Tony Khan says losing Cody Rhodes was a "major challenge."
The AEW President spoke with the
Grapsody team recently about Rhodes' departure, comparisons to WCW, and Paige VanZant.
Khan was asked about fans comparing AEW and WCW and replied:
I think the reason people want to compare the two companies most of all is we're the only two wrestling companies there's been on TBS and TNT and we both aired on TBS and TNT. There are some people that have worked in both companies. I think Sting is an important face of both companies. Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross have been voices to both of those companies
But [AEW and WCW] are very different and a lot of the reasons that one, WCW, would go away or go out of business aren't really realistic business concerns for AEW because it's not a company owned by a network or even really a media property. It's a family business owned and operated and run by me and I love wrestling. I'm not going anywhere.
Khan also mentioned that Honor Club has hit its all time time high in subscribers. He said:
"Honor Club, with really just the historical library relaunch, without putting new content going up every week yet, based on people watching the archive library, we've already hit the all-time high in subscribers to the Honor Club in just weeks. And once the TV launches and once Final Battle goes up on that 90 day archive, t's been a few weeks since Final Battle so now, what is it maybe 10 or 11 weeks until it goes up on the service and I'll be announcing the start of the weekly Ring of Honor series."
He wouldn't rule out running an ROH show during WrestleMania Weekend, noting he was "interested" and "open to" the idea.
Khan was asked about Chris Jericho's ROH Championship reign and replied:
People really dug the Ocho and it did great ratings for us multiple times. Claudio and Chris kicked off Grand Slam and that was the first of the Ocho reign. Chris had eight matches in that and he won the Ring of Honor World title from Claudio and Claudio won it back in the eight match of Chris' eighth World title reign.
I think [Jericho's match with] Ishii was not only a classic match, in my opinion a five-star match and one of the best main events in the history of AEW. Also, it was a big ratings success for us.
Chris versus Bryan [Danielson] in Toronto, a huge success for us.
He also said that losing Cody Rhodes was a major challenge for the company. Khan said:
Whenever you lose a star the caliber of Cody Rhodes, it's going to be a major impact on your company and it's going to affect a number of different departments and a number of different things in terms of the presentation and the backstage. Personally, I really like Cody and I know Cody really well and I think that in the time he was here, he was so involved in so many different facets of the start of AEW and what we were.
When he left it was a major challenge. Going into Revolution, we had so many great stories I think it really helped us and helped keep us strong that people were so invested in what was happening in AEW at the time.
Around the time of when Cody did leave Jon Moxley came back and that was a big help to us.
Khan was asked for a status update on Paige VanZant and replied:
Paige VanZant makes a lot of money and commands a big dollar-figure but I'm also very interested in that.
We would love to have her back. [She] has a great attitude, did great in the match. With the right fight and the right opponent, yes, I would love that.
Khan also mentioned that had CM Punk not been injured there were plans for him and FTR to work as a trio leading to Forbidden Door.
The AEW President was asked how he tries to make everyone on the roster happy and responded:
You're never going to keep everybody happy and you have to focus on that.
There are dozens of wrestlers featured throughout Dynamite and Rampage every week and throughout those three hours you see lots of names but there's also dozens of names in AEW you aren't seeing every week and sometimes they are silent about that. And there's a reason, sometimes there's a reason, somebody's hurt, working on another project, somebody's being repackaged or, you know, frankly there's just not enough slots in three hours.
On other sports teams you don't see it as much. It's not really common in the NFL for the backup quarterback to slate the coach because he's not playing. It's not really common in the NBA for the backup point guard to slate the coach because he's not getting minutes.
It's okay, I understand everybody wants to wrestle and everybody wants to do things.
The AEW President addressed a number of topics in a newly released interview.
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