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Tony Khan took part in a media conference call today to discuss AEW Dynasty. Some highlights:
Whether he understands the criticism of airing the CM Punk footage: "It felt like when the TBS called me and told me good job, you have to remember that I'm responsible for everybody's jobs in this company. And it is really important for us to please the network and TBS was really happy with that show and that performance. That's the most important. important thing, and our fan feedback on the show that we got, you know, the rating is the number one source of fan feedback in the end of the network and they were incredibly pleased. It was over 400 ,000 viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic and that was a strong performance. And that is how TBS judges the show and how TBS judges the show. It is the most important metric I have for the performance, and then the fan reception, last night we had an amazing crowd. The fans were rabid. They were really excited. They were red hot in particular for that match involving the Young Bucks, FTR got big chance. And I think people are really excited to see Young Bucks teaming up this weekend with Okada to take on PAC and FTR and get a preview of that big ladder match at Dynasty. I'm very much excited about it. I do think that what we did last week added a lot of intrigue to this match and I'm very excited for the Dynasty pay-per-view. I think it's going to be a great pay-per-view and I am very happy about how we got here."
Potentially stepping down and hiring someone else as booker: "That's a great question. Well, I... would certainly at some point, you know, we'd have to see where we're at. I think with all positions, you know, nobody lasts forever and eventually that's something, you know, with any position in any of the organizations I'm in that will be a reality. I think whether it's the Jaguars or Form or AEW or True Media, you know, I won't be here forever. So... So, you know, it's definitely one of the highlights of my life, being able to get involved in these shows, work on these shows and do creative planning and I'm having more fun than ever right now. Really loved last night's show, I thought last night was a really strong go home Dynamite leading into this pay-per-view and, you know, I take it year to year, moment to moment and I'm really loving what we're doing. doing right now. I'm only 41 years old and I feel like the company is in a really strong place and some of the greatest wrestlers in the world are very loyal to me personally and I really am very proud of that and hopefully you can continue to do my best to repay them and I think right now the company is in a very strong place. We just had a valuation, I understand, of $2 billion placed on AEW today for a sports start-up, the fastest-rising sports start-up of all time, and the most successful sports start -up in the world since the American Football League, the AFL, that later merged with the NFL. I don't see that same future for us, but I do love the comparison and I think the numbers are quite real, and frankly, the story is very exciting for AEW. AEW that look we are a major player in the sports scene and it's going to be a really big year for our company coming up with our media rights renewal and it's the most important thing right now for the wrestlers and the staff and everybody that works at AEW and for our fans and everybody that follows AEW. And another really important aspect aspect of this is the pay-per-view growth. We've grown the business and last year we expanded the pay -per -view calendar and we had our by far biggest year ever on pay-per-view and we expected to continue this year. We saw the average go up last year while we increased shows. This year expanding the calendar and the expansion is this show. This is the added show, Dynasty. Dynasty, the one that happened this weekend. And this is a stack card. It's one of my favorite cards we've ever put together and the bills we've done to get here. There have been some tremendous moments. Last night was a really good go home show. And on these calls, these calls are usually on the Thursday after the go home dynamite. And we've actually spent a decent amount of time. I say we, you know, the collection of us that are often on these calls myself. and a lot of you, the top wrestling media. We've spent a lot of time talking about the science of the Go Home Show and the different ways they're put together and I think this was one of our best received Go Home Shows we've ever done. And this was really for me, it's always exciting and there's a risk when you add a new event, change the calendar, do something like creating a new show that is AEW Dynasty."
The Oklahoma State Athletic Commision issuing a warning to AEW for booking Nyla Rose vs. another woman: " I was really surprised by this. It was not something I was expecting and of course I was disappointed by the commission's position and by that warning. I don't think we did anything wrong. I'm really, really disappointed. shocked by it. I don't think there should be discrimination against transgender wrestlers or transgender people at all and, you know, they have rights and to that end, I absolutely stand by Nyla Rose. AEW stands behind Nyla Rose and all transgender people who want to play sports and this is wrestling. There is. was nothing wrong with it. Nyla Rose is a great wrestler. She's been a great world champion and I love Nyla. I love working with Nyla. She's been a great part of our history. She was the first transgender world champion ever and she's a great part of the AEW Together program. She does a ton for the community. She's a great person with a great heart. and very supportive of the other wrestlers. One of the funniest people on social media, I personally have nominated Nyla to TBS for the best social media presence on more than one occasion over the years and she's an amazing 2019 going back to the very first. year of AEW, the first shows, the first dynamite. And look at everything Nyla's accomplished and to just put that label on her that's not right. She's much more than that and, you know, she's a great athlete and I hope everybody can look at Nila and see that she's accomplished. a great wrestler, a great person, and she deserves the same chances as everybody else. And if the AEW locker room, which consists of people from all over the world, all kinds of different backgrounds, all different beliefs, if everybody in the locker room can embrace Nyla, I would hope that the Oklahoma Commission could do the same thing. So, thank you. So I'd also like to mention speaking of Dynasty, Nyla is working with one of our new pay-per-view partners for the domestic digital presentation of AEW Dynasty, PPV.com. Nyla is going to be a special guest host for the ppb .com AEW Dynasty event. Very happy about that. We were thrilled when she accepted the invitation weeks ago and we're all excited about all the different ways you can watch this pay-per-view. This is going to be the most widely available event for digital distribution domestically ever in the history of AEW. For AEW Dynasty, there's a lot of choices. Of course, Nyla is going to be there on PPV.com. We have great providers with Triller TV, YouTube, and our long -term time base at Bleacher Report. We really appreciate Bleacher Report and Warner Bros. Discovery working with AEW to make sure our fans have a lot of options to watch the pay-per-view and I'm glad Nyla is going to be hosting that. That's something that's been in the works for a while. I think the world of Nyla and that's how I feel about it. "
Whether AEW will continue to runn Oklahoma: "I definitely am treating this as a developing story. It was kind of surprised by this, but definitely wanted to do our best to support the fans across America and all over the world and bring AEW wrestling everywhere. We have great fans. We have great fans in Oklahoma that are important to us and great fans all over the country. And so we'll do anything we can to support those fans.
So it's something we're going to have to think about, but you know, it's a fair question. Thanks for asking."
CM Punk's statement that AEW didn't pay for his medical procedures: " I'd have to look into that. I can't say for sure. It doesn't sound right to me. If that is the case, you know, then I would reimburse them, honestly. I don't think that's -- I didn't think that was the case, and it doesn't sound right. So, I would have to look into that. that. You know, that's a good question, but, you know, typically we do cover those medical expenses, especially for something that occurred in the ring as that did, so I would have to look into that. But no, I'm not sure about that. I can't say for sure."
AEW opening up PPV options for fans on different platforms: "I'm optimistic it'll continue that we're able to deliver the AEW digital pay-per-view events on multiple streaming platforms, and this is the most digital distribution we've ever had for any AEW event for AEW Dynasty this weekend, which is really exciting. There are so many great options, depending on what platforms you use, what kind of devices you watch, pay-per-views are on, there will be lots of options to watch AEW Dynasty. I think it's really cool that Warner Bros. Discovery has given us all these options for a long time. Bleacher Report had been an exclusive platform and I think that's been beneficial to us because it's helped bring us closer to Warner Brothers Discovery, which is our amazing media partner and an incredibly important relationship for us and then for them to allow us to use multiple digital platforms, partners for distribution of AEW Dynasty and the upcoming pay-per-view events. That's really exciting for us. It allows us to reach even more fans now and do all of it with a blessing of our amazing media partner now that we've established that we have this great presence on Bleacher Report and now touching other platforms. I think it's awesome and I'm very excited about it. It's a great... great step for us. I can't say for sure what will happen after the next three events other than to say we will still have great digital distribution. Regardless, I'm optimistic and excited about the opportunity to distribute these upcoming shows on multiple platforms that was granted to us by our amazing media partners at Warner Brothers Discovery who have been so great to us at AEW."
Whether the ROH and AEW Trios titles are being unified: "Yeah, absolutely. The winner of the match will be the undisputed world trios champions. I think that's very cool and it'll create a lot of great opportunities for the title top trios out there. I think it's very exciting, you know, some consolidation and unification of championships. And we have two great trios here, the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn, who won their championships getting back last year, and with Jay White and the Gunns. I have a ton of respect for all of them. They have a lot of history with each other and it should be an excellent match. We had an injury this past week and I had been waiting to confirm this match on the card just to, you know, give you guys a look behind the curtain at the process. When we got the clearance from the doctors, I was really excited to be able to add this match to the card and I I know the fans in St. Louis will be excited to see these wrestlers and it's something fun for the fans all over the world. We're going to have a great card on the Zero Hour and even if you can't afford to buy the pay-per-view you'll be able to watch that great wrestling and that's a great way to get people all over the world watching and that's available on YouTube and all the pay-per-view platforms for the pre-show going into AEW Dynasty."
Company revenue: "Yes, Q1 2024, the revenue is significantly up. We've run more events. - Yes, we've...we've added AEW Collision and AEW Dynamite is strong. We've had good attendance, you know, in some markets, year over year, the attendance up. In particular, a lot of really successful shows in this run, like great events, including Boston, Toronto, AEW Revolution was one of our top U .S gates ever. Then on the pay-per-view side, AEW Revolution in Q1 is one of the biggest AEW pay-per-view shows of all time. It was our biggest pay-per-view since last year's AEW All In and surpassed last year's Revolution. Last year's Revolution did really, really well. It was one of the best pay-per-view shows of the year. A lot of people thought that it was the best pay-per-view show of the year. It included MJF versus Brian Danielson in the 60-minute Iron Man match and a lot of great wrestling, great show. This year the show did even better. The gate was up and the pay-per-view buys were significantly up for what was Sting's final encounter, the last pro wrestling match of Sting. On a personal level, it's probably the greatest thing I've ever been a part of and greatest night I've ever been a part of and it was a very successful business. So with more shows, more pay-per-view revenue, it's been more revenue this year. So, big growth there and a lot of opportunities. Also, our rights fee was higher with the 2024 option getting picked up versus 2023 for Dynamite and the addition of more shows. We had significantly higher revenue in 2024. So it is, you know, big growth and also big opportunities going into the media rights renewal year and continuing to grow the business going into 2025."
Streaming Rights: "That's a great question. I think it's something that we'll be looking at and evaluating in the upcoming media rights negotiations. I think there's a great opportunity for AEW and really our media team and all of our fans to present this incredible library that has never really been made available. You know, it's amazing. We've done over 230 episodes of AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite. We've had hundreds of episodes of Dynamite, Rampage and now Collision is approaching a one-year anniversary. We've done so many great pay-per-view events. I think, over the past five years, a large percentage of the best events on pay-per-view and wrestling have been from AEW. The whole library has never been in one place together. There's no place to really go back and watch all these Dynamites and all these great events. So, an archive library and a place to put streaming events, it's a really interesting idea and I think it's certainly something that has existed in wrestling and wrestling fans are able to watch a lot of events on streaming and the AEW events should be up there. It's something that I expect to happen in our next media rights deal. We're in an exclusive window right now talking to Warner Brothers Discovery, which is amazing and it's been a great time with Warner Brothers Discovery. We're coming up on the five-year anniversary of the debut of AEW on Turner Sports. That is phenomenal to me and it's really important and I want to respect our media partner and how important those negotiations are to us and certainly we're going to have a great opportunity coming into 2025 to present all of the AEW TV and all of our major pay-per-view events like like this Sunday. Where all these shows live in 2025 is to be determined, which is really exciting for us."
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