"Such a great blessing" – Tony Khan heaps praise on former WWE champion
Tony Khan has signed several top superstars for AEW in recent times, but it was one of his first big-name signs for whom he reserved special praise when he spoke to the Associated Press: Jon Moxley.
Two years ago today... What a moment and AEW debut for Jon Moxley.
Who's ready for #DoubleOrNothing 2021? https://t.co/Df0a0LdVYi
Moxley made a dramatic debut at AEW Double or Nothing 2019 laying waste to both Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, becoming the first high profile name to jump from WWE to AEW.
"I didn’t expect somebody with so much recognition and as much experience wrestling on TV as Jon Moxley would become available so quickly. He has been such a great blessing for this company. He was a great champion through the pandemic. He’s still one of our most important stars today. I didn’t expect that at the time. Since then, absolutely. By making this a great home for wrestling and a place where wrestlers want to work, we’ve had so many people that want to come here, and have defected. It is more than I ever could have dreamed," Tony Khan said.
Since Moxley, several ex-WWE talents have preferred AEW like Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, but the former Dean Ambrose will always be the trendsetter in this regard.
Daniel Bryan just main evened WrestleMania. Adam Cole was a long-reigning NXT Champion who was treated very well. And still both chose to come to AEW. This is something special happening right now.
Tony Khan believes AEW's deal with TNT is "very fair"
Khan and AEW have a deal with WarnerMedia that reportedly earns them about $45 million a year. With Dynamite regularly topping cable TV ratings, TNT is quite pleased with them.
“Our TNT deal is very fair. I think we’ve performed at such a high level that we’ll justify a big increase on our next deal,” Tony Khan said. “We are very fortunate to have their support. The timing of that deal was great, to get that in January 2020, that is a huge revenue stream for us.”
AEW Dynamite has beaten Monday Night RAW in key demo ratings for two weeks in a row, so Khan might be looking for a bump in the current deal when it's time to renew.