any future developments, he’s also going to be essential. He’s a big part of the TV presentation. Mike’s going to help us run a first class production every week. I think we’ve had great shows. We had already done probably about 165 episodes, maybe a little bit more, before Mike showed up. Now we’re at 171 episodes of AEW Dynamite, which is amazing.”
“What we’ve seen since Mike came in, you know, he’s helped us really make the production smoother. I think the most important thing on a wrestling show is the wrestling matches and Mike has so much experience shooting the best wrestlers, and frankly, I think Mike has probably more insight and more experience in different facets of the production than anybody else you could have hoped to bring in. So I just really think he’s going to be a great addition to the team we have.”
Tony was asked if there are any updates with him and his father’s interest in buying WWE:
“Well, it’s a great question. I can’t say too much about that except to say that my dad and I are often exploring acquisitions, often exploring investments in the world of sports, and certainly in the world of pro wrestling, I think we’ve shown we’re open to making acquisitions. We’re open to making big investments. This is one of those situations where I probably don’t want to say too much and probably shouldn’t say too much except to say that, you know, we’re very interested in what’s happening and watching it very closely and if there’s a process, we’d like to be a part of it.”
On addressing the article that appeared in a D magazine revealing that Sting plans on retiring after his contract expires this year:
“I talk to Sting a lot. He is somebody who has been such a huge, huge boost to AEW since he arrived. Sting debuted a little over two years ago at the first Winter is Coming event in AEW. I catch up with him pretty frequently on a regular basis and I have to say, Sting’s motivation for pro wrestling is as high as it’s ever been. He loves what he’s doing. I do think he’s starting to think about what retirement will look like, but he’s also not slowing down at all in the present. So you know, I’m not ready to say exactly when Sting is going to hang it up, but I do know every time we get to see Sting go out there in AEW, it’s very special.”
On the status of FTR:
“Well, I do hope to see FTR back. They need some time to recover from what was one of the most intense years of wrestling any team has ever done. The schedule they went through, all the different places they worked, you know, they worked all over and won championships all over the world. This is a team that competed in AEW, but also competed at the top of Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. They were defending championships all over the world, all over the U.S., in London, Japan, and in Mexico as the AAA Lucha Libre champs, so they really were globetrotters. But these were, in addition to being hard hitting wrestling matches, they went through all kinds of stuff including this barbaric dog collar match at Ring of Honor Final Battle against the Briscoe Brothers that was to me, one of the most savage barbaric wrestling matches I’ve ever seen and that was for the Ring of Honor Tag Team Championship. That was following up on a lot of other crazy matches for FTR. So I think for those guys, we want to see them back in AEW and want to see them heal up and come back at 100% and we’re really looking forward to that hopefully. I think they’re a great team and we’d love to have them back.”
Tony was asked how close Adam Cole was to not returning to the ring:
“Well, I don’t think he ever ruled it out. But certainly, it was a very challenging recovery and there were points where I’m sure he had to question if he was going to make it back or what he was putting himself through because like he said, I mean, he didn’t leave the house to do anything but brain therapy. He wanted it so bad. He wants it so bad to come back to AEW to get back in the ring and wrestle for the fans on Wednesdays on TBS, Fridays on TNT. That’s his dream, and for us, it’s a dream come true having Adam Cole be a part of the AEW roster. It’s very exciting that he’s getting closer and closer to making a comeback. It’s a really inspirational story and people don’t even know half of it yet, and I’m excited for people to find out more about what Adam Cole has been through.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
