Tony Khan appeared on the latest episode of the Battleground podcast for an interview.
The following are some of the highlights.
On Britt Baker: “I really like Britt (Baker) a lot and I think there’s so many exciting things happening in the women’s division so, Britt’s somebody I really like and respect a lot and definitely think as we’ve evolved with more tag teams and singles wrestling opportunities now across multiple shows, now that we have four hours of TV with Dynamite and Collision, I think there’s gonna be more and more opportunities. You’re seeing I’m signing a lot more young wrestlers and Britt’s still somebody very highly regarded and respected here in AEW so, I would expect to see Britt back in AEW. I just don’t wanna say when. It’ll be a good thing for everybody when Britt returns and I think it’s gonna be very, very good in terms of, for AEW right now, when you look at how the roster has evolved, there’s more and more fresh matches… Britt’s somebody I would absolutely love to have back in AEW soon.”
On Sting’s son Steven Borden: “I wanted to use that song. It was my idea. It’s a song that was in a library and we made a deal to get a certain number of plays. We haven’t used it on air yet but, we have a deal to use ‘Turbo Charged,’ which is a track that was available through a music library and I love licensing great music and that’s one of my favorite songs from my childhood. I think about it all the time and I thought it would be really cool for Steven (Borden) to come out to it, and Steven still has never been on AEW TV, but he’s somebody we’re developing and I have so much respect for Steven. He’s a rising young wrestler. He played college football at Kentucky. I followed his football career and now I’m proud to say we’re working on developing him as a pro wrestler for AEW… Developing him for the future is a huge priority to me and everyone in AEW.”
On AJ Styles: “Oh, I’m a huge fan of AJ Styles. I think he’s incredible. He’s had great matches all over the world. We were just talking about ROH. He did some incredible things in ROH that are a part of our library, and also with our partners at New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he was involved in some of the all-time greatest matches. His match with Minoru Suzuki is one of my all-time favorites, and he’s had great matches with multiple companies all over the world. He’s never been in AEW before but he’s certainly, with a lot of the promotions we work with, and of course in ROH, he has a great history and for me, he’s one of my all-time favorites just personally. In my opinion, I think he’s one of the greatest wrestlers ever. So, I have only the highest praise for AJ Styles.”
On Tommaso Ciampa’s arrival: “I thought it was a very exciting thing… When (Tommaso) Ciampa became available, I thought that was such an exciting development. He’s such a great wrestler. He has a great history in Ring of Honor and he’s never been in AEW, and talk about somebody who is a fantastic wrestler. AEW is where the best wrestle. So when the top free agents become available, I’ve always wanted to sign them. Whether it’s somebody who’s never wrestled in AEW before like Tommaso Ciampa, the new TNT Champion after this fantastic match he had against Mark Briscoe for the TNT Title. I thought that was just outstanding.”
