AEW President and CEO Tony Khan appeared on the Battleground podcast to discuss various topics, including the strong partnerships they have developed with CMLL and NJPW.
Khan said, “I can’t say what people necessarily conceive or don’t, or misconceive or don’t, but I would say I would think probably people may not know how great a collaboration we’ve been able to build with partners around the world. New Japan Pro Wrestling has become a great partner of AEW. It wasn’t that way at the start. CMLL has now become a great partner of AEW. These are fantastic partners, CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling. I’m very honored to be able to work with them. We have a great relationship with Salvador and everyone at CMLL. And of course, President [Hiroshi] Tanahashi just celebrated his retirement, and I was very glad that AEW was able to be represented there. And I think that he’s had one of the most fantastic careers, and to see the massive, massive success of Wrestle Kingdom headlined by Mr. Tanahashi’s retirement match and this epic bout with [Kazuchika] Okada versus Tanahashi and the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi. I thought that was so special, and I think it’s a great example of some of the great things that can be achieved to have the massive audience that the show pulled and the huge crowd live and the TV audience very befitting Tanahashi’s legendary status. He’s a great choice to be the president of New Japan, and we’re very blessed to work with him, and I’m so glad that his retirement was a great success, and I think it’s a tribute to him, and we’re just blessed to be a part of that. So we’re great, great partners with each other, I think, with CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling, and I’m very proud of those relationships. So you know wrestling companies around the world can work together successfully.”
On if AEW will have any involvement with NJPW with the G1 Climax 36 event in the U.S.:
“No, New Japan may come to me to book wrestlers into the tournament, but how they handle their business, that’s completely New Japan’s prerogative, but we may work together. I think there could potentially be involvement from AEW wrestlers. I believe there will be, based on our early talks. So, I’m excited about that and the G1 coming this summer to America.”
On what it’s like for AEW to collaborate with other wrestling companies:
“Well, it’s like so many other things, you know, partnerships, friendships in sports, you can work together and help each other and be collaborative. Then obviously you’re all running your own teams and your own leagues, but it’s possible for sports teams to be collaborative and work together, and it’s possible for wrestling leagues to work together and be collaborative, and thankfully we’re not playing head-to-head. It’s not like that. So it’s great to be able to have AEW having an amazing 2025 and see our partners having great times, too.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
