Tony Khan is 'putting his money where his mouth is' with a bold move that no wrestling owner has done - Reports
AEW president Tony Khan has been splashing the cash as of late when it comes to handing out new contracts to some of his top talents, with one offer, in particular, being something that no wrestling owner has done before.
In the last month alone, the likes of The Elite, Kip Sabian, Rush, and The Dark Order have all put pen to paper on new deals with All Elite Wrestling, earning millions of dollars between them.
These big money deals could be seen as a rebuttal to WWE trying to poach some of AEW's talent, especially since Triple H took over the creative direction of the company and decided to bring back a whole host of wrestlers who had previously been let go.
The only people that Triple H rehired that made it to the WrestleMania card #WWERAW #SmackDown #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/ByJxHAfnYM
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer detailed the money side of things in the cases of Rush and The Elite where Tony Khan has put up big money that even the likes of WWE can't compete with.
"A key to both the Rush and Elite signings is the dollar figures that Khan put up for all of them. In the case of Rush, the WWE was aware of the offer number and decided not to compete with it. In the case of these four, while the citing of the better schedule was a key, Khan’s dollar figure was enough, combined with the schedule and the executive positions to make them happy enough to sign months before, in the case of Page and the Young Bucks, their current deals expired and enough to make them sign without waiting for what would be expected to be a significant WWE offer," said Dave Meltzer.
Meltzer also noted that one thing that got The Elite to re-sign was that the group couldn't imagine any other wrestling promoter in history investing such a large amount of money in a faction, as many cases lead to one person getting a higher offer than the other members.
"It was also noted that they noted that they can’t imagine a wrestling owner investing this kind of money ever for a faction to sign four guys at the same time like Khan did here, so all were very positive on the offer. The term was that Khan had really put his money where his mouth was and that because of that they were confident that he still saw great value in all four of them," said Dave Meltzer.
Tony Khan was thanked by the AEW roster after Dynamite 200 went off the air
Usually, when the cameras stop rolling, wrestlers like to let their hair down and have a bit of fun with the live crowd. However, the most recent edition of Dynamite wasn't just any standard show, it was the 200th episode.
To celebrate the milestone, Tony Khan went out to thank the crowd in Tampa, Florida, before being cut off by Chris Jericho. 'The Ocho' went on to cut a promo that hyped up Tony's accomplishments as the company's owner before bringing out MJF, who thanked Khan for giving wrestlers and fans an alternative.
The entire AEW roster came out on stage after Dynamite to thank Tony Khan and celebrate the 200 episode milestone.
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Before Tony could make his way to the back, MJF brought out the entire AEW roster, who gave Khan a standing ovation on the entrance ramp, as the big screens in the arena displayed the message 'Thank You Tony Khan.'
Who do you think Tony Khan will re-sign next? Let us know in the comments section down below!
Please credit the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.