Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, tony khan, wrestling

Tony Khan Says He May Have Made a Mistake for All Out Go-Home Show

On the media conference call for AEW's All Out PPV last night, AEW President Tony Khan admitted that he may have made a mistake by not going more wrestling heavy for the final Dynamite before All Out. The show was criticized for not featuring the usual quantity and quality of in-ring action as fans have come to expect from Dynamite, but Khan says that's a purposeful choice for AEW's PPV go-home shows. However, he seemed to be feeling a bit of regret.

"Last night was a really good example, honestly," Khan said. "There's times where the red light goes on, and it's 7:59:59. And at 8:00, the show clicks on, and you should've realized something sooner. But literally, it doesn't occur to you until you're there in the chair. And that was me last night. And there's times where it's gonna be like this. And frankly, like I know last night there was there was a lot of great wrestling in the first hour. And I put a lot of responsibility on Thunder Rosa and Serena [Deeb] to have the strong wrestling match in the second hour. And I thought they nailed it. And they were put in a showcase position in the semifinal, and they nailed it. And I kind of knew we were putting a lot on them. And thankfully, they had a home run for us."

"But in the first hour, like I said, in Kansas City, in the first hour last night in the go-home shows, my philosophy has been put a lot of wrestling there, put a lot of story stuff in the second half. Now in Kansas City, some of the stories, stuff you got in the second half, the weigh-in with [Chris] Jericho and [Jon] Moxley, you know, this big crowd in Kansas City, they loved it. You've got Orange Cassidy coming out and challenging Pac in the show with making that match is a lot of fun stuff," he continued, talking about the go-home show for AEW Revolution back in February. "Last night, frankly, I understood that, like, if people want to see a lot of wrestling in the show, forty-eight weeks a year, that's all I think about is wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. Four times a year when we have these huge, huge pay per view cards, they that week become the priority. The go-home shows, I treat them differently. The highs and lows and the lessons I've learned, every week I learn a new lesson. The pandemic has been lesson after lesson after lesson. I try to learn things and not do them again. And if I make a mistake twice, then I'm definitely trying not to make it three times. It's the highs and lows. It's really the same thing. It's just like learning and trying to put together good shows."

However, Tony Khan does believe that that this weekend's PPV will make up for it. "I have a feeling that this weekend is going to be one of the great highs," he said. "I look back at Revolution as probably a high point for us, and then I just think, like that day was a perfect day for me. I had met with a lot of people I'd been with Orange Cassidy and Pac, talking separately and very late, talking about things that I wanted to see tomorrow. And I'd been with Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho very, very late, separately talking about things that were going to happen with them. And I ended up getting very little sleep. We played early in the morning, Fulham, when I say we, I mean Fulham, Fulham had at this match, I didn't get a lot of sleep, and then went over straight to the arena, and we had Revolution. And to me, it's the best thing we've ever done. It was just the perfect day. I would call it the ultimate high, but it was also the culmination of learning a lot of lessons."

But that was pre-pandemic.

"Since then, the wrestling business has changed dramatically," Khan explained. "Last year, we were the number one company in attendance per show in the world of wrestling. And this year, it's not really about trying to put fans into arenas. The philosophy, the business has changed completely in the last six months, and I feel like we've tried to roll with the punches. This weekend is going to be one of the highs. This weekend, I can't tell you how excited I am for Saturday. I held back in the second hour last night too much. Maybe because I wanted you to really anticipate the wrestling on this show because the main card on Saturday, bell to bell, is going to be the best wrestling you've seen since the pandemic."

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