Tony Khan On What Inspired Him To Bring Fans Back To Shows

AEW President and CEO Tony Khan recently appeared as a guest on the Rasslin With Brandon Walker show, where he talked about what inspired him to bring fans back to shows including PPV Events and Dynamite and he also revealed that AEW was the first to have pod-seating over other professional sports.

Below are the highlights:

On what inspired him to bring fans back to shows:

“Eventually, as we’ve gone on and learned more, we learned we could do outdoor shows with limited risk of transmission as long as we kept everyone split up. I wanted to bring fans back and allow fans to come to the show in a safe manner.

This was inspired by drive-in movies. When I saw drive-in movies were doing it, I was thinking there had to be a way to do it. At first, I thought about doing drive-in wrestling, but it wasn’t viable to get the ring set-up and do it with cars, though I do think people have tried it and it’s a cool idea.”

On AEW being the first to have pod-seating over other professional sports:

“For us, doing a live television show, sooner or later you’re going to run into logistical problems with weather and other challenges. Before any sports had done it, we were the first ones to have pod seating and giving them a chance to do socially distance viewings of the show.”