Subscribe
Follow Us
In a few short hours, fans will get their first glimpse of AEW Collision and what two more hours of live television a week looks like in the mind of Tony Khan.
Billed as an offering on-par with Dynamite, with a roster of key players that may or may not feature a “brand split,” Collision comes one week before Forbidden Door II and will serve as a direct lead-in to the show in its second week, with the two shows set to ring in exactly 24 hours apart.
Discussing what it's like to add a new show to his repertoire in an appearance on Wrestlenomics, Khan noted that he's very excited for Collision, for Forbidden Door, and for All In, too, noting that this summer has the making of a real breakout moment for All Elite Wrestling.
“I have a lot of really great ideas for it, and I like to see how things flow, and if Forbidden Door goes as planned, I think it will then lead us into what could be one of our all-time historic special moments for AEW All In,” Tony Khan said via Fightful. “I think we’re gonna have a great Forbidden Door, and I’m very focused on that, and if we get through that and that goes as I expect, then we are gonna be in an amazing position for AEW All In, and hopefully, the brand interest will be incredibly high worldwide and will focus itself into a very great event in London. But I’m very focused on coming there to Toronto first and putting on a great one for you at Forbidden Door and building off that.”
Brand interest will be incredibly high worldwide, you say? Are we talking Jungle Boy beating Sanada high, or Hiroshi Tanahashi beating MJF high? Or does the Khan have something even bigger planned, say the debut of Kota Ibushi and the return of the Golden Lovers as a way to continue Kenny Omega's storyline with Will Ospreay, regardless of who wins the match at FDII? Either way, Khan feels as though AEW's roster is up for the challenge of five hours of television per week and that fans should be in for a real treat too.
“I think AEW has the best roster of wrestlers in the world. If you want to watch pro wrestling, a lot of it’s opinions, but to me, I believe that the best group of pro wrestlers is the group in AEW, and you have a great opportunity to see them, and now I can showcase them even more and showcase more people throughout Dynamite, Rampage, and now we’ve added Collision, and we’ve gone from three hours of TV, now this week we’ll have five hours of TV for the first time ever. It’s gonna be so exciting, and it’s a great opportunity for the company, and I think that’s one of the things that sets us apart most importantly is the quality of the wrestlers, and then the way we build to the matches, I think there’s some really exciting matches ahead. I believe there’s an excitement about AEW that doesn’t exist for any other wrestling promotion as far as the ability to go do events for the first time because we are a new company. There’s still places we’ve never been, where we are a huge fan base.”
Tony Khan is ready to take AEW internationally.
Article Continues Below
Elsewhere in his conversation with Wrestlenomics, Tony Khan was asked about the increasing interest in AEW around the world, with both Forbidden Door and All In coming to fans from arenas outside of the US.
To Khan, building out AEW internationally is the next step in developing the promotion into something special, and having more shows like Forbidden Door, All In, and Collision will help them do just that.
“A great example of this is the anticipation that built for AEW’s debut in Europe, and our first show I the UK, and our first show in London, and all of it has come together to create the perfect storm of excitement that has led to the biggest gate in the history of pro wrestling in Europe, and one of the biggest gates in the history of professional wrestling, and we’re months away from the show, and not a single match or participant has been officially announced or confirmed. I think there’s a huge amount of excitement around AEW, and we’ve grown this audience in a unique time. A lot of our fans found AEW in the pandemic, and there are people start started watching it all over the world, or it became available to them in places all over the world for the first time. We really grew our worldwide TV penetration,” Khan said.
“Now the show is available in over 150 countries around the world with AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision. I think for us, the quality of our wrestling, I believe stands above anyone, but I also think there’s a lot of great wrestling all over the world from multiple different promotions, and that’s what makes wrestling great. There were some companies that are out there right now that were doing great wrestling and having some great matches before we launched, but there was a space, there was clearly a place in pro wrestling, specifically based in North America, and an opportunity to launch the promotion that became AEW, and it’s gone incredibly well, and we’ve done things beyond my wildest dreams. Now the international expansion in particular the success of AEW All In London, it’s mind-blowing, and to be part of an event that will now be in the record books as one of the biggest wrestling shows ever worldwide in the history of the planet, that’s pretty cool.”
Whether (WWE) fans like it or not, All In really is shaping up to be one of the biggest shows in professional wrestling history, with 60,000 tickets and counting already sold for the show. If Khan can load up the card with matches fit for the occasion, fans may be talking about this show for a very, very, very long time.
