Tony Khan On AEW’s Overseas Expansion & International Growth
In a recent interview with ESPN, AEW President Tony Khan took an optimistic standpoint on the future of his wrestling company, discussing AEW’s potential for international growth.
Ahead of the upcoming All In 2023 pay-per-view event at Wembley Stadium in the UK and an impending Canadian tour, Khan analyzed how moving from a primarily domestic schedule into international programming presents a challenge in itself. He said,
“I’m very excited about what we’ve been able to do with AEW. We’ve had great success building a worldwide challenger brand in pro wrestling. With AEW on in 150 countries now, it’s amazing how far we’ve come. We’re approaching 200 episodes of AEW Dynamite, which is miraculous and very cool. We’ve built something special on Wednesday nights and it’s grown all over the world, to see how many countries have picked up the show and how much penetration we’ve had. Now, we have our biggest international event ever and the biggest event in the history of the company in AEW All In and a great chance to expand into other markets and new partnerships.”
Khan didn’t shy away from addressing the complexity of engaging with touring outside the United States. He said,
“This Canadian tour is our next international focus and it’ll be the first time that we’ve toured and done this many consecutive shows outside the United States and, certainly, that is going to be a big challenge logistically for our crew. It involves everyone having passports, a lot of equipment crossing the border, and a number of permitting and logistical challenges that go into putting the show on every week. Even just crossing the border into Canada, which is relatively simple compared to leaving the continent, that’s a lot of challenges for the production team. And then, from a travel standpoint, in terms of having that many people travelling from the team, week-to-week, it’s a logistic challenge as it is getting people all over the United States into one city every Wednesday and now every Saturday and putting on a TV show.”
The current AEW roster has wrestlers working for other smaller companies, and AEW has already made a name for itself when it comes to utilizing performers primarily signed to promotions like NJPW, AAA, CMLL, and others. Khan continued,
“Absolutely we expect that AEW comes first when people are taking outside bookings but we have great partnerships. A lot of our wrestlers wrestle for top international organisations too. We have luchadors that compete in Mexico, compete in AAA. New Japan Pro Wrestling we work with very closely, and they have a relationship with CMLL, so there are a lot of international wrestling companies tied together – and then some that don’t work together and we have to be cognizant of that,” Khan explained. “Then, we have other wrestling companies, independent promotions, that do sometimes feature AEW wrestlers but certainly we expect that they’re going to put AEW first and not necessarily do we want to… I guess the best way to put it is that I support independent wrestling. We prioritise AEW, [but] I really do like independent wrestling and want to support it as much as we can without it being detrimental to our show.”
“TK” believes that the quality of AEW programming will catapult the promotion into the international market. He said,
“We have some of the best wrestlers; I think we have the best roster. And a lot of them are also great talkers. They do a great job telling a story, and they do a great job explaining how they feel about a match or their opponent or their teammate or somebody that they might not want to associate with, might want to associate with. Nobody is better at explaining it than the top pro wrestlers. That’s something that AEW brings, really strongly each week is some great interviews. You hear from top wrestlers in top spots and I want the wrestling fans to feel like they’re getting to see the top wrestlers every week in top stories. I have a great memory for wrestling [continuity], to be honest. And I think a lot of wrestling fans do. I don’t think there’s anybody that has such keen memories. Not just for rivalries and matches and moves but also for the business side of it. It’s amazing the kind of things that wrestling fans remember, all over the world. There’s a connection in the business spirit, the entrepreneurial spirit of this.”
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