Tony Khan has taken AEW to a new height this past year. It’s been an amazing journey for the AEW Universe. He believes that the company is the reason the wrestling industry is on FIRE.

During his conversation on an episode of La Batard and Friends – South Beach Sessions, he claimed that AEW has changed the face of the wrestling industry. One of the reasons he takes pride in the way the company conducted itself is how the company functioned during the pandemic.

“The wrestling business has gotten hotter as a result of the launch of AEW. And I think a lot of the stuff I said in year one was validated through the way we carried ourselves on the launch of Dynamite and through the pandemic. I tried to do the right things by a lot of people through the pandemic. Whether it was not executing mass layoffs and letting all my people go when we lost all the ticket revenue. And I ate those costs personally.”

Apart from that, Tony Khan believes that their method of using YouTube had been beneficial. It has worked out for both the company and the many independent wrestlers looking for paid gigs.

“What we did in terms of AEW Elevation and before that AEW Dark, those shows on YouTube through the summer was the home of so many independent wrestlers. And when independent wrestling was shut down, the only paying gig was Dark. It was the best of both worlds because it was a chance to go out and make some money. And have a chance to get the exposure on the internet for hundreds of 1000s of people on YouTube.”

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Tony Khan revealed CM Punk did not want to be the AEW guinea pig

During the same conversation, Khan revealed that he wanted Punk to join AEW when the company was launching. However, Punk wasn’t ready.

“I’ve gotten to know him years ago. And I think he just wasn’t really ready to come in and come back to wrestling, until he saw what AEW was gonna be. I don’t think he wanted to be the guinea pig. And we launched the company. And that’s completely fair, and I think it all worked out perfectly because we built a company.” H/t Wrestling Inc

Currently, Punk’s debut has helped AEW rake up an immense rating, and it continues to make an impact. Reportedly, Daniel Bryan is coming to AEW on September 5th at All Out, which means more ratings for the company!