Tony Khan Opens Up About AEW’s Toughest Competition

AEW

Tony Khan has opened up about the toughest competition he will face when AEW Collision debuts on June 17 2023.

With AEW Collision becoming a fixture on the Saturday night schedule for TNT, there’s a high probability that the show will run against NFL games taking place in fall and winter.

During the AEW Double or Nothing media call on May 25, Tony Khan addressed the importance of Saturday night, saying:

“I believe that Saturday night is the single best event night for live shows and selling tickets. When this came up, I was very excited and, as you can see, we have booked from great venues, starting with the United Center and great venues after that.

“With the environment that Saturday night presents, in terms of being conducive with live events and people going out and buying tickets, we think it’s a great opportunity and it’s one of the reasons I was so excited when we were presented the offer for AEW Collision.”

He would then go onto discuss the competition that AEW Collision could face from football, stating:

“It’s something we’re talking about. I’m generally not in the business of trying to compete with the NFL.

“Once you get to December, the college football schedule opens up and there is more NFL on Saturday. That generally starts around mid-December.

“I actually worked to leverage that a little bit last year, I did an experiment running Ring of Honor pay-per-view on that first Saturday where there is very limited college football with only the Army-Navy game and no NFL.

“Once NFL starts in December, it’s obviously that much more competitive of a landscape on Saturday TV. That was definitely one of the considerations. It’s not like we’re competing 18 weeks out of the season with the NFL.

“Generally across 18 weeks, most of the games take place on Sundays or Mondays when we’re not running head-to-head.

“It’s definitely something to consider as we get into the latter part of the season, the NFL is truly the toughest competition in the world and that will be as tough of a head-to-head matchup as you get.

“We’ve had tough head-to-head battles before, going up against the World Series or big playoff games in basketball. This would be the toughest thing we’ve gone against with the NFL.”

Putting a show in competition with football is something that Khan believes will attract more attention from NFL, with the AEW owner concluding:

“I’m not necessarily looking forward to it, but it will be interesting. I can definitely say the AEW is very much on the radar of the top NFL executives.

“They’ve definitely taken notice of AEW and the ratings we’re getting and the media attention we’re getting. I suspect they’ll have another reason to have a look at what we’re doing and very complimentary of how AEW is growing.”

During the media call, Khan would also discuss the television deal between AEW and Warner Bros Discovery.

With AEW Collision having its premiere episode in Chicago, advertising has begun for the show which is widely expected to feature CM Punk.

This Sunday sees AEW return to Las Vegas for the 2023 edition of Double or Nothing.

The card for the AEW Double Or Nothing event on Sunday, May 28 is as follows:

AEW World Championship – MJF (c) vs. Darby Allin vs. Jack Perry vs. Sammy Guevara

TNT Championship Ladder Match – Wardlow (c) vs. Christian Cage

AEW Women’s World Championship – Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm

AEW World Tag Team Championship (Special Guest Referee Mark Briscoe) – FTR (c) vs. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett

Anarchy in the Arena – Adam Page, Kenny Omega & Young Bucks vs. Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta

Unsanctioned Match – Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho

Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn & Ethan Page vs. Isiah Kassidy, Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy

International Championship Blackjack Battle Royal – Orange Cassidy (c) vs. 20 TBA

TBS Championship – Jade Cargill (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie

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