Tony Khan Talks His Wrestling Mount Rushmore, AEW Stars Creating Their Characters
Photo Credit: Bill Pritchard
AEW’s President Tony Khan recently did an interview with AL.com to promote Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT from Huntsville, AL at the Von Braun Center. Here are the highlights:
His wrestling Mount Rushmore:
“You want mine personally? Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Bret Hart and Chris Jericho.”
AEW talent crafting their persona:
“It depends. I think we’re really involved in the presentation of whoever it comes in, whether it’s a complete overhaul … I think we have a big say, like I have a big say, in what the presentation’s going to be. I think what’s great is when we work with people who have so much experience and knowledge, like Chris is brilliant. And I’ve sat with Chris and with Cody and people and we’ve had really interesting talks about how AEW can help develop a unique presentation for them.
Like the Chris you see at AEW is a very different Chris than we’ve ever seen before. This super rock-star champion with the entourage he has, which is called the Inner Circle, which is a new thing that we’ve kind of developed here since we’ve started our TV show, “Dynamite.” The Inner Circle’s gotten over pretty big. So yeah, it’s a different presentation.
And Cody, since he had gone out on his own, and started wrestling on independents had tweaked his presentation and developed some amazing stuff. But I think since he’s gotten in AEW, Cody’s presentation is off the charts as well.
And wrestlers like Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, they also, like you said, had some fully formed wrestling skill sets and brilliant minds for wrestling, but when they came in their presentation at AEW’s a unique presentation too.
We’ve developed a lot of new acts like the Jurassic Express, for example, is something new we created in AEW. They were individual wrestlers that we put together, and something that’s been really fun for the guys themselves, first and foremost, most also for the fans and families who come to the shows.”