Prior to All Elite Wrestling being the success that it currently is, there were a number of problems, including an argument AEW President Tony Khan had with his father, Shahid Khan, in a Christmas family gathering back in 2018 because Tony’s father doubted AEW and believed it would fail, but he has since admitted he was wrong. Tony Khan recently appeared on the “Swerve City” podcast, where he spoke about how he is someone who loves the wrestling business and how he was fortunate that his father came here to the United States and started a business, which took off even though he kind of came to the United States with practically nothing.
Tony Khan also spoke about how he already had a verbal agreement with a number of talents such as pro wrestling legend Chris Jericho on starting a new promotion, which turned out to be AEW and how Shahid Khan, his father, went on record to say that the promotion will fail, but he has since gone on record to say he was wrong.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“I happened to be someone who loved the wrestling business, but had worked in sports.” “And I was very fortunate my dad came over from Pakistan when he was 16 to go to college at the University of Illinois. That’s where he met my mom, then I was born there in Illinois. He started a business and it took off, but he kind of came here with nothing. And he is the big success, he is the reason this all happened. He’s said it, we had a really ugly Christmas, 2018. Because I had already frankly told Jericho and other people, ‘we are going to do this.’”
“I pretty much had a bunch of people verbally ready to go, and a bunch of contracts were set to expire at the start of 2019. I had a business plan ready to go, which is AEW now. He was like, ‘this isn’t going to work, we are going to lose millions, you have no guarantee.’ I had no TV deal at that point for it, and it was a huge gamble. He has gone into Forbes, and a couple of times on the record, and said he was completely wrong.”
Tony Khan also spoke about how there had been no promotion like WCW ever since the promotion was shut down, but since then promotions like IMPACT Wrestling and ROH were created out of WCW and ECW, though they lasted longer then WCW and ECW.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“There was nothing really since WCW went down that felt that way.” “Even at the end of WCW, they always had it. Until the day they actually pulled the plug, none of us believed that could ever happen. It was unthinkable when it happened. Since then, there’s Impact, which is great, but it’s like the zombie WCW.”
“The guys that were leftover from WCW, some of them went and started another wrestling company. There’s Ring Of Honor kind of, in some ways came up from the skeleton of what was ECW. Those companies built legacies that ironically lasted longer than the original companies.”
Tony Khan then spoke about how companies such as ROH and IMPACT Wrestling have not been able to reach the level that AEW has and how AEW has not yet reached the level of WCW, but he believes they will be getting there and they are currently the #1 pro wrestling promotion in the United Kingdom.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“These companies like we are talking about, Ring Of Honor is a great example. Other companies I just mentioned, got really affected I think by free agency.” “But they also have never reached the heights where AEW has reached. I think it’s the first time since WCW, and I am not trying to say we have reached the same peaks as WCW. I don’t want to get misquoted or misconstrued. Because at one point WCW was the number one wrestling company all around the world overall. There are parts of the world where we are number one which is amazing, like the United Kingdom.”
You can check out Tony Khan’s comments in the video below:
