In a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio promoting the upcoming 2024 pay-per-view event AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, Tony Khan, president of AEW, spoke about various aspects of his wrestling brand. His comments covered topics from AEW’s television viewership statistics, the backing of David Zaslav for All Elite Wrestling, and his approach to competing wrestling brands.
Below are key moments from Khan’s interview:
When speaking on the backing of David Zaslav for AEW, Khan stated, “It’s tremendously beneficial for our brand to garner the support of a top Hollywood executive like David Zaslav who’s an avid fan of what AEW is accomplishing. Not only is his enthusiasm publicly known, but they’ve also supervised and compared what WWE is doing, created analogies, and I think the favourable side of that would be they remained with us – opting to leave potential deals on the table.”
Regarding AEW’s TV viewership statistics, Khan remarked, “Our television numbers historically have been impressively high and sustains that level of viewership. It is imperative that we continue in the same vein because the viewership we garner are figures other producers dream about.”
Tony Khan emphasized that he’s more focused on AEW’s own progress rather than comparisons with other wrestling brands. “It’s essential for us to concentrate on creating quality content for AEW, rather than getting sidetracked by competitors. I believe our competition securing efficient media contracts in the past has rather been to our advantage. We’ve performed extensive market research, procured top-tier analysts and data scientists and have compared valuable historical data.”
When it comes to AEW’s ratings, Khan proudly shared: “Most TV shows are envious of our ratings and demographics. Particularly in sports, we have a strong foothold in the younger audience.”
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