AEW President Tony Khan: We’re Now Identifying Wrestling As A Sport

Tony Khan is going to put the sport in sports entertainment.

All Elite Wrestling made big waves on Wednesday, officially announcing their partnership with Turner Media/TNT. But before AEW landed a deal on a top channel in the United States, they agreed to a deal with popular UK broadcaster ITV Box Office to air the upcoming Double or Nothing pay-per-view.

In an interview with ITV, Khan discussed how AEW will be presented to their audience. 

“We’re going to offer a sports-centric product that focuses on the athletes and work. We have some of the best wrestlers in the world and I want to showcase them. They are also some of the most dynamic personalities. I don’t want people to think this is just going to be great matches. It is, but it’s also going to be some of the most entertaining people in wrestling. They are going to be unleashed,” said Khan. “I plan to draw from a lot of what’s worked outside of wrestling in sports. In MMA, UFC, and Boxing, people have done great things. There’s a lot to be said in how we’re going to cover the sport of wrestling. We’re now identifying wrestling as a sport.”

With TNT getting back into the wrestling business, fans have already started to compare AEW’s upcoming start on the network to WCW on TNT and the Monday Night Wars. While Khan was mum on competing with WWE, he does hope to bring fans back to wrestling.

“Maybe we can recreate what was, in many ways, a golden era. Right now I think we’re in a golden era in terms of workrate and personalities. It’s unparalleled and has never been like it is right now. No one can argue that. But what I also think is hard to argue is that there aren’t as many people watching wrestling as there was 20 years ago. Why is that? It was because of the reach wrestling had and because people were spreading the love. I hope we can do that again.”

You can listen to the entire interview with Khan in the video above.