Tony Khan held a media call ahead of AEW Redemption at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, this Sunday.
Below are notes and highlights from the media call.
- Redemption will start at 6 p.m. ET, and Khan said that he wanted to experiment with an earlier pay-per-view start time to see how it works for the audience.
- Asked about Swerve Strickland’s, Tony said Swerve is on good terms with AEW and will represent the company at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. He added that he’ll answer more questions about Swerve after Redemption.
- Tony was asked about AEW Heels, but Khan admitted that he’s not directly involved with Heels and would need to ask other people on the business side about it.
- A free agency question was asked, as well as Sammy Guevara, Tay Melo and Anna Jay. Tony noted that Sammy’s status hasn’t changed, contrary to online speculation, and is still active with AEW/ROH. He revealed that Sammy sent him a message, saying he wasn’t trying to do anything. He noted that Anna signed a new deal with the company, but is out with a knee injury and got an MRI. Khan said it was inaccurate that Melo asked for her release last year. She requested it after her Collision match against Divine Dominion in June this year because she wanted to step away from wrestling. He said he would grant Melo’s request for release and that her relationship with AEW remains good.
- As for other free agents, Khan only said that he’s had his eye out on multiple recently-released wrestlers.
- Tony praised Kenny Omega’s current run and getting to defend the title in Canada. He also offered praise for Kevin Knight and how he’s ready to headline a PPV with Omega, as well as highlighting Thekla and Willow Nightingale’s title match.
- On MJF’s absence, Tony noted that he was in a physical match against Omega and has had other hard-hitting matches. He said MJF’s injuries weren’t serious and shouldn’t take him out for too long.
- Tony said Hangman Adam Page’s in-ring return “feels imminent” and that fans can expect to see him “very soon.”
- Tony talked about the Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley versus Young Bucks match and the parallels to last year’s match that featured Swerve and Ospreay teaming against the Bucks.
- With the popularity of the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Tony was asked about AEW’s relationship with Fulham and vice versa. He noted that while he tries to keep both entities separate, he does try to leverage the relationships however he can. He highlighted AEW’s sponsorship with Fulham, including the women’s kit.
- Tony was asked about whether he’s thought about doing a Crockett Cup-style tournament, a tag-team tournament. He talked up AEW and ROH’s tag team division and other promotions’ tag teams and said that it is something he’s considered, while also building up the women’s tag team division.
- Tony was asked whether or not Omega-MJF was tabbed for Redemption, given TSN promotion. He said that he had to keep “some sleight of hand in these things,” and was happy with how things played out. He added that he was optimistic about the WBD-Paramount merger and working under David Ellison. He talked up AEW’s ratings and recent PPV numbers. He noted that Beach Break was the most-viewed AEW show on TBS in two years.
