Tony Khan Reveals How He Got Idea For Ringside Crowds At Empty Arena Shows

One of the things that has separated AEW Dynamite from WWE programming is having wrestlers and staff at ringside acting as an audience.

This has not only provided background noise but also special unique interactions between stars and even been used as a plot device to further storylines and create matches.

The promotion’s president and CEO Tony Khan spoke on the latest Unrestricted podcast about where he got the idea.

He said he was inspired by watching Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show and other non-wrestling TV products.

Khan said:

“When everything shut down, I watched a lot of other programming. I watched a lot of wrestling. I watched a lot of other stuff too and tried to get an idea of what people were doing with the restrictions without an audience. The thing that really captivated me was I have a really good friend who is a writer for Jimmy Fallon who works on the tonight show. I watched the show Jimmy Fallon did without an audience and he had his writers and his band in the studio, a small group of people and their laughter and the exchange they had made all the difference to other talk shows where they were out there cold. I thought the Tonight Show and Jimmy Fallon were really onto something and I thought that is what I want to do… The next day I figured we can have a babyface side and a heel side and that was good too.”

Thanks to PWInsider for the quote

• Dynamite
• EMPTY ARENA
• tony khan
• AEW

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