AEW’s Tony Khan Talks About CM Punk And His ‘Five Year Plan’

It was reported just this past weekend that AEW CEO and President Tony Khan wanted CM Punk as his ‘first pick’ for the promotion before the Young Bucks or Chris Jericho. Khan spoke with Chris Van Vliet in a lengthy interview about AEW’s television deal, the aforementioned CM Punk, the comparisons between AEW and WCW, and much more.

Tony Khan was a big fan of ECW, and was therefore asked if he would like to see AEW have a similar ‘edgy’ style:

“I think we are doing some very edgy things and I think what you see on our social media is not necessarily what you will see in our television product which I do expect to be much more advertiser friendly than ECW. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t push the envelope sometimes, that doesn’t mean that you won’t see really exciting high spots. A lot of what made ECW great was the work and we’re going to have the best caliber in ring stuff in the world.”

Many people have been comparing AEW to WCW. On the topic of the comparisons between the two promotions, Khan had the following to say:

“I don’t want to compare us to any other wrestling company. We’re AEW and we’re doing something very different. What’s great is what we will offer, which will bring people back to 20 years ago, and there will be a major alternative. There will be a second company with great production values and great exposure, it’ll be easy to watch and give you shows with the top wrestlers and the best matches on a regular basis. That’s something that hasn’t been readily available to people outside of WWE in a long time, almost 20 years.”

Khan also spoke about how he wants the touring schedule for his performers to be light, something that WWE doesn’t have:

“For us, I want to offer a quality of life and a work/life balance that is the best and is unparalleled in the business for the best quality of life. What that means is less time on the road, but still working regularly, still performing on pay-per-view and on television in the future. I believe you don’t need to spend 6 days on the road to make a good living as a wrestler or 5 days on the road per week necessarily”.

Khan was also asked if he wanted to be an on-air personality for the company:

“I have thought about it and I’m not going to do it. We have some of the greatest on-air performers in the world and look, I am who I am in the promotion. I am the president and the CEO and the founder of this company but it’s not going to be me all over TV and I’m not going to be doing a lot of interviews or backstage segments on television.”

He also discussed AEW’s television deal:

“I have negotiated some things and I am very excited about what we are doing. I do think it’s very important to give wrestling fans a better quality of life. I think 20 years ago was honestly in many ways not nearly as good of a time to be a wrestling fan. There was not nearly as much wrestling out there and available if you were really looking for it. If you are really looking for great wrestling now there has never been a better time to be a wrestling fan.”

The 5-year plan for AEW is that we will have built up a brand, we will have built up a roster, we will have established ourselves as a top brand in wrestling for people who want fast paced exciting action and want a product that is more of a sporting based product. I’ve talked a lot about how I want wins and losses to matter because at the end of the day, that’s why you’re having the match. There’s going to be a winner and a loser and it matters. It should matter to your standing in the company and it should matter to your standing in your chase for the championship which at the end of the day is what everyone is trying to attain”.

Finally, Khan was asked if he would like to see former WWE Champion, CM Punk, sign for the promotion:

“He’s a great talent and a great performer, I don’t know if that was Phil in the ring, but he’s great. I’m from Illinois and I grew up around Chicago sports and he’s obviously very popular there.”

Thanks to WrestleZone for the transcription.

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• All Elite Wrestling
• cm punk
• tony khan
• AEW

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