"It's got to be constantly changing" - Tony Khan on continuing to add to the AEW roster
Tony Khan doesn't sound like he's done growing the AEW roster anytime soon.
This afternoon, AEW held an All Out conference call with Tony Khan to take questions from the media. When asked if he thought AEW was approaching a full roster, Khan disagreed and said he believes that there is no such thing as a full roster, unlike the NFL.
"I don't think there is any such thing as a full roster," Tony Khan said. "I think my experiences in football, both in the NFL and in England and with AEW, you're constantly looking to evolve the roster. It's got to be constantly changing, and one of the benefits we have with AEW as opposed to the NFL or English football is I'm not really capped by a roster size or a salary cap. So it's largely my prerogative in terms of how to expand the roster, how many people to sign, and how much we can grow. And so, we are under different limitations in other sports, but I think the idea is still the same that you want to grow, evolve, and keep building."
Tony Khan talks about adding 2.0 and Daniel Garcia to the AEW roster
Tony Khan shared the story of how he signed 2.0 and aligned them with one of their current breakout stars, Daniel Garcia.
"I didn't go into this year thinking that I was going to take 2.0, who I'd seen a number of times as independent guys, and I've seen them on NXT, and I thought they were very good, I had no idea they were going to get released," Tony Khan said. "They've been super valuable to us, and I really like Daniel Garcia. He was a guy on AEW Dark who was working without a contract or anything and doing a very good job. And I thought he had a lot of potential and when I saw 2.0 available I thought there was really something there, and it would fit the need of what we had at the time for this spot we had."
Tony Khan admits that not every new signing needs to be the caliber of a Jon Moxley or a CM Punk, but that he's looking to grow the roster from top to bottom:
"Every signing doesn't have to be CM Punk or Jon Moxley the biggest -- you know, names like that like," Tony Khan said. "You can also sign talents that can really come in and enhance the quality of the show and stack up and help your roster. So I think a lot of different philosophies about roster building, and I have. And I know you're really looking to build from the top and the bottom. And, and that's how you grow, frankly, all the way through. There's all kinds of different people that can fill the spots. As we expand our programming and grow we've expanded the roster a lot. So I don't know if there ever is really such a thing as a full roster."
What do you think about the current state of the AEW roster? How many more wrestlers would you add? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the All Out media call with a link back to this article for the transcription.