"The fans didn't like the direction I was going" - Tony Khan on his struggles in AEW's early days
AEW President Tony Khan recently opened up about the struggles he went through during the company's first year. He spoke about how a decline in early Dynamite ratings, coupled with a lack of fan interest, forced him to change up his strategy.
AEW launched Dynamite on October 2, 2019 to much fanfare from people eager to see a new product on TV. It boasted five exciting matchups, one of which was Cody Rhodes taking on Sammy Guevara.
However, during the back end of 2019, Dynamite began to struggle in the head-to-head battle with NXT in the "Wednesday Night Wars." Heading into 2020, Khan changed up his strategy, and AEW Dynamite went on a white-hot run in the lead-up to the Revolution pay-per-view in 2020.
Fantastic episode of Dynamite. Dare I say it truly felt like they picked up right where they left off on the road to Revolution 2020. #AEWDynamite
Speaking with Freddie Prinze Jr. on the "Wrestling with Freddie" podcast, Tony Khan opened up about how he navigated the tough times of AEW's early days, particularly when interest in the product began to dwindle.
"After the first two months or so, maybe even after the first six or seven weeks, I started to see a dip," said Khan. "I think it was probably around late November into December, and it continued through December. It was a trend. I didn’t like the way the ratings were going, and clearly the way the ratings were reflecting that the fans didn’t like the direction I was going or we were going."
To bring the audience back in, Khan and AEW as a whole took Christmas off in 2019 and came back focused, leading to one of the greatest runs in the company's short history.
"I made a lot of changes going into 2020 that I felt really good about in terms of being more organized and doing all shows by hand," Khan continued. "They’ve been a lot more focused. It’s great having lots of ideas coming from lots of different places, and I do utilize them and have lots of different contributors bringing ideas to the table, but it’s hard." (H/T WrestlingNews.co).
Tony Khan booked multiple Match of the Year candidates in early 2020
AEW lost in both the key demographic and in total viewers on their last broadcast of 2019. However, Tony Khan turned the ship around and turned Dynamite into a must-watch TV show every single week.
The "Road to Revolution 2020" has been being heralded as one of the brightest periods in the company's history. Had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, who knows where Dynamite and AEW could have ended up.
Omega has been involved in AT LEAST 2 MOTY contenders (in any promotion) so far in 2020.
That being:
1. Kenny Omega and Hangman Page vs The Young Bucks at Revolution
2. PAC vs Omega (30 minute iron man match)
There's probably more but I can't think of em rn
Matches like Kenny Omega and Hangman Page vs. The Lucha Brothers, Cody Rhodes vs. Wardlow and PAC's thirty-minute "Iron Man" match against Omega are all considered some of the best matches in AEW history. They all happened after Tony Khan took one loss in the ratings.
What do you remember from this period of AEW? Let us know in the comments section down below.