Tony Khan weighs in on Jack Perry’s NJPW run, confirms 2024 AEW Continental Classic will begin after Full Gear

Image Courtesy: AEW

A number of AEW-related subjects touched on by Tony Khan. 

Going into the 3/20 edition of AEW Dynamite from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ComicBook Nation’s Liam Crowley uploaded his interview with Tony Khan

There were a handful of subjects covered during the conversation such as Jack Perry’s run in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Khan was asked if what Perry is doing will be brought over to AEW programming. Khan says we’ll have to see and added that he thinks Perry is doing great work in New Japan. 

I think you gotta stay tuned (to see if what Jack Perry is doing in NJPW will be brought to AEW). Absolutely, Jack’s doing great things in New Japan. The New Japan Cup, he’s had a great run. He’s established himself over there. He feels he’s ‘The Scapegoat’ but he’s doing great things and he’s wrestling for a great promotion and it’s been great tracking Jack’s progress in New Japan and I think he’s done excellent work there.

Perry competed in the 2024 New Japan Cup tournament and made it to the quarterfinal round before losing. On the topic of tournaments, Khan confirmed the Continental Classic will start after Full Gear and conclude at Worlds End.

He added that whoever is the Continental Champion after Full Gear will enter the tournament and have the opportunity to retain by winning the entire tourney. 

Whoever is the champion going into the Continental Classic, they will put the title up going into the Continental Classic and they will have the opportunity to retain it by winning the tournament and the Continental Title will be defended under the Continental rules for the rest of the year. No outside interference, nobody allowed at ringside… Here we are in March and realistically, we’re about eight months from the start of the next Continental Classic so it’s gonna be a long haul and whoever wins it, I think they’ve got a lot of tough defenses in front of them and whoever is the champion coming out of Full Gear, they will defend the title in the Continental Classic and then at Worlds End, we will determine who will be the Continental Champion at the end of 2024.

There is going to be a Continental Title match on the 3/20 Dynamite that’ll see Eddie Kingston defending against Kazuchika Okada. 

Also on the bill for the show is an appearance from new AEW signee Mercedes Moné. Khan stated that Moné is going to be heavily involved on the show. 

This week coming up tonight in Toronto, we’ve got Mercedes (Moné) advertised. Everybody knows she’s on the show tonight. I think it’s great and she’s gonna be heavily involved in tonight’s show…

The next pay-per-view for AEW is Dynasty and later on the calendar is All In at Wembley Stadium. Khan was asked about the potential of All In airing on HBO Max. 

Khan stated that when a streaming home for AEW is decided on, it’ll be a long-term plan. He added that he has spent a lot of time thinking about the All In 2024 card. 

We’ll have to see (if AEW All In will be on HBO Max). I think we’re actively negotiating right now and at that point, we’ll be deep in the conversations. So, it’s hard to say this year. I think certainly going forward, that’s a big possibility for us and something I would be really excited about would be bringing AEW to Max and it’s something I think we’ve talked about. It just has to make sense for everybody and I do think when we find a streaming home for AEW, that’s gonna be a long-term plan and given that we’re up at the end of this year, I think one of the reasons I’ve wanted to wait is I think when we get the streaming contract figured out, it should be a long-term solution for the fans so that everybody who’s waited so long to see this — I mean it’s amazing what we’ve accomplished in five years… A library is a big part of it but also, as you alluded to, probably the thing that would drive the most interest potentially would be our major events and having access to those on such a streaming platform and Max is one of the greatest streaming platforms in the world. I think it has the best collection of content anywhere in the world and we’d love to be a part of it and I think it’s something we’re actively talking about. We have a really, really strong relationship with the current Warner Bros. Discovery management. There have been a lot of changes at Warner Bros. Discovery since we came. In fact, when we came, it was still Warner Bros., Warner Media and the family from Discovery that’s come in, they’re big AEW fans and Mr. Zaslav, Kathleen Finch, Bruce Campbell and Jason Sarlanis, they’ve all been very, very kind, we’ve had great meetings with all of them and they’ve all taken a major interest in AEW, the pay-per-views, the streaming concepts and the television shows and that’s why, also, this year, they’ve increased AEW’s content; given us two more hours of television which has been great…

Yes, definitely have spent a lot of time thinking about August’s card and I’m very excited about it. The arrival of some of the biggest free agents in pro wrestling has given us even more exciting possibilities for what we can do…

In addition to Dynamite, there is going to be a live edition of Rampage immediately following Dynamite. There are a total of six matches scheduled across both programs. 

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ComicBook Nation with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.

About Andrew Thompson 9776 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.