AEW News: Tony Khan reveals the inspiration behind Fight for the Fallen set
What's the story?
All Elite Wrestling CEO Tony Khan stated on Twitter that the stage for AEW Fight for the Fallen was inspired by South Park. He elaborated on this further during the post-event media scrum.
In case you didn't know...
For those who are unaware of South Park, the Comedy Central cartoon has a history of lampooning and parodying everything from politics, world events and pop culture. WWE was a target of their humor in an episode aptly titled W.T.F. several years ago.
The episode features the main characters in an amphitheater-like set putting on a 'wrestling' show. South Park not only parodied WWE but professional wrestling and its die-hard fans. The episode even features animated versions of Vince McMahon, John Cena, and Edge and just highlighting the outlandishness of pro wrestling.
The heart of the matter
During the media scrum, Tony Khan was asked about the stage design and he referenced his tweet from earlier about being inspired by the South Park episode. He did a layout a year earlier and was just a crazy inspiration. He elaborated further and said;
My thought is...with an amphitheatre...like the challanges...like where do you put the ring? How do you present to the crowd? And to me, what's great about it, you put the ring in the pit and you open so many possibilities for what you can do with the stage and create more of a round experience.This is like our home venue, so I'm happy with it.
It was a fun thing. It turned out really well. And it's very different.
In case you're wondering, here's the original tweet that Tony Khan tweeted out earlier.
You can watch the South Park inspiration at 5:07 into the video and more on Chris Van Vliet's YouTube Channel.
What's next?
It's interesting that the inspiration would come from South Park but it's creative and certainly different from other wrestling shows. Moreover, it gives wrestling fans something to look forward as AEW prepares for AEW All Out.