Tony Khan talks Grand Slam Australia, working with WBD, more

[Chris]

AEW's Tony Khan on Why Timothée Chalamet Would Be a Great Wrestler

Plus, what next for his wrestling franchise, and more.

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All Elite Wrestling takes another step toward expanding its global footprint by hosting Grand Slam Australia. The biggest stars in the company bring their talents down under for a special event to air on TNT and Max after the NBA All-Star game coverage. This will serve as a homecoming of sorts for “Timeless” Toni Storm who challenges AEW Women’s World Champion Mariah May. Meanwhile, Aussie Kyle Fletcher teams with Konosuke Takeshita to battle Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay.

Head honcho Tony Khan, who signed another TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, continues to take big swings. He and the company face a challenging few months looking to build an audience and excitement going into the big All In: Texas stadium show on July 12. That is easier said than done with an extremely competitive marketplace, but don’t tell Khan that. He remains steadfast in the belief in his vision and the roster.
Here Khan speaks about what’s to come, some of the surprisingly soapy places he finds inspiration and more.

AEW has Grand Slam: Australia. What kind of challenges have you faced logistically with this show?

Tony Khan: It’s my first time going to Australia. I’m really excited about it. I’m excited to learn more about the fans, meet new people and have a great experience. It’s something I look forward to have AEW make its Australian debut in Brisbane for Saturday night, Collision, Grand Slam: Australia. I think it’s going to be a great event. We got huge matches, and I believe it will be one of the greatest Grand Slam cards in AEW’s history. It’s always one of the biggest events on the calendar. There are already some huge matches with “Timeless” Toni Storm returning to fight her protégé “The Glamour” Mariah May for the AEW Women’s World Championship in Toni’s home country. It’s a return and a homecoming.

It’s an important chapter in one of AEW’s greatest rivalries unfolding before us now. The huge tag team match with Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay teaming for the first time ever in AEW to take on the AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita and “The ProtoStar” Kyle Fletcher, who is returning to his home country of Australia. This will be one of the biggest TV events of the year. This will arguably the biggest TV card of the year.

The timing of it and it not being a pay-per-view. Was it always the plan as well?

Yes. Having this be a TV event has always been the plan. That’s something that the network wanted. It’s something the network brought to us recently as an opportunity to follow NBA All-Star Saturday. We saw it as a huge opportunity. It was a great vote of confidence for our partners at Warner Brothers Discovery. It will be one of the biggest nights of the year on TNT. It’s a great opportunity given the lead-in.

What can you tell us in terms of what AEW is working on with the network in terms of synergy and the like to get the company out there?

I expect AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery will have a strong partnership for many years to come. We have a great relationship with management there. Since 2019, we’ve been proud AEW has been a part of the Turner Sports family. This is the greatest step in our partnership, the launch of AEW on Max. The simulcast has been a huge success for everyone involved. We’ve gotten a great audience Wednesday nights on TBS and Saturday nights on TNT. Now those shows are also streaming live on Max. It has made AEW available to a new audience. We don’t have all the numbers for the Max launch, but we’ve been told that AEW is one of the top sports leagues for Max for viewership. That’s really exciting. It bodes well for the partnership for many years to come.

How would you describe the creative dynamic between you and how you take in ideas and how that is funneled through? What is your approach when it comes to collaborating and working with others including talent to bring storylines and characters to TV?

I love working with talented people. I really do enjoy the creative collaboration. It’s a really exciting time for AEW. We’ve been on a strong run of shows. We kicked off 2025 with a very successful debut on Max and had some great shows to launch this new era of simulcasting. I love pro wrestling so much. I’m very focused on the shows each week. Seeing some of our greatest stars return to the fold and adding some very exciting stories. There have been stars who have been there from the beginning and flourishing right now. In particular, the return of Kenny Omega. There was also Will Ospreay and Ricochet and many others. I think it’s a great mix of some of AEW’s greatest names ever. One of the great things about AEW is our wrestlers seizing an opportunity. I believe AEW is where the best wrestle. When they latch on to something special, it’s amazing to see how far they’ll take it.

I’m very impressed by both a long-time star and former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Ricochet, who is a relative newcomer in AEW and arrived on a big stage at All In London. I offered a new opportunity for Ricochet in recent months and am so impressed how he has seized it. In November, when we announced the Continental Classic participants and upcoming matches, I made an opening for Ricochet. What he did with it was very impressive. I thought Ricochet had one of the strongest stories coming out of the Continental Classic with Swerve Strickland. There are a lot of times it’s possible to create specific opportunities for wrestlers to thrive, but it’s really a testament to the wrestlers and their talent when they seize those opportunities and score big. I love collaborating with talent and giving them those opportunities and trying to take the best ideas. My own ideas or suggestions that people make along the way, either the staff or wrestler’s themselves and trying to build the best version of it.

“Timeless” Toni Storm and Mariah May have also been running with the ball.

One of AEW’s popular characters and greatest champions “Timeless” Toni Storm is an example of this. I’m a huge fan of old movies. Two of my favorite old films I’ve seen many times are All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard. They are two different movies with several things in common. They both feature larger-than-life actresses giving amazing performances as larger-than-life actresses. The way that Bette Davis carries herself as Margo Channing in All About Eve and the way that Gloria Swanson conducts herself as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Totally different performances, but there are some common themes of these actresses in very different places in their careers and lives. There are aspects from both I drew inspiration from.

There are aspects from the Toni and Mariah story that come from All About Eve. There are aspects of the madness of Toni Storm’ character from Sunset Boulevard right down to her butler Luther. I came in with a vision for a new character, but it’s a vision and ideas. It will never make it off the page on a screen without a transcendent talent like “Timeless” Toni Storm. Margo Channing never got to get her hands on Eve. They never had the knockdown, drag out fight. Toni Storm and Mariah May had a fantastic match at AEW All In London in England, Mariah May’s home country. Now we get the rematch in Australia, Toni Storm’s home country. I love working with Toni and Mariah. Mariah stepped into her portrayal of pretending to be a person she is not using manipulation, flattery, deception to steal the spot of “Timeless” Toni Storm. She has pulled it off. Fantastic. They are both fantastic.

What’s in your watch queue now?

I recently watched the Dune films on Max. I thought they were absolutely fantastic. I had never seen Dune or read the books. Now I’m interested to learn more about it and read the books. I thought the movies were both fantastic. I’m now starting to watch the Dune: Prophecy TV show. I’m excited to watch that on Max, my favorite place to watch TV. It’s such a blessing to have AEW on the streaming service too.

How do you think Timothée Chalamet would do in pro wrestling?

That’s a fascinating question. That guy is always surprising people. He went on ESPN College GameDay to talk about football. Before his appearance, a lot of the football fans I know were questioning if he would be the right host for ESPN College GameDay and questioning expertise on college football. He had great insights and was a very knowledgeable and entertaining football host who had some very interesting points about the upcoming games that day. I think he impressed a lot of football fans then. I would imagine if he was covering wrestling or talking about wrestling, he would probably do a great job. From what I have seen he does a great job with what he does. He is incredibly talented. Really impressive. So, I would imagine he would do very well in the ring like everything he does.

You made it a point to secure original music for your shows. What’s on your playlist?

We were able to secure some of my favorite songs recently in AEW. “Welcome to the Jungle” was the theme of AEW Worlds End. “November Rain” was the theme for AEW Full Gear. We’ve had a great collaboration recently with Guns N’ Roses, one of my favorite bands ever. I was really excited about those opportunity to have Guns N’ Roses heard in AEW.

What’s your go-to guilty pleasure show?

I went back and watched every episode of the original Dynasty a few years ago with Joan Collins and John Forsythe. It’s tremendous. What a great show. It’s definitely something of a guilty pleasure. I think of the original Dynasty, Melrose Place. You don’t have to get me on the Seinfeld polygraph to get me to admit I watch Melrose Place. I’ll admit it. I think the original Beverly Hills, 90210 is a great show. The ultimate TV show guilty pleasure for me is the original 1980s Dynasty.

We need a Dynasty cast member at Dynasty. It only makes sense.

It’s true. Joan Collins is long overdue to make her AEW debut. That would be tremendous. Or to see her go to Japan for Wrestle Dynasty. That’s where inspiration for the show names came from.

Really?!

That’s where both names came from. Dynasty and Wrestle Dynasty. You did get some news out of me.

What’s your go-to meal on the road?

My standard meal on the road is medium rare steak and steamed broccoli. I eat that a couple of times a week on the road, usually the night of Dynamite and Collision. That is what I’ll eat.

What’s the one thing you can’t leave the house without when you’re traveling to places like Australia that would surprise people?

When I leave the house for wrestling or football, I have a book. It’s like a ledger with a lot of notes and ideas that I’ve kept and tracked. Across NFL, Premier League and AEW. Whenever I’m going on a trip for football or wrestling, I try to take that book with me. If I don’t, I’ll take notes separately some place else and put them back in the book

 

[O-Blaze]

Wait so is it now being branded to be Collision Grand Slam Australia? Or did he misspeak when he said Collision

 

[Chris]

Wait so is it now being branded to be Collision Grand Slam Australia? Or did he misspeak when he said Collision

According to Andrew Zarian yesterday, WBD always planned for it to be in place of a Collision episode but he said when he first asked a few weeks ago a WBD rep was like "yeah usual collision time" and he asked about the All Star game and said he just saw the guys eyes get wide.

Kind of a spectacular fuck up even if it ends up not being a big deal bc it's just like how incompetent are they

 

[Comrade Khan]

To it being a collision episode : Why is that a problem , I'm confused once again with the IWC. It's on a Saturday. Previous grand slams were dynamite grand slam.

To the rest:
But yes, wbd is dumb and seem to constantly make things difficult for this company. They are woefully incompetent for sure and have been the reason for countless weird decisions dating all the way back to wanting 3 hours dynamite and banning the Briscoes.

I never expected this to air live outside max / triller though due to time differences. The fact wbd tried to slot them in there n comtinues to want collision (ans prior to that rampage) in tv death slots is continuously outstanding.

That being said, what is the actual % of crossover to an all star game no one cares about. I'm sure it'll do avg ratings . Unless they were hoping for an uptick but like it's Saturday night lol

 

[Comrade Khan]

There's a whole fake outrage circle jerk post about it on reddit pretending the card isn't still gonna rule n ppl were lied to. Demented behavior there lol I can understand being bummed at smaller venue but this was never a ppv

 

[Chris]

The only thing I'm upset about is that it's not airing live on Max. It always seemed like a Collision replacement to me. I thought it would maybe be a 3 hour block until I realized the All Star stuff and then I didn't think that would be likely.

I do think it'll do higher ratings than usual tho, they're going straight to it from the All Star stuff and last time collision had a decent sports lead in the averaged higher for the whole show even after the lead in dropoff happened.

 

[O-Blaze]

I can’t tell if you meant why I was asking or not. Probably not, but if so, I just was cause if it’s listed as a “Collision.” episode I just was gonna move the thread to the Collision section. But you probably mean like the IWC outside of here

 

[Comrade Khan]

I can’t tell if you meant why I was asking or not. Probably not, but if so, I just was cause if it’s listed as a “Collision.” episode I just was gonna move the thread to the Collision section. But you probably mean like the IWC outside of here

Oh no like I mentioned after there an entire part of the IWC circle jerking on this n saying weird stuff like "there's no build" which is....what?

I wasn't sure about ur lol emoji originally but then I was like...why would Blaze care lol

 

[Comrade Khan]

Is tnt / tbs the ones airing the all star game cuz if so ya they are absolute mouthbreathers lol I wish tony would end the love affair.

 

[Chris]

Is tnt / tbs the ones airing the all star game cuz if so ya they are absolute mouthbreathers lol I wish tony would end the love affair.

Yes, also correction bc I keep saying it wrong too. It's not the all Star game, it's the 3 point and dunk contest and stuff (which I think usually pulls higher ratings)

I suspected they had a little scheduling derp from the start but the way Zarian said the WBD rep acted when he asked about the show weeks ago was baffling, like they legitimately forgot the all star festivities were that night even tho it's one of their biggest events of the year

 

[O-Blaze]

Oh no like I mentioned after there an entire part of the IWC circle jerking on this n saying weird stuff like "there's no build" which is....what?

I wasn't sure about ur lol emoji originally but then I was like...why would Blaze care lol

Oh yeah that was me laughing as I was confused on the branding. I’m definitely fine no matter how they brand it haha.

But yeah people can be weird for sure. Fuck em. I’m gonna enjoy it no matter what.

 

[Comrade Khan]

Yes, also correction bc I keep saying it wrong too. It's not the all Star game, it's the 3 point and dunk contest and stuff (which I think usually pulls higher ratings)

I suspected they had a little scheduling derp from the start but the way Zarian said the WBD rep acted when he asked about the show weeks ago was baffling, like they legitimately forgot the all star festivities were that night even tho it's one of their biggest events of the year

Ya I'd say that's the fun part of the week-end. Dunk contest is the home run derby essentially. Nobody care about the game.

Why does everyone at aew n wbd have add n can't organize for shit lol

 

[Comrade Khan]

Oh yeah that was me laughing as I was confused on the branding. I’m definitely fine no matter how they brand it haha.

But yeah people can be weird for sure. Fuck em. I’m gonna enjoy it no matter what.

Maria Toni alone has me sold regardless. Kenny osoreay tag is a plus. Mercedes Harley gonna b life too. N they building Okada buddy. Ppl just like to lie to spread their own agenda lol the card looks sick to me. Def ppv like

 

[Chris]

Yeah the reason I say it's not a big deal is (again other than being annoyed it can't air live in Max, but also that's way easier on AEW to not have to have their live broadcast stuff there I guess) because I think airing after the dunk contest is a good move, I just don't like how WBD got there lol

 

[Comrade Khan]

yea that's fair.