AEW President and CEO Tony Khan recently had a conversation with Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, where he talked about the Wednesday Night Ratings War between WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite officially ending as last night’s NXT TakeOver: Stand And Deliver Night One was the final show of the NXT brand on the USA Network on Wednesday nights as the show will begin airing on Tuesday nights starting next week.
WWE NXT moving from Wednesday nights to Tuesday nights is reportedly due to the NHL moving to the USA Network on Wednesday nights once NBCSN shuts down later this year.
AEW CEO Tony Khan talked about the goals and expectations for their weekly Dynamite show moving forward and if there will be any changes now that the Wednesday Night Ratings War has come to an abrupt end.
Tony Khan said he has a stacked show planned for this week and he also has a stacked show planned for next week now that they are unopposed by a wrestling competition. The AEW President also said that he believes there might be some wrestling fans who have not watched the show and those fans are going to want to come to check it out in the next couple of weeks.
Khan then said that he thinks having Mike Tyson on the show this week is a great way to bring some attention to the wrestlers and their matches as well as big stories and they are going to have a really, really strong card for the next couple of weeks.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“That’s a great question. I have a stacked show planned for this week and I have another stacked show planned for next week when we’re unopposed by a wrestling competition.”
“We’ll have some stories this week that are going to be very interesting and are going to lead people, my hope is, wanting to come back and watch next week’s show. I believe there might be some wrestling fans who might have not watched the show before and are going to want to come check it out in the next couple of weeks.”
“So I think having Mike Tyson on the show this week is a great way to bring some attention to the wrestlers and our big matches and big stories this week and we’re going to have a really, really strong card the next couple of weeks.
We have a great roster and there’s no reason we shouldn’t have great cards every week. We’ve consistently been doing big matches every Wednesday and I think now’s a great time to pour some gasoline on the whole situation and create a blaze.”
The AEW President then talked about what lessons he learned from going head-to-head with NXT over the past year and a half and if there is anything he would have done differently when it comes to the way he handled the flow of the show and how he paced the episodes of Dynamite.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“I think it’s a great, great question but I think it would be a better question to ask me after this week.” “We’re opposed one more week, tomorrow’s [tonight] a big deal and I think we get through tomorrow [tonight] and next time I’d love to answer this question because I’ve learned a lot from this competition. I’ll be honest, the low point for us was definitely December 2019, and you talk about us being opposed/unopposed – we were unopposed January 1st, we were opposed by a clip show. And the show we did on January 1st, 2020 was the show that really changed things for us.”
“The pandemic changed the world, but before we all knew what the pandemic was, January 1st, 2020 – we changed our own destiny. We went out and did the best show we could possibly do that night and took advantage of no new competition – no new matches, just a clip show. Cody and Darby tore down the house and they had a story that kept going throughout 2020.
Moxley and Trent had a great match on the show, that led to Jericho offering Moxley the car and a huge step in the story of Moxley being offered a spot in the Inner Circle, that of course led to Revolution and Jon winning the championship from Chris. We had a great 4 way women’s match, planting the seeds, I remember being backstage with Britt that day – Kenny had mentioned around the holidays that Britt should turn, and I felt the same way – I talked to Britt that day and she went out that night knowing that’s where she was going and had a great 4 way match and they pulled a great number too.
The main event was Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks on the same team and they were wrestling the Lucha Brothers and PAC before they became known as the death triangle. That match was really important also, that match did a great number and that show did a great number.”
“We changed our own destiny that night and never looked back. We’ve changed a lot – I feel like we’ve come out stronger for it and we’ve done very well for ourselves the week’s we’ve gone head to head, but I’ve also learned a lot from the weeks we’ve been effectively unopposed, such as the one I just mentioned, or say the week after All Out where Brodie Lee and Dustin Rhodes tore the house down in the TNT Title match and did a great audience for that show in September of 2020.”
