AEW President and CEO Tony Khan discussed his plans for global expansion in 2026 with Unlikely’s Adrian Hernandez, focusing on new locations they have never visited before.
Khan said, “Yes, absolutely. I want to continue to tap into those markets that have been so great globally for AEW. You know, all Elite Wrestling is on in 150 countries, over 150 countries now. And we’ve got great partners. It all starts here with Warner Bros. Discovery. We’re very grateful, for these relationships, TNT, TBS, HBO Max. It’s huge. And around the world, AW is available on all these different platforms, and we want to go and tap into that. So you’ve seen AEW expanding as you said, it’s a great point, going into these new markets, and we’re going to continue that in 2026.”
On his goals for AEW in 2026 and needing to be careful after fans saw his AEW notes for Full Gear 2021:
“Yeah, I got to be careful with what I write down because, you know, I multitask and I’m at NFL games and AEW and one time I think I was sketching things out in the morning and my notebook for Full Gear 2021, people saw I turned I didn’t want them to see my football notes, so thinking, okay, well, they aren’t going to see my football notes, so I flipped it over the other side and it was my ideas for Full Gear. And that’s still a pretty good photo. Uh and I was like, well, as long as they don’t see my football notes, I probably, and honestly, the Full Gear card was pretty cool. And that was about 90% of where we got with it. So it was pretty great. But uh uh yeah, I I don’t exactly I I write down a lot of ideas, but I also keep a lot of ideas in my head. As you said, global expansion is a huge part of it. Continuing to ride the momentum and showing people that AW is where the best wrestle. That’s my vision and my dream for 2026.”
On the Darby Allin and Jon Moxley prison vignette and Allin’s brilliance:
“Well, I thought that was fantastic. Darby is a brilliant guy. Talk about people that have been here from the beginning. Darby Allin is such a great wrestler. He’s accomplished so much. Talk about things that could change a perception of wrestling, to know that Darby Allen was the first wrestler ever to climb Mount Everest, one of few people ever to climb Mount Everest. And I never had one concern. I knowing him, I knew he would pull it off and do a great job with it because that’s the kind of athlete and human being that Darby Allin is.”
On Hangman Page wanting to cut a promo in Spanish at AEW Grand Slam Mexico:
“That was Hangman’s idea. It was a great idea. I didn’t know he’s his Español was that good. [Adrian: It’s better than mine and I’m Hispanic.] Well, my Español is muy malo compared to Hangman Page.”
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(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
