With Forbidden Door officially in the rear-view, Tony Khan sat down with reporters to discuss the state of the promotion, their future media rights contracts, and All In, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest shows of the year for any wrestling company.
And yet, while TK and company have already sold something like 41,000 tickets for All In 2024 in England, could the promotion take its signature show elsewhere in 2025, as there are massive stadiums all over the world that would love to host a show of such prolific magnitude? Fortunately, Khan was willing to discuss just that and let it be known that while he's open to new ideas, he's more focused on the show at hand instead of the future.
“Well, at Wembley Stadium last year, we set the world record for ticket sales. I think we got something really special at Wembley Stadium. Potentially, All In could be a great event for AEW globally. I think that I’m very focused on our next event. Which obviously is AEW All In in Wembley Stadium, and I think that’s our biggest event we’ve ever done. It’s a dream come true to go back to Wembley Stadium,” Tony Khan told reporters at the AEW Media Scrum.
“I think it’s a huge, huge event anywhere in the world. In particular, I think Wembley Stadium is the greatest venue in all of sports. And this is the greatest event in the history of AEW. And it’s so monumental we’re going back. Last year, after 81,035 tickets set a world record. We’re going back. I think it’s a bold play, and we’re off to a great start in tickets. You know, we’re really at a very similar pace as last year, which is tremendous. It was a smart move getting out earlier this year and starting the sales, but we got out to a great big on sale last time, and we've really had a really good pace for sales, and I think, just like last year, as we started announcing exciting matches and things really started rolling more and more in the summer and we got that great momentum last summer, and had that huge, huge life week, week, week of just lift, lift, lift on ticket sales for Wembley Stadium, I think we're going to see that again because this is going to be a really hot summer for us. So I think right now we're focusing on that, which is the best event in wrestling at the best venue in sports.
Considering the Khan family has an incredible love for Wembley Stadium, having attempted to buy the venue outright in 2018, it's safe to say TK is over the moon to get his wrestling promotion into the venue and to produce massive attendance numbers at England's premier venue not once but twice. While another venue like Estadio Azteca could be a fantastic choice to hold the event, it's safe to say if All In can secure a spot at Wembley, at Wembley it will likely be.
Tony Khan wants to take AEW International into the future.
Later in his media availability at the Forbidden Door media scrum, Tony Khan was asked about Wrestle Dynasty, the new show that will be pairing AEW, Ring of Honor, New Japan, CMLL, and STARDOM at the Tokyo Dome in January. While Khan didn't get into too much detail on the subject, he is incredibly excited about the show, as he believes it will help to expand the promotion's reach even further.
“It’s really exciting. It’ll be a big week in Japan; it’ll be a big week in wrestling. January 4th and 5th, Tokyo Dome will have Wrestle Kingdom and Wrestle Dynasty. AEW and ROH are gonna be a part of it. I know CMLL, STARDOM, New Japan Pro Wrestling, it’s really exciting. We had a great collaboration, all those companies involved here tonight in Forbidden Door. And we’re all gonna go to Japan, it’ll be really exciting. It’ll be a great time for AEW, we’ll also be starting a new year here. We’ll have Dynamite and everything coming up that week. It’ll be a very important week for the company,” Tony Khan told reporters via 411 Mania.
“But we’re gonna work with New Japan Pro Wrestling and support both companies, as well as all our other international partners, for the first-ever Wrestle Dynasty in conjunction with Wrestle Kingdom. Very cool.”
TK was also asked about bringing a Pay-Per-View to Puerto Rico, where WWE had plenty of success with Backlash last year. While Khan doesn't have anything on the books at the moment, he respects Puerto Rico as a wrestling territory and would be happy to book something there in the future.
“I think it’d be great for AEW to make our debut in Puerto Rico. I would love that, we’ve had AEW in so many great countries and territories all over the world. And bringing AEW to Puerto Rico would be another great milestone in the history of this global wrestling promotion in a country and a territory in Puerto Rico that has had an amazing, amazing history of pro wrestling.
“Some of the greatest wrestlers in all the world have wrestled there. And a lot of the top stars in AEW have gone to Puerto Rico and wrestled before they came to AEW. Jon Moxley being one of them, and a lot of our top stars have participated and wrestled in Puerto Rico, but we’ve never gone there as a company, AEW. I think that would be an amazing milestone for us, absolutely.”
Is the next 12 months when AEW really goes international, with shows in England, Canada, and Japan all on the books and the potential for efforts in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and beyond all very much on the table? If the promotion hits it big in their media rights negotiations, that feels like a serious possibility.