JJ Williams
Tony Khan says losing Cody Rhodes was a “huge challenge”.
The AEW President recently spoke with the Grapsody team about Rhodes’ departure, WCW comparisons, and Paige VanZant.
Khan was asked about fans comparing AEW and WCW and responded:
I think the reason people want to compare the two companies above all else is that we are the only two wrestling companies that exist on TBS and TNT and both aired on TBS and TNT. There are some people who worked at both companies. I think Sting is an important face of both companies. Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross were the voices of both companies
But [AEW and WCW] are very different and many of the reasons why WCW would disappear or go out of business are not really realistic business concerns for AEW because it is not a network owned company or even a media property. It’s a family business owned, operated and run by me and I love wrestling. I’m not going anywhere.
Khan also mentioned that Honor Club reached its all-time high for subscribers. He said:
“Honor Club, with just re-launching the historic library, not putting out new content every week yet, based on people watching the archive library, we’ve already reached the all-time record for Honor Club subscribers in just a few weeks. And so that’s it. TV comes out and once Final Battle comes out in that 90 day archive, it’s been a few weeks since Final Battle, so now, which is maybe 10 or 11 weeks until it goes live and I’ll be announcing the start from the Ring of Honor weekly series.”
He wouldn’t rule out doing an ROH show during WrestleMania Weekend, noting that he was “interested” and “open” to the idea.
Khan was asked about Chris Jericho’s ROH Championship reign and responded:
People really liked Ocho and he gave us great reviews several times. Claudio and Chris kicked off the Grand Slam and that was the first of Ocho’s reign. Chris had eight matches in it and won the Ring of Honor world title from Claudio and Claudio regained it in the eighth match of Chris’ eighth world title reign.
I think [Jericho’s match with] Ishii wasn’t just a classic match, in my opinion a five star match and one of the best main events in AEW history. Also, it was a huge ratings success for us.
Chris against Bryan [Danielson] in Toronto, a huge success for us.
He also said that losing Cody Rhodes was a big challenge for the company. khan said:
Anytime you lose a star of the caliber of Cody Rhodes it will have a huge impact on your company and it will affect a lot of different departments and a lot of different things in terms of presentation and behind the scenes. I personally like Cody a lot and I know Cody very well and I think in the time that he was here he was very involved in so many different facets of the beginning of AEW and what we were about.
When he left, it was a big challenge. Going into Revolution, we had so many great storylines that I think really helped us and it helped keep us strong that people were so invested in what was going on in AEW at the time.
Around the time Cody left, Jon Moxley came back and that was a huge help to us.
Khan was asked to update Paige VanZant’s status and responded:
Paige VanZant makes a lot of money and commands a lot of dollars, but I’m also very interested in that.
We would love to have you back. [She] he has a great attitude, he did very well in the match. With the right fight and the right opponent, yes, I would love to.
Khan also mentioned that if CM Punk hadn’t been injured, there were plans for him and FTR to work as a trio leading to Forbidden Door.
The AEW president was asked how he tries to make everyone on the roster happy and responded:
You’re never going to make everyone happy and you have to focus on that.
There are dozens of wrestlers featured on Dynamite and Rampage every week and over the course of those three hours you see a lot of names, but there are also dozens of names in AEW that you don’t see every week and sometimes they’re silent about it. And there’s a reason, sometimes there’s a reason, someone’s injured, working on another project, someone’s being repackaged, or, you know, frankly, there just aren’t enough slots in three hours.
On other sports teams, you don’t see that as much. It’s not very common in the NFL for the backup quarterback to upset the coach because he’s not playing. It’s not very common in the NBA for the reserve guard to tag the coach because he’s not getting minutes.
Alright, I understand that everybody wants to fight and everybody wants to do things.
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