Following Ring of Honor's Final Battle PPV last night (December 15) in Garland, Texas, Tony Khan and some of the wrestlers who appeared on the show sat down to speak to the media.
The final segment of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour press call (see above) saw the AEW & ROH owner alone at the desk, and the first question Khan was confronted with was related to this week's reports that WWE is dealing with AEW's current television had met with partner Warner Bros. Discovery about the media rights package for Raw.
Khan did not dispute it, but instead described it as standard operating procedure for networks. He also made it sound like AEW has talked or will talk to other networks about their next media rights deal, which is expected to begin shortly after Raw wraps towards the end of 2024:
“Ring of Honor, we haven't had that many recently, but we've had really good conversations about AEW. I've also had really good conversations with Warner Brothers Discovery in the last few days. We've been with them for several years – it's a really exciting time for AEW…
“We have done incredibly well for Warners Brothers Discovery and we have a very, very strong relationship. When it comes to media rights and everything that comes up, everyone has to do their due diligence – that's just part of the TV business.
“Where we stand, we are positioned for AEW to have a tremendous year of growth in 2024. There's a lot of really exciting things happening that I know Warner Brothers is really excited about, that we've talked about…that's been a great year for us…that's been a big year for us with Warners Brothers Discover . They came to us and asked us to expand from three hours of television a week on TBS and TNT to five hours. That was very, very successful…
“It's a great relationship and things are going very, very well for us. And part of the TV business is for both sides to do their due diligence, and that's really just part of sports and television. Being part of the NFL and the Premier League, I've seen that process play out, certainly with different TV networks looking at different sports and the sports themselves looking at different TV networks.”
Khan went on to talk about his experiences as part of the management teams at Fulham FC and the Jacksonville Jaguars, which led him to believe that AEW was in a “really, really good position” regarding its next TV deal. He returned to ROH saying the brands under his “promotional umbrella” and their partners were a “challenger brand.” This brings a lot of negativity, which he talked about:
“To be AEW you have to be under constant attack. You put on a great show and the next day someone says something negative. You do five great shows in a row, someone says something negative. You do five great shows in a row, someone says something negative. They're breaking the ticket record for the most tickets ever sold for a wrestling show in the history of the world, and someone has something bad to say about it.
“At this point I’m not worried about it. We just have to go out there and put on great shows week after week, like we have been doing. We were the number one show on cable television this week, on Wednesday. We beat every single show on television on Wednesday, out of hundreds and hundreds of shows on hundreds of channels. We’re moving forward and everyone who works here will be in a good position.”
Khan attributes some of this to the use of Twitter/X in the wrestling world. He said conversations about other sports like American football are more prevalent in the social media landscape, with leagues and media outlets covering them and fans having large presences on TikTok and Instagram. But not professional wrestling:
“I think it's a challenge because I've never seen anything like wrestling in terms of such a large percentage of companies spending such a large percentage of their time on one platform, which is X – formerly Twitter. It's amazing how many people in the wrestling industry are on Twitter all the time. And honestly, I get it because it's for a good reason: commitment. Because there's such a large percentage of wrestling fans, and you, the wrestling media and influencers and the wrestlers themselves, the companies – so many people are on this one platform, it's pretty unique…
“It becomes a bit of an echo chamber and there is a lot of ill intent. There are a lot of bad faith posts about this and you can have a great day in the industry when the numbers come out and people try to tell you that you haven't done something great. Or you can break the world record for most tickets sold on a wrestling show ever and have this huge success on PPV and the wrestling is great and everything is great and still people try to tell you it's a problem with it there. .”
Despite this – and I'm sure it's partly due to the recent round of doom and gloom over AEW following the WBD/WWE reports – Khan isn't giving up. He concluded a long answer to the question with a serious explanation of why he wants to follow John Cena's advice and never give up:
“Being in AEW, no matter how good you are, there are going to be people coming after you and targeting you. Because that's it. There's a reason every single person who has taken my position so far has gone out of business. I'm the only one left. Anyone who has stepped up, put millions of dollars into it and done it week in and week out – and there's no offseason, you do it 52 weeks a year – it's a struggle.
“And that’s thanks to the fans. I know what it's like to be a wrestling fan 52 weeks a year. It is difficult. But it is also the most beautiful thing. That's why you can't escape it for too long. That's why we keep coming back to it. We are addicted. And it's worth the fight, and I love the fight, and I'll never stop fighting it. No matter what happens, no matter how things change. It's worth it. It's the fight fought by Jim Crockett, Verne Gagne, Ted Turner and so many people who tried. And God bless them all, and I do this for all of you. And I know you are all here in spirit.”
Maybe that's a little cheesy, and you can certainly discuss and debate Khan's strategic approach to his fight – but it's hard to deny the man's passion. AEW/ROH isn't perfect and no one will be able to satisfy all wrestling fans all the time. But business is better when you have “challenger brands” that give fans and talent options. While I might prefer AEW to do more “not worrying” and talk less about things like Twitter trolls and the all-in viewership*, I support TK's fight.
Let us know what you think of these quotes. You can watch it in its entirety, along with the entire Final Battle media scrum, in the video embedded at the top of this post. Khan's part starts around 1:44.
* Khan talked A LOT about All In's numbers during the scrum, and it's clearly a specific thing that's very important to him.
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