"It's not like WCW" - Tony Khan on creative control in AEW contracts
AEW President Tony Khan is considered a student of wrestling history, given his comprehensive knowledge of the industry's past. This knowledge has served him well, both creatively and financially, during AEW's early stages. A little over two years since its first pay-per-view, AEW has become one of the most buzzworthy companies in wrestling.
It's fair to say that Khan has learned from the failures of other promotions, including WCW, which was once the leading company in the industry. But among other issues, wrestlers having creative control led to WCW's downfall. Based on Khan's comments during the AEW All Out 2021 Media Scrum, it seems like the AEW president is avoiding this same mistake.
Tony Khan discussed several topics, including the nature of his collaborative relationship with CM Punk. Khan stated that while he's happy to work with CM Punk, if he books something that Punk doesn't like, they will discuss how to move forward. That doesn't mean Punk or anyone else has creative control in AEW.
"Not one person, including Mr. Punk and everyone on the roster, has creative control," said Khan. "It's not like WCW and that is one of the issues with WCW. When you have a person who has creative control in their contract, it can hold up the show. I don't know how you get through TV doing that. I can't imagine if I had to deal with that. What I do have is a lot of people I want to sit down and talk to and hear what they want to say." (H/T Fightful)
Khan emphasized that, no matter what, he wants what's best for the wrestlers on his roster, the storylines AEW is telling, and the fans' overall enjoyment.
The full media call is available here.
AEW All Out 2021 will have a 'stacked' card
AEW All Out 2021 is on September 5, 2021, and it will feature CM Punk's first match in over seven years. Plus, Christian Cage will challenge Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship. With these exciting matches in mind, during the media call, Tony Khan stated that "All Out is the biggest card" the company has ever presented.
"We have so many great stars, we have a great roster and it affords me the ability to book a lot of big matches," said Khan. "We have huge matches on Dynamite, there's gonna be a great card at Arhur Ashe for AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam. But really, All Out is the biggest card we've ever presented, period. And it's the biggest pay-per-view card and there are some epic matches and a lot of it was planned very far ahead."
With that said, it'll be interesting to see how the show pans out this weekend.
Are you looking forward to AEW All Out? What do you think about Khan's comments regarding creative control? Sound off below.
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