Tony Khan Says TNT Executives Popped When They Learned Nick Gage Would Be On AEW

On July 29, Nick Gage was announced as Chris Jericho’s opponent as part of Jericho’s Five Labours during his feud with MJF. 

Gage would compete against Jericho the following week in a deathmatch that featured light tubes and pizza cutters, two staples of Gage’s matches. 

Speaking on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Tony Khan gave his stance on deathmatches and bringing in Gage. 

“I wouldn’t want to watch a whole card of it or for six months straight, but I think for a big match of big payoff, it can be really good. In that case, if we’re going to bring in Nick Gage, I thought it made sense to do it that way as opposed to having Nick Gage doing Marquis of Queensbury or chain wrestling, even though he’s a very capable wrestler. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun and even on the TNT side, we had the marketing call, and going into it people were fans of Nick Gage and people knew him. When I said we were going to bring him in, he got a pop, even from the network side. People all over are familiar with his work and it was definitely a calculated thing. When Chris mentioned him, I knew it was going to be a crazy match. I gave it the thumbs up because that’s the spirit of AEW, independent wrestling and he’s a big thing on independent wrestling,” he said. 

Jericho revealed that it was his idea to bring in Gage and do a deathmatch. You can find his comments on bringing in Gage by clicking here. 

You can read Gage’s thoughts on his Dynamite appearance by clicking here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.