Tony Khan Likes To Compare AEW Roster To WCW 1997 Roster

AEW has made major additions to its roster over the past year, signing the likes of CM Punk, Andrade El Idolo, Malakai Black, 2point0, Sting, Paul Wight, and more. 

Khan has said more additions are on the way, which will only add to their roster that already included, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho, Hangman Page, and Darby Allin. 

Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Khan compared the current AEW roster to WCW 1997, which had a mix of established stars and future headliners. 

“I don’t want to compare our roster to anything, ever, but I like to compare our roster sometimes to what I think was the hallmark great roster, which was 1997 WCW where you had all these stars and all this young talent. I really do my best to try to utilize the roster even better than they were when they were a successful company and printing money in 97 and 98. They had a lot of young talent that they didn’t realize and they could have built for the future to help make it a profitable company that they never want to shut down. They could have made it a money-printing machine if they developed the young talent in-house that they had like Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio. I do try to build stars for the future and that’s why you have so many great homegrown stars that are being featured at All Out. There are great opportunities here and I don’t think Jericho, Mysterio, and Guerrero got those same opportunities when they were on a roster with the all-time names like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, and Roddy Piper. What a great TV business they built with that roster that unfortunately didn’t last, but I think would have lasted longer if they had built the young stars the way I try to do,” he said.

Khan has previously commented that WCW was a disorganized mess and Vince Russo made it ten times worse, which ultimately led to the demise of the company. 

You can find Khan’s past comments about WCW by clicking here.

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