Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Tony Khan: Why AEW will be a success, CM Punk, TV Deal

Episode Date: June 25, 2019

AEW President and CEO sits down with Chris and covers some big topics regarding AEW. Tony talks about their TV deal, how he signed Dustin Rhodes, his 5-year plan for the company, being compared to WCW, wins and losses counting in AEW, CM Punk, whether or not he wants to be an on-air personality and much more! Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Chrysalamania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you, man. What's the powerful question. Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleecho. Chris Van Vleecho. Ladies and gentlemen.

Chris! Well, it's fitting that Justin Roberts, who's the voice of AEW just announced my name there because in this episode we are talking to the man behind AEW, the president and CEO, Tony Kahn. To all our new listeners and downloaders and subscribers, I guess you're all new because the podcast is pretty new. Thank you for joining us on this journey.

I'm having a blast with this. Thank you for all the five-star reviews. This is amazing. Please keep them coming. I know it's only the halfway mark of the year as we're uploading this one, but it's pretty safe to say that this interview with Tony Kahn is one of the biggest I've done or will do in 2019. It was actually Chris Jericho, who put in a good word for me with Tony and made this thing happen. You might remember the now infamous interview.

interview I did with Jericho in the backseat of his car right after he signed with AEW. I actually drove four hours each way to make that interview happen. Well, a few weeks later, I randomly tweeted Tony Con. I said, hey, that Chris Jericho interview I did has like 700,000 views on YouTube. You and I should do one. Jericho liked that tweet and the ball got rolling from there. Next thing you know, I get a text from Tony Con, which is insane to me. He says, I'd love to do an interview with you.

We went back and forth for like a month, trying to figure this out, trying to schedule it because, you know, he owns an NFL and a Premier League team and all that other stuff. He said he'll be back in Florida, which is where I live for the NFL draft. And boom, we were going to make that thing work. I took a day off work. I drove five hours each way from where I live in Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville. and we did this interview in his family's insane suite on the 50-yard line in TIA Bank Field where the Jaguars play. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Before we get to that, though, the Chris Van Fleet Show is brought to you, as always, by Green Roads.

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So keep in mind, this interview was done in April, exactly one month before double or nothing. Really interesting to hear Tony's take on AEW then, and still a lot of what he says here hasn't quite come to fruition yet, which is why we're uploading it. I am honored that I was one of the people that Tony sat down with and gave this kind of extended interview to. I mean, there's not many people he's done this with.

So please enjoy my chat with the one and only Tony Kahn. All right, we've been talking about making this happen for a long time. So thank you for inviting me up here and we're doing it. I really appreciate you coming up here. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Thanks for driving up to Jacksonville. It means a lot.

Ah, it's just a five-hour drive from where I live. No big deal at all. Yeah, it was really nice you to come up here. Thank you. I was thinking the opportunity to talk to Tony Kahn, the opportunity to talk about all-late wrestling, like, I'm all in. See what I did there?

there? Yeah. But this is double or nothing. This is double or nothing. And we're like a month-ish, almost exactly away from double or nothing. How exactly are you feeling? I'm so excited, man. I'm so excited. The guys are so excited. The staff, so excited. And most of all the fans, like the amount of support we're getting from people around the world. I think we all anticipated that this was going to be a huge venture, that this was going to be a well-received and profitable venture. But I don't any of us expected how quickly things are going to come together. And I think, you know, it's going to take us a long time to build up to be the company that we all want this to be. But at the same time, I know that we can harness the power of what's happening right now with the momentum we have

on social media and the excitement of the fans. And most of all, the excitement in business, because the amount of interest we're getting from media partners and sponsorship opportunities is tremendous. So it's a really, really exciting time for AEW. Well, now you've got Dustin Rhodes added to the card for Double or Nothing. How exactly did that come together? Well, obviously Cody and Dustin are brothers. And there's a lot going on between them, and this is something that's very important to Cody, and we're going to make it happen. And not only is it something that's really important to Cody, but Dustin's one of the greatest performers of not just this past decade, but of the last three decades. And to have Cody and

and Dustin in the same ring, squaring off, is going to be really, really exciting. It's a huge match. Well, you talk about how this has come together so quickly. Like, this has been just like four, not even four months. From a fan's perspective, this was announced January 1st. Yeah. And there were other wrestling companies that came around that I don't feel like had this much excitement, like Wrestling Society X, Lucha Underground, which I love, but just didn't have this

excitement. What's different about AEW? AEW is a blend of great performance. performers and we have some of the greatest minds in wrestling that are working with us. And we all have a vision and frankly we have resources that none of the companies that you mentioned before have because of the financial resources offered to us by my family, by my father, who's really been so supportive of this venture. And I don't think he realized he's not a wrestling person. And so I had explained to him what this was going to be and laid out a business case that made a lot of sense.

And he said, okay, this business case makes sense. You worked really hard on this. And I'm going to support this. But he didn't really understand it. And now that he's seen the amount of interest and the passion of the fans, everywhere he goes, when he goes to automotive factories, and he owns automotive factories around the world, like people are very excited to talk to him about AEW.

And, you know, all over America, there's people so excited about the Jaguars. And he's in factories here in America, but now he gets asked about AEW just as much. And I got him an AEW hat when he walks our dogs on the beach in Naples. Your dad with his mustache, I feel like he would be a great manager. My dad could view. I think there are a lot of things that my dad could do in life. And I'm sure if he wanted to do that, that would have been something he would have been great at.

I'm very interested from a fan's perspective, how you guys, at least from the perspective, of how you've been able to leapfrog Ring of Honor or TNA. You guys are the number two company and haven't had a show yet. I don't, I mean, the amount of interest we've generated, it's for very good reason. We have the best performers in the world. This is a collection of the best performers in the world. Like when I said, we had the best minds we do.

But we also have the best in-ring performers, and at the end of the day, that's what's going to set us apart. And it's not just one or two or three or four performers. It's not just 10, and it's not just men. men or women. I mean, we have across the board people that are the best in their style. We have people that are the best of their size, the best, just really, yeah, it's a great roster. And that's the thing that sets us apart is there hasn't been a roster with this caliber of workers on it in America with this, with these kind of resources ever.

With the financial backing you have, obviously there's been the comparisons to WCW. What do you think about those comparisons? I mean, I don't want to compare us to any other wrestling company. I mean, we're AEW. We're doing something very different. And what's great is that what we will offer, which will bring people back to, you know, 20 years ago, is that there will be a major alternative. There will be a second company with great production values and good exposure. It's easy to watch. and giving you shows with the top wrestlers, with like the best matches, and, you know, on a regular basis. And that's something that hasn't been readily available to people outside of WW in a long time, almost 20 years.

I know you were a big ECW fan growing up. Are we going to maybe have some shades of the edginess of ECW in AEW? I think we are doing some very edgy things, and I think what you see on our social media is not necessarily going to be what you see in our television product, which I do expect to be much more advertiser-friendly than ECW. But that doesn't mean we won't push the envelope sometimes. It doesn't mean that you won't see really exciting high spots. And a lot of what made ECW great was the work. And yeah, we're going to have the best caliber in-ring stuff in the world.

So obviously, your business guy, a very successful one. When you look ahead, you've probably got a five-year plan. What's the five-year plan for AW? The five-year plan for AEW is that we will have built a brand. We will have built up a roster. We will have established ourselves as a top brand in wrestling for people who want fast-paced, exciting action, and want a product that is more of a sporting-based product. I've talked a lot about how I want wins and losses to matter,

because at the end of the day, that's why you're having the match. There's going to be a winner and a loser, and it matters. And it should matter to your standing in the company, and it should matter to your standing in the chase for the championship, which at the end of the day is what everyone's trying to attain. I mean, we're here in an NFL stadium, and obviously all of us, we're chasing the AFC championship. We're chasing the AFC South championship at first,

and then we want the AFC championship, and then we want the Super Bowl. And I think in wrestling, you know, there's championships, there's contenders, and I think that the wins and losses are the building blocks for that. And across our matches, I think you're going to see a different presentation than you've ever seen before. I don't want to compare it to anybody else's. I think in mixed martial arts, I think UFC has done some outstanding things in how they present their fights. There have been some great things in the world of boxing. And then there are just some different things.

You know, for sports media partners across a number of sports and across the biggest media partners, I own a company based out of Boston called True Media, that is the top sports engineering and analytics services company. And we support teams and media partners across a number of sports and present information in different ways, infographics, and utilizing databases to track a number of different things for these networks. for their stats and information groups. And I think that what we can do in wrestling is offer fans,

first of all, more engagement with what's happening in ring than there has been before as far as, like, tracking the performances of wrestlers across matches, tracking the history of wrestlers, and really, I think, like, it's just going to be, like I said, it will be a very different presentation. There are some things that probably can't explain yet, yet, but there are going to be a lot of really, really exciting elements to it that, like I said,

it would be very different than anybody's ever tried to present it before in a sporting environment. So is this kind of like when we watch UFC and they have the stats of like how many punches landed and stuff like that? It was not exactly, but I mean, there's some elements of that presentation that I think are very interesting and then there are other elements that probably are more applicable to wrestling and yeah but but but I think that is really interesting stuff we you mentioned championships have you given thought to how many you'd like to have yeah I have okay but obviously maybe not in Vegas we're probably there's no title matches there or maybe

there might well the AAA tag team titles are at stake that you know the young bucks and the Lucha Bros. Penta and Phoenix that matches for the AAA tag titles as the young bucks AEW executive vice presidents are the and defending AAA tag team champions. How much has this announcement changed your life personally? You were already fairly high profile, but now you're the AEW guy. You're the Vince McMahon of AEW.

I really, really enjoy what I'm doing, and I didn't do it because I really cared about the public perception of me as far as me as a wrestling mind or a wrestling person. I think it's cool that I've always loved wrestling as much or more than anything else in the world, and that I get to work in it actively. And I'm very thankful for that, and that is a great benefit of this.

But that's not why I did this either. I didn't do this to get a profile in the world of wrestling that I love so much or to get more time hang out around wrestlers. I did it because this is going to be a great company. I've told my dad, I think that this could be one of, if not the biggest company that we own. And we own some of the biggest companies in the world. My father is one of the wealthiest people in the world. This could be a huge, huge company.

It can be. It should be. And, you know, with the resources we have, there's no reason why it won't be. So, yeah. But as far as like as far as the championships, you know, we will be making announcements. And it's going to be a very, very important element. It's what everybody is going to be striving for. And it's, yeah, it's going to be, I believe, each of our AEW championships, if there are similar titles, if there, you know, I believe ours will be considered the most

prestigious in the business. Five years from now, that would be a great thing. I think if every wrestler in the business wanted to be a champion in AEW, and I think that's how it'll be. Have you thought about being an on-air personality yourself? I have not. I have not. I've thought about it, and I'm not going to do it. Really? Yeah. We have some of the greatest on-air performers in the world, and I am, look, I am who I am in the promotion. I am the president and the CEO and the founder of this company. But it's not going to be me all over TV, and I'm not going to be doing a lot of interviews

or backstage segments on television. Well, thank you for this interview. Yeah, this isn't on my TV show. It's yours. This is your channel. This is on your time. So, yeah, it's good. When you talk about TV,

I imagine you're talking about an actual network because streaming is becoming more and more of a thing. Why decide to go with a channel on TV? I can't say what we're going to do as far as our, our, our, our, future plans. An announcement, I'm sure, is fourth comment. We are, I have negotiated some things, and I'm very excited about what we're doing.

I do think that it's very important to give wrestling fans a better quality of life. I think 20 years ago was honestly, in many ways, not nearly as good a time to be a wrestling fan. There wasn't nearly as much wrestling out there and available if you were really looking for it. If you're really looking for great wrestling right now, there's never been a better time to be a wrestling fan, because it's very accessible. I say that all the time. It's very true. It's very true.

There's so much great stuff out there to watch right now. But the other point, the counterpoint to this is that really 20 years ago, there was much more readily available wrestling on television to tens of millions of people that are casual television viewers and consume media that way. And there still are tens of millions of people that consume media that way. It still makes you very very. attractive to advertisers and it's a very good platform and so that's why I think you've seen that you know other media properties whether it's sports like the

NFL or other sports or the W.W.E have made very very lucrative television deals, long-term ones in some cases and I think there's something to be said for making making an entry into that space, but we're doing a lot of other really exciting things too. And it's not just about getting a TV deal put together. I think offering the kind of pay-per-view shows that we're offering with Double or Nothing and offering affordable tickets for the fans and making wrestling a family experience. But, you know, not just a trip to like a cartoon-type show, but like, you know, there's no reason kids can't get engaged with the fastest-paced, most exciting stuff. And I think that's what we're going to offer.

And if and when we do enter into the television space, I expect it will be the best wrestling television show that you'll see. And I think that what you'll find is that the quality of life, like I said, for a wrestling fan, will go up that much more when you have something to look forward to on a regular basis. And that's what, you know, for me, Like I said, I think 20 years ago in some ways was a better time to be a wrestling fan because there was so much out there to watch. There was so much available on television.

And now there is so much out there to watch, but you have to really be looking for it. And there are some people that aren't looking for it. In fact, there were a lot more people that were watching wrestling then. A lot more people watching wrestling 20 years ago. And it's because there were people that weren't looking for wrestling, and they were getting everywhere they looked. there was wrestling and I think that's what we have to do we have to not just AEW but everybody let's get out there and let's try and you know get our companies as much visibility as possible and let's try and offer as much

wrestling to people and get the quality of that aspect of it too because you know the in-ring performers have never been better and there's so many great people in the sport and there's a lot of people really really excited and interested and there's to many of those people there's never been more engagement but But unfortunately, there have been more people engaged at other times, and I think they weren't as engaged as the people are now, but there were more of them. And that's where we have to get to a place where we get more people that are engaged as the great people that are engaged and watching now.

And there'll be a learning curve for some people, but we're going to find a lot of people, and I'm already finding it, because I know a lot of people that had not watched wrestling in a while, that AW has rekindled their interest. people say to me all the time, you know, I haven't watched wrestling in a while, and I've been checking out a background on a lot of these people in AEW, and some of them I knew, and, you know, obviously I knew Chris Jericho, they would say, but they're learning. And I think what's really exciting about our company is like when people realize that, like, hey, Kenny Omega and Cody and the Young Bucks and Hangman Page and Pock and all these other performers, you know, 20 other

names I could sit here all day listing off our roster one by one and the great what's great about him is you know I know them all and they're all awesome I'm you know we haven't signed anybody I'm not very familiar with and really like their work we have got a great process there's a lot of great minds in the company that can champion a performer and and what's great is it's very collaborative like we all talk every day and you know working with with Cody and Kenny and the Young Box every day is just such a pleasure because like we all really get along and enjoy it and it's really fun and the way an idea like it develops out of the group, you know, any one of

us could say something and then any one of the other four might take it and run. You never know which of the four it's going to be or and so many of the ideas we've had and things were trying and you know the brand we're building and the stories we're telling and and the creative it comes from that, comes from the five of us, just sitting around. And then we have all these other great minds, too, outside of the four EVPs, the Young Bucks and Cody and Kenny, you know, and then myself, outside of the five of us, you know, Chris Jericho is one of the greatest minds ever in wrestling, and Chris is just a great mind.

Chris was like what I said about my dad, like Chris could have done anything Chris wanted to do. And he happened to become one of the greatest wrestling characters, is one of the greatest wrestling performers ever. But Chris could have done anything he set his mind to. And so having Chris with us is so valuable. Christopher Daniels has a lifetime of experience. Sure. And, you know, also a brilliant mind for the business.

And we have so many other great minds. And really what's great is, like I said, the way the creative process flows, look, I'm sure as we go on and work together, like, you know, people are going to have different ideas that go different directions. But right now, like, everybody's very much on the same page as far as what we want to do with the business. With as deep as your roster is, are you considering adding more people all the time? We are always talking about adding people, but I am the bad cop on this, because there are so many talented people. There are so many talented people that are not signed right

now. And there are so many other talented people that would probably, that are signed, but would probably be interested in coming to work for us. But we can't take everybody. And that was, if you look at the problems, you asked me earlier about WCW, if you look at problems that led to possibly what the demise of WCW was, I think one of the major issues was that they had a very large roster with a lot of people making a lot of money, and a lot of those people were really good. If you were just to try to chop down the WCW roster,

you'd be making some really tough decisions and say, like, because there were so many people across the board that were really good, but you can't pay every town. person in the business, $100,000. Your company will go under quick because you won't have enough revenue to offset what you're paying out. So you have to make smart decisions and you can't hire every person you like and you can't hire every person that you think is good because there's a lot of really, really good talent. Every time someone's disgruntled. We hear that someone's being released. The immediate headline is, are they going to AEW? Question mark. And I'm sure you get tweets about this all the time. I mean, people ask about a lot of performers all the time. But, you know, So we'll certainly look at, look and consider to take people on, but it's, you know, look at the roster we have right now. And there's so many talented people on it. And it's already we've committed to who we have, and we're already committing our resources to the people we've signed. And it would really be a disservice to them and to our fans and to the bottom line of the company to, you know,

move our resources away from the people that we've already, you know, committed. to. So there will be opportunities to take on new performers and new talent. But like right now, we have such a great roster. I mean, we can talk all day just about the people we have. I'm super excited as a fan. I am flying myself to Vegas and buying a ticket so I can see Delaware. It's awesome. It's awesome. I'm very excited about this. Obviously, John Oliver had this expose about WW and pro wrestling and all the bad things going on there. Are you hoping to rectify some of that with AEW? I can't comment on

anybody else's business practices or what they're doing. I think that what we're doing is I believe that a very large portion of wrestlers' paycheck relates directly to the

pay-per-view sales and the TV money. If you were to get a lot of pay-per-view sales and TV money coming in, I think that would be the bulk of the check. And I think that what we have is there's a lot of people that are in wrestling right now that, okay, here's what I would say. For us, I want to offer a quality of life and a work-life balance that is the best, that is unparalleled in the business. I want to offer

the best quality of life. And what that means is less time on the road, but still working regularly, still performing, you know, on pay-per-view and then television in the future. And then I believe that you don't need to spend six days on the road to make a good living as a wrestler and five days on the road even necessarily per week. That's a big paradigm shift, though. I think that's amazing. Well, I think that what we'll find is that also it is a bit of a shift. But I think what we'll find is that a lot of people in this company have skills beyond in ring that support the company in other ways.

And there are a number of people that do have, you know, full-time employee status with us because they perform other, they, outside of performing in the ring, they're performing a full-time job in the office. And there are a lot of people in our office that are wrestlers because they have those skills. and they're more qualified than anybody else to work on the creative or work in the production side or work with the talent. And so that is a big part of our business model. And so I think that sets us apart,

and I really do strongly believe in that aspect of it. But also, I really believe that, like I said, that when we are up and running full time, that we will have the best, work-life balance that any company can offer. With as busy as you are with the Jaguars, as busy as you are with AEW, do you find time, do you carve out time to watch wrestling?

Yeah, I have to. I have to watch wrestling. It's great homework, right? Yeah, I mean, like, I had to watch wrestling before. I worked in the wrestling business compulsively, because it was outside of all my other work, you know, both with the Jaguars and at Folham and the True Media as well,

I would watch wrestling whenever I could find spare time. Now that's not my spare time. Now it's like mandatory. But I would be doing it anyway. So all the things I do for work are the things I would be doing. And that's really, look, at the end of the day, like, I'm one of the most fortunate people in the world because I've gotten to choose the things I like to do. And they're all things I want to do.

I enjoy the work. And you have to do the work. Like that's one of those things. It frustrates me sometimes with people, but like if you don't love it, you don't love it. And it's like that's what makes this so easy for me is I do love it. and I love the work and it's like I don't have to push myself to roll up my sleeves and do it. It's not a chore for me to watch wrestling. I love to watch wrestling.

So I do find time for it and more than more than anything else. I really enjoy it. What makes you so confident that it'll be profitable because so many other companies have tried and not been that successful? We have a really, really a sound business model and we have great business people here. And we've done a lot of research and put together a really strong business case. And based on the interest I've already got, based on the commitments I already have, and based on the business plan that we've put together with our team, I know we can be profitable and we will be profitable.

And based on metrics that we set, milestones we set that we wanted to achieve, we're actually already ahead of pace on a lot of things. So based on the early figures, I would say that things are going really, really well. This may be my toughest question yet, but what's your favorite match of all time? All time, and you can only pick one. You can only pick one match. I'll tell you mine, and you can think about yours. I don't know how you just say there's so many different types of others.

I mean, my answer would change on an ongoing basis. I think it's pretty hard to beat Flair and Steamboat. And, but, you know, Omega and Jericho in the Tokyo Dome was pretty great. And now having an Omega Jericho rematch here in America is something that I always thought would be huge, and now we're doing it, and it's going to be huge. That's one of my favorite matches. There's so many answers I could give for that. I love that.

You know, it depends on what you're looking for. It depends on how much time you got. And it depends on really what side of the bed you woke up on, I think. But there's a hundred different answers I could give for that. I mean, do I have to say one or can I just? Well, you said a great. Well, you said two great ones. Well, there's been a lot of flare steamboat matches.

I think, you know, the Chaitown Rumble, I love, but Nashville Music City Showdown, and the New Orleans one is great, too. People need to know how deep your wrestling knowledge is. You're kind of like Rain Man when it comes to wrestling. It's a rainman when it comes to sports statistics and wrestling I've always looked at in that sense. as a sport because there are winners and losers and dates and just like with the NFL you know we could talk about the Super Bowl and winners and losers and I can tell you about details of the games and and plays that broke I think you can do

the same thing with wrestling so um but wins and losses in wrestling though are a little bit different because they're predetermined sure but um but in the context of the match like it's obviously it's part of the aesthetic I mean it's like it's what it is So in the sense that, like, my mind can keep track of them like a sport, it is very similar in structure, and it is effectively in presentation. It should be presented like a sport. And when it's been at its best, I think it has been. And so, you know, yeah, I could talk about great matches all day.

One I mentioned to Chris on Chris Jericho's podcast was Chris Jericho and the Ultimo Dragon. Yeah, yeah. from July 7th, 95 from War, which is a great, great match. And Chris Jericho will tell you, like, that match opened a lot of doors for him because it got him. He had said that really helped him get into ECW and WCW that tape. And it was on the tape trading scene in 95. That was a really hot tape when I was 12 years old that everybody wanted to get.

And I got it. And that one was a huge one for me, and I became a huge fan of Chris. And now, you know, over 20 years later to be working. with Chris. It's a real pleasure and an honor, but I wouldn't be doing it if it didn't make business sense. There's a reason we've given Chris this huge contract and committed to because Chris is a great performer, and for this brand, he's going to help us make this into a top company. Well, CM Punk just made his return to the ring, or at least under a mask. Is that someone you'd be interested in bringing in? He's a great talent, great performer. I don't know, I don't know

was it. I don't know if that was, Phil. But, yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's great. And I'm from Illinois. I'm, so, you know, grew up around Chicago Sports, and he's obviously very popular there. Obviously, there's a lot of names that get thrown around with AEW. Have there been any rumors out there? And you don't need to say them specifically, but have there been any rumors that before it actually happened, you went, how did they figure that one out? No, there haven't been, not rumors. Like, I mean, wrestling fans are very diligent. Like, we hadn't announced we were doing anything, and people, like, found the trademarks and things. So, I mean, there's some stuff where you're, like, You know, you have to really take your cap up to some people on the research.

You know, people really scrutinize wrestling. And I mean that in a very positive way. Does that also scare you, though? No, it's good. Okay. No, I think it's good. Honestly, like, you want people, like, super interested in your product and, like, fired up about what you're doing.

I think it's a very good thing that we have such engagement in people, like, looking out and, you know, with a microscope to see what we're doing. It's great. You want guys out with a magnet. glass, checking out your product. So it's great. So if someone's sitting on the fence right now thinking, do I want to order Double or Nothing? What sells them on this? Double or Nothing is an amazing card. Double or Nothing, I strongly recommend you buy Double or Nothing. It's going to be one of the greatest pay-per-view shows of all time, if not the greatest pay-per-view show of all time. We've put so

much thought into it. We have some of the best performers from around the world, both female and male. And we've got some amazing surprises set in store for everybody. But what you can expect and what you know you should expect is a handful of just some of the best matches you're ever going to see. The card is stacked from top to bottom and we can talk about it again, what's one of those things we could talk about all day. I mean, whatever you want to talk about with that double or nothing I'm happy to talk about because. Well, how excited are you that JR is the voice of AEW? J.R. is an amazing voice for AEW. And I think one of the greatest announcers, not just in the history of wrestling, but in the history of sports or entertainment.

And as far as a wrestling personality and a wrestling mind, Jim's another great wrestling mind. You know, when I listed out some people, I should have listed Jim when I said some people outside of the EVPs that bring great minds. And Jim hasn't been with the company as long as, you know, Chris Jericho or Christopher Daniels or some of the other great people. and obviously the EVPs, you know, the Young Bucks and Cody and Kenny. But Jim's coming in with a well ridiculous experience. I mean, I'm a huge, huge mid-south wrestling fan, and so, you know, I followed Jim's really early work. And I love Jim's announcing.

I love Jim's mind, and I think Jim's going to be awesome. And the legitimacy Jim offers to the product. It's a really important thing. It's legitimacy Jim offers to broadcast partners and to media partners, but also to sponsorships. And when people hear Jim's voice, I mean, you know, that's, like you said, I mean, it's a great voice for AEW. Are you, like Jericho kind of talked about this on the podcast, but does the buck stop with you? Are you the one who's making all of the decisions within AEW? Yeah.

You're going to be doing the hiring and the firing? Well, I mean, look, the executive vice presidents have a lot of say in what we do. Like the Young Bucks, Cody and Kenny, the four of them, work with me very closely. And like I said earlier in the interview, the five of us talk every day. You know, Brandy is our chief brand officer. I talk to on a daily basis. Dana, Massey, Matt's wife. He's an amazing, amazing person.

Dana's awesome. And, you know, I talk to Brandi and Dana pretty much every day, too. you know, Brandy, again, is the chief brand officer, and Dana is the chief merchandising and marketing officer. And so really, you know, the seven of us are in constant communication and on wrestling matters. Yeah, the five of us talk pretty much every day. I talk to Chris Jericho almost every day. And really, yeah, I am the final word, though, I mean, to answer your question, because there's times where we don't all agree, and there's, you know, honestly, most of the time we do. Like, if you something in wrestling that makes sense, what's great about wrestling is like most of the time

everyone's going to be like, yeah, that's really good, that's really good. And even if it wasn't your idea, it's not the thing you wanted to do, but somebody comes in with something, if it's good, like usually everyone's going to be like, it's really good. But if there's a lot of times, there's things that are good, undeniably, but, you know, it's just not the budget, or there's things that we all don't agree that it's good, and somebody has to decide what's good for us and what's not good. And yeah, so that is me, but I don't want, that would really be a this service to how insanely talented and brilliant like the other people I work with are. Because again, I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with them.

The Young Boxer, Kenny or Cody or Brandy, Dana, and Chris Jericho and the rest of the group. Have you had this entire group, this entire roster together going over matches or anything, or is that all going to happen in Vegas? No, we've all been together. I mean, we've all been together. We were all together in Vegas. That's true. Yeah, yeah. And most of us, Kenny wasn't with us yet in Jacksonville, but most of us were here.

But it's not like if we go to a room down here, some guys are like, you know, running the ropes and bumping around or something. No, no, no, no, we're all, I mean, look, it's going to be, it's pretty exciting. I think one of the really exciting elements of this is that some of the best wrestlers in the world haven't wrestled in a while. And so it's going to be the first time you've gotten to see them in a while, and that's not by accident. That's by design. And, you know, you should be anticipating it. People should be excited for it because it's going to be awesome. So that's why we're doing that.

Well, I said at the start of the interview that this is the calm before the storm. So I am incredibly grateful for your time. I know after double or nothing, it's going to be very hard to get your time. It's great. I mean, honestly, it's always hard to get my time. But, you know, you offered to drive up to Jacksonville, and I was happy to make some time during the day. everybody really enjoyed talking in the past and Chris Jericho had some really nice things about you. So I was happy to do it.

Well, thank you so much, Tony. Thank you. My pleasure. This was awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. All right. Great. Well, there you have it.

A fascinating conversation with a fascinating guy. And whether you're like AEW or WW or any other wrestling promotion, you have to respect with Tony and the other executive vice presidents, Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega are doing. The future of wrestling as a whole. It's just so exciting right now. Thank you to Greenroads for sponsoring this episode. Use the code Chris 15 for 15% off CBD products at greenroadsworld.com. And thank you to Samson for this incredible podcasting equipment that we're using. This is really making the Chris Van Vleet show sound so good.

And if you were listening from the start, yeah, I drove four hours each way to get the Jericho interview. I drove five hours each way to get this interview. And I'm not saying that in any sort of way to brag. I'm just saying that hard work and hustle always pays off. So if there's something in your life that you're thinking about going after, please just go after it. Do it. And I promise you it will be rewarded.

Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more. then you like to breathe air.

It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.