Tony Khan held a media scrum after AEW Double or Nothing 2026 in Queens, NY, addressing multiple business and creative angles, including the possibility of AEW running a major event during WrestleMania 43 weekend (Saudi Arabia, April 2027), the Paramount-WBD merger, Madison Square Garden, and the future of the MyAEW streaming service.
Khan first addressed whether AEW could capitalize on the international WrestleMania weekend gap.
“I think it is potentially viable. And it’s a very interesting thought. We’ll have to see what happens in the world landscape between now and then, but it’s a very interesting possibility.”
Khan called Double or Nothing 2026 “one of the best nights in the history of the company.” He praised Mick Foley and Renee Paquette as a future broadcast pairing and indicated they would be doing the Buy In together “for a long time to come.”
On the Paramount-WBD merger, Khan was more aggressive than in his Bloomberg TV appearance earlier in the week. He said the Paramount-Skydance deal is done and reiterated his strong personal relationship with David Ellison through their NFL collaborations. He also took aim at one of the post-merger structural concerns.
“He didn’t like Netflix’s idea of separating TBS and TNT from HBO Max.”
On Madison Square Garden, Khan retold the story of the first Dynamite being planned for the venue. Per Khan, MSG management called him to express initial interest in hosting the show before calling back to say they were no longer interested. Khan compared the situation to Lucy from the Peanuts comic strip pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. MJF has spent the past two weeks publicly campaigning for an AEW MSG show.
On the New York State Athletic Commission regulations, Khan acknowledged the NYSAC’s no-blood-and-no-brawling-in-crowd policy that limited the Double or Nothing booking. He thought AEW hit a home run with the show within the regulatory constraints, and was glad to keep the state of New York happy.
On the ROH vs AEW differentiation question, Khan said the ROH show is structured around younger talent (particularly women), pure wrestling rules, and a different presentational format. He also said he wanted to make sure veteran ROH stars had a presence on the television show.
On Darby Allin’s title reign, Khan said he was proud of Allin’s run and that Allin had completed essentially everything he set out to do. Khan called it one of the greatest World Championship reigns in AEW history. He also said he was interested to see what Kevin Knight would say after turning against Darby Allin.
On MyAEW (the company’s streaming service), Khan said AEW is focused on the international market for the platform but has a domestic component planned. He confirmed that additional promotions will be included on the service in the future.
On Dynamite Wednesday, Khan said he has several matches planned but cannot put the show together until wrestlers are medically cleared after Sunday’s PPV.
Khan also sent his best wishes to Rebel (Reba Mae Smith), the AEW personality currently being treated for ALS. He floated the possibility of doing a Fight for the Fallen event to benefit ALS research, encouraging fans to support that cause.
On the use of CMLL’s micro wrestlers (the “mini” division wrestlers), Khan said he had not given much thought to the question but would put it under consideration.
