"He got a pop, even from the network side"- Tony Khan reveals TNT's reaction to hardcore legend's death match in AEW
Tony Khan booked Nick Gage in a death match at AEW Dynamite against Chris Jericho. The hardcore legend got a "pop" from TNT executives, according to the AEW boss.
Nick Gage and Le Champion battled it out in a death match in the main event as part of the Labors of Jericho storyline. The match was a typical Nick Gage affair as the audience witnessed light tubes, glass slabs and pizza cutters.
When Nick Gage brought out the light tubes. #AEW https://t.co/E0S32CDKqU
While viewers were split over the decision to televise such a match on national television, Tony Khan told the Wrestling Perspective Podcast that executives at TNT were aware of Nick Gage's work.
"I wouldn't want to watch a whole card of it or for six months straight, but I think for a big match of big payoff, it can be really good. In that case, if we're going to bring in Nick Gage, I thought it made sense to do it that way as opposed to having Nick Gage doing Marquis of Queensbury or chain wrestling, even though he's a very capable wrestler. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun and even on the TNT side, we had the marketing call, and going into it people were fans of Nick Gage and people knew him. When I said we were going to bring him in, he got a pop, even from the network side. People all over are familiar with his work and it was definitely a calculated thing. When Chris mentioned him, I knew it was going to be a crazy match. I gave it the thumbs up because that's the spirit of AEW, independent wrestling and he's a big thing in independent wrestling," Tony Khan said. (h/t: Fightful Select)
Tony Khan stated that the AEW-NJPW relationship didn't get off to the best start
Remember how much Okada loves Chuck Taylor, can’t wait to see them together again #AEW https://t.co/a0Or2Fwoeb
Tony Khan stated during the Full Gear media call that NJPW was "pissed off" with him when he started his promotion.
"It's a great relationship. I really enjoy working with New Japan. It's changed a lot since AEW started because when AEW first started off, I think they were pretty pissed off with me. And then, as wrestling went on, I think they saw that like I wasn't really trying to stop them from doing anything. I actually made a lot of friendly gestures along the way, and so I think they saw there's a good relationship and I have a good reputation for being an honest person," Tony Khan said.
Of course, over time it sorted itself out as we saw several NJPW stars in AEW and vice-versa. Big names like KENTA, Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki crossed the Forbidden Door. We could soon be seeing Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii in AEW as well.