Tony Khan comments on the creative process at AEW.
During the AEW All In post-show press conference, Tony Khan was asked by Neal Flanagan of POST Wrestling about the creative process at AEW.
Tony noted that he works with 27 to 30 people who can come up with ideas. He said he gets hundreds of ideas every week and has to decide which ones to implement. He praised Jennifer Pepperman for her work with Mercedes Mone and said she works with others as well. He said RJ City was the only person who understood his references to Toni Storm and Mariah May. He said Jimmy Jacobs gets too much crap online and praised Jimmy for being the only other guy besides him who is at every show.
Tony said he was proud to be the Cal Ripkin Jr. of AEW and to be at every show.
In the middle of his answer, Tony said that getting into AEW All In was easier this year.
“Last year we had just started Collision. I honestly think it’s easier to get things done behind the scenes at Collision than it was a year ago. It’s a lot easier to switch between the two shows than it was a year ago. I think the dressing room is in a lot better shape than it was a year ago. It shows when we came here compared to what was happening here a year ago. It’s a much easier job, I have to deal with it because I was dealing with the people at Collision last year and it’s a much easier meeting process to put the TV together than it was a year ago. We obviously had a lot of things to deal with last year when we went to Wembley and that obviously had an impact.” he said.
Tony did not directly refer to CM Punk, who was at the center of the launch of AEW Collision, and the backstage confrontation between Punk and Jack Perry at AEW All In 2024.
Tony said that AEW is very similar to a sports team, where there is a head coach and then coordinators and specialists who all work together to present the best product.
Fans can find Fightful’s coverage of AEW All In here. For the full report on the action, check out the post-show podcast here.
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