My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 202 - TONY KHAN RETURNS!

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

Tony Khan returns to the Basement to discuss this Wednesday’s AMAZING Dynamite card (featuring a huge announcement from Tony himself), the signing of Danhausen, the purchase of Ring of Honor and plans moving forward for the company, and his thoughts on ‘The Batman’! 3Chi: Use code STOOL5 at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com Gametime: Download the app and use promo code MMB for $20 off your first purchase! **************************************** Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners. You can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Yeah, just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, noise in the basement. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement. Yeah, yeah. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by 3G and Barstool Sports. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I've got an interview with Tony Khan. A great interview with Tony Khan that went over 40 minutes, I think almost 45. And this went live on the My Mom's Basement YouTube channel last week

before Dynamite. It was a YouTube exclusive for a week, and now it is here on the podcast feed. A lot of evergreen stuff, though, a lot of stuff talking about Ring of Honor, Tony's new purchase of Ring of Honor, how that's going to weave into AEW and all of that. Before we get into it, let me tell everyone about our presenting sponsor, 3Chi, the industry leader in Delta 8 THC products. And now they're expanding, not just Delta 8, Delta 9 as well. They've also got the HHC Delta. They've got the THC V. They've got a ton of products at 3Chi.

And you can skip the dispensary, skip those lines, and get the THC delivered right to your door with them. You go to 3Chi.com, that's the number 3, CHI.com, and use the promo code STOOL5, and you will take 5% off your complete order and get a free Canofan flag sticker. You must be 21 or older to purchase, and 3Chi has a wide variety

of delicious edibles, vapes, drink enhancers, tinctures, and more, but they will show up on a drug test, they will give you a buzz, so please use this stuff responsibly. Visit 3chi.com. That's the number three, C-H-I.com. Use the promo code STOOL5, and you will take 5% off your complete order. Now, let's get into this interview with Tony Khan. Hello, and welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with Tony Khan yet again, welcome back to my mom's basement. It is Robbie Fox and I am here with Tony Khan yet again, another return guest. How are you, Tony? How have you been since the last time you were on the show? I've been really well since the last time I saw you, man. Things are

going great and it's an exciting night in AEW coming up. It seems like it. We've got a huge card. I want to kind of run down some of the things that are on it for all the people that don't know. Darby versus Andrade in a coffin match CM Punk versus Dustin Rhodes first time ever it's crazy that that matchup has never happened before hooks dynamite debut, we've got some awesome Owen heart cup qualifiers, and a huge announcement from you. What excites you the most about this upcoming card? Oh man, that's hard to say. I was actually just having this conversation with one of the most prominent wrestlers on the planet about this show. And I was saying to him that it's kind of hard to pick because I think when you've got such an exciting coffin match between Andrade Alidolo and Darby Allen that's been building up a rivalry that's really been happening for months. And this is a culmination of a story that I think has played out since before Revolution, when Darby Allen

was sort of recruited by Andrade. Andrade basically tried to buy Darby and wanted Darby to work for him. He thought Darby worked for Sting. And that's not the relationship between Darby and Sting. Sting and Darby are just good friends. And Andrade, of course, had that awesome match on Dynamite weeks ago with Darby. Andrade Alito coming out the winner, and now it's his chance to put Darby in the coffin for good. But as we know, Darby isn't so easy to put down. So I think that's a really exciting match but also as you said I can't believe the wrestling world has never seen Dustin Rhodes versus CM Punk it feels like a match that should have happened by now but it hasn't

and it's going to be a dream match so that's a huge part of the card but I was also saying uh in this conversation there's so much more on the show that you could say is the most exciting part of the night. I'm very excited about my surprise. I don't want to spoil it or say too much before. So without spending too much time on my surprise or what it's going to be, just so I don't give anything away, I think that's going to be a big thing. But I'm also very excited about Britt Baker coming back to AEW in Pittsburgh and she's just had such a great homecoming you know I don't know if you've seen the photos she's just posted at the Pittsburgh Steelers facility we got her in with Mike Tomlin and a bunch of the great Steelers and she was really excited about it yeah it looked like it and maybe there will be some like stars in

attendance from the Pittsburgh Steelers or something like that. I saw that Dana White's going to be in attendance for a future Las Vegas show. I saw J.R. saying that. Is that true? Well, I don't know about that. I think J.R. may be bold in those comments. But we did have a great time with Dana and Hunter. I don't want to commit to those guys that they're definitely going to be there, but they've been great friends to me. I was talking to those guys about our show show coming up in Vegas Double or Nothing and we also have a big show coming up at the Forum June 1st for Dynamite so I would love to have Dana and Hunter come to AEW and Dana's been such a great friend to me so hopefully we can host him like he's hosted us yeah that would be awesome and I

want to talk about some of the emerging stars in AEW because it feels like a company where constantly we see a new guy come up or a new girl come up and we say, oh my God, they might be the future. We all know who the original four pillars are, though CM Punk may dispute one of those, right? Who would you say are the four pillars of AEW going forward? The young guys that you could say might slot up into

those new roles well so a new generation kind of new generation of and I did such a bad job on talking the card rundown so let me say before I forget arguably the match I'm the most excited about and it plays right into what you just said about the pillars rob is jungle boy versus kyle o'reilly i think that in an owen hart qualifying match to put those two two of the most talented in-ring wrestlers i've seen uh in a match like this uh with so much on the line a spot in the owen hart cup tournament i really believe that's one of the most exciting things on the card too it could easily be the most exciting thing on the card and. It could easily be the most exciting thing on the card. And so that was also something I mentioned that I think is,

is really huge about this, this card. And you know, you mentioned people from the Pittsburgh Steelers, my old friend, Miles Jack, I think is going to come by the show. Who's a great player for the Jacksonville Jaguars for many seasons and made some of the most important plays for us in our best season we've had in 2017 and has been a captain and a great friend for us. So I'm excited to see Miles in Pittsburgh. So Jungle Boy, Kyle O'Reilly, is a great example of one of the pillars of early AEW, who's grown to become a champion in Jungle Boy, taking on somebody who's come in from the outside, who, when we launched AEW, was known as one of the top wrestlers in the world, one of the top grapplers, and that's Kyle O'Reilly. So it's going to be a great match, and it's a great rivalry between Jungle Boy and Kyle O'Reilly. You know, they've had great matches

along with their tag team partners, and now I think we get to see them one-on-one finally. And it's a dream match for me personally, which is why I made the match. And so I think the card top to bottom, so much exciting stuff happening on the show. Now, as far as young wrestlers going forward, who I think could be pillars for the future without putting that name on them. So we're not stealing anybody else's gimmick um i think young core wrestlers for the future would include daniel garcia absolutely i think he's a huge part of what we're doing going forward um and you know in addition

to him i think wheeler yuda has that was really one of the names i wrote down as a guy who just seems to be breaking through in a way that's undeniable you see it with the crowd yep it's true and I think people have seen how hard he fought against Jon Moxley how hard he fought against Bryan Danielson and also the progression he made during his three matches with Jon Moxley getting just slaughtered the first time out and then having a very respectable effort the second time not uh a classic match not an epic but much more respectable than his first match and then in the third match taking it to john everything he's got and also uh accepting the punishment from john taking the punishment from john and asking for more.

And the crowd found a new respect for Wheeler Yuta. And that has carried over. I think we saw that this past week on the live rampage that the fans are still really excited about Wheeler Yuta and he got the Yuta Yuta chance. So I think he's a huge wrestler for us going forward in the future too. So that's another really important one. Another wrestler who's early in their career, who I think is somebody that we could build around and is a great champion already, is Jade Cargill. Jade is young in her wrestling career as a college athlete who has only been in pro wrestling for a little over a year. But in that time, she's dominated competition and she's only going to get better. She's not only gotten better in the ring, but I think her promos, the character of Jade Cargill,

we've learned so much about who Jade is and what makes her a great champion. And I think fans want to see more of that. So I think those would be a few really strong examples there with Garcia, Yuta and Jade Cargo. I think those are great examples as well. Another guy that joined the company since the last time we talked and we spoke about him last time is Dan Housen, the very nice, very evil Dan Housen. What has it been like getting to work with him since he joined the company? Cause I know for a long time, it was like, he was contracted by ring of honor. You didn't own them yet.

So you couldn't really talk about that, but it seemed like something all of the fans wanted to happen. This connection. It's a great point, man. Dan Housen's got a great fan base. He's so entertaining. And I think he's found great friends in AEW with the best friends and I think it's ironic timing because Dan Housen actually is injured and I thought Dan Housen and Orange Cassidy would have a lot of chemistry and then Orange Cassidy got badly injured right as they

kind of connected with each other. In fact it was a match at Revolution where Dan Housen got involved where Orange Cassidy actually got injured. And that's a dangerous match when you have that many big, powerful people in a ladder match. And when you have a guy like Orange Cassidy, who's not as big as, say, a Keith Lee or a Powerhouse Hobbs, getting thrown up out of the ring into the ramp, you know, dangerous things can happen. And in this case, he got hurt pretty bad. So Dan Housen is still involved in AEW and we seen Dan Housen putting the curse on hook, at least trying to put the curse on hook unsuccessfully. And I think we can hopefully see a lot more of Dan Housen here in the future

in AEW. I loved the video post-show of him putting a curse on William Regal the other night. The post-show antics at AEW really are a blast. It kind of feels like back in the day, and I wasn't even around for this, but when Stone Cold was the general manager and you would see post-show, he was just having a good time with everyone out there drinking beers and stuff. That's what the modern AEW post-show feels like so if you're if they're coming to your area make sure you go to a live show because it is a better

experience thank you man and just I really appreciate that and everybody listening please just remember that Robbie is the one who invoked the Steve Austin comparison not me I would never dare compare anything we've ever done to Steve Austin, who's the greatest ever to do this. What a legend, yeah. All-time best and a great person too. And I really appreciate that though. And we've had a lot of fun after the shows. We always have. And lately it's been more fun than ever. Dan Housen putting the curse on Lord Regal was fun. And then this past weekend, we also had Dan Housen trying to curse Jeff Hardy. Yep. And then he did the dance with also had Dan Housen trying to curse Jeff Hardy. Yep.

And then he did the dance with him. That was very funny. Yeah, that was great. That was a lot of fun. And, you know, you put these guys in that situation. I asked him to go out there and have fun. And it's easy for those kind of guys to go out there and have fun and make the crowd enjoy it, too.

And Dan Housen is really somebody who I think can not only entertain the fans in aew but hopefully entertain people who haven't even watched wrestling and and get them curious hey what is this this guy's funny and uh you know dan houzen now and hook i think have got great chemistry so i'm excited for their journey together same um i gotta talk Ring of Honor with you as well. You purchased Ring of Honor since we last talked, and I grew up a massive Ring of Honor fan, like absolutely loved the company, loved going to the shows and everything. I was at Supercard of Honor, WrestleMania weekend. It was an amazing, amazing card, top to bottom. I thought that was just super enjoyable professional wrestling. And we saw a lot of AEW crossover there, even stuff that would bleed on over to television.

We saw Jonathan Gresham defend the title at Battle of the Belts. Is that the plan with Ring of Honor going forward? It's going to be intertwined with AEW? I think it's the best way to keep the champions and the championship belts in the spotlight and the forefront of wrestling is to have the Ring of honor champions involved in a W right now, keep as we've had champions from companies all over the world, you know, defending their titles, including new Japan pro wrestling and triple a, recently also.

So you've seen many championships defended in a W and I think we'll continue to see ring of honor champions in a W, but also I'm really excited to get Ring of Honor weekly television distribution and working on those details. And I've had a lot of really exciting conversations with the people at WarnerMedia about the future of Ring of Honor, which I think everybody's really excited about. And not only do we have a great crowd, including you in the Dallas Metroplex for the Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor, which was a great event, but we also shattered all expectations for what the pay-per-view could do. I don't have the final cable and satellite numbers back, but I know fight tv alone it did over 15 000 so we know for sure it's going to be what is it going to be 20 25 more i don't know it should hopefully

be more honestly when you add in the cable and satellite carriers in addition to fight tv but we know fight tv alone is well over 15 000 already uh for supercard of honor so uh it'll be one of the most successful ring of honor events in their'll be one of the most successful Ring of Honor events in their history. Definitely one of the most successful two, three events they've ever done. Wow, that's amazing. What was it like running that show from your side of things? Was it similar to running AEW? Was it way different? I mean, I was in the chair doing the same job I do at AEW. So that part of it was the same. I have the same job, but it was different because I was meeting a lot of people for the first time.

It was pretty surreal. The people that were there seemed very happy to be there because there were obviously other people from Ring of Honor who didn't make the cut, frankly, and hadn't gotten the call to come work this show. And I thought this was the best people Ring of Honor had to offer a lot of their best stars. There are other people that are awesome that I would also like to use. But I thought this was a great lineup of Ring of Honor's champions and the great Ring of Honor announce team and the production staff and working with a lot of awesome people for the first time and getting to know them. And then there were other people backstage who I'd never met before that were not on this show, but that I did get introduced to who were involved in Ring of Honor. And as I'm trying to shape what it's going to be going forward, I definitely want to stay true to what Ring of Honor was and, you know, honor great fans like you who followed it. And I think even in the storylines coming out of Supercard of Honor and the stuff you've seen on AEW TV, I'm trying to be very consistent with the history of Ring of Honor, introducing new stars, but also remembering the past.

And there was a statistic I posted that I bet you saw, which is kind of tying together the three people that have maybe been the most prominent around the championship scene in Ring of Honor, so far at least, which I think would be the Ring of Honor world champion Jonathan Gresham, the Ring of Honor television champion Samoa Joe, and someone who's held both those titles and is known as the franchise of Ring of Honor, the face of that business, Jay Lethal. And it's pretty amazing when you look at just these five numbers, the current champion, the current TV champion, the longest reigning world champion, the longest reigning world TV champion, and the longest reigning tag team champions.

So pretty crazy that the current Ring of Honor world champion, Jonathan Gresham, also was one half of the longest reigning world tag team champions with Jay Lethal. Yep. The current world television champion, Samoa Joe, is also the longest reigning world champion of all time. And the tag team champions who are the longest reigning, as I mentioned, Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal. Jay Lethal, also the longest reigning TV champion of all time.

It looks cooler on a graphic than would be explaining it. But still, to cover all three guys twice in the in you know you've got five things and you cover all three guys twice that's pretty good and i think it says what those three have meant to the history of ring of honor there are a lot of great hall of fame hall of fame candidates and hall of fame electees in ring of honor already people that are really key to the history of the company but i think those three in particular are three of the great champions and have had as prolific a run in Ring of Honor as anyone. So I think it's very fitting that those three men, Jonathan Gresham, Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal, are all intricately involved in the championship picture right now, which is heating up in Ring of Honor.

Absolutely is. And one of my favorite things you said there was honoring the history of Ring of Honor. Cause that show didn't feel like Tony Khan and AEW presents Ring of Honor. Just felt like a Ring of Honor show. It had that vibe. It had that feel. I'm sure it had to do with the production having to do with the actual Ring of Honor wrestlers themselves. But I assume we're going to see more people from AEW

go down to Ring of Honor as well. Do you think- I wouldn't say down. Not down, not yet. Unless you mean south. Yeah, not down, but moving laterally to Ring of Honor. Thank you. Do you think that that is going to, quote unquote,

like solve the perceived problem of fans online constantly saying AEW has too many wrestlers and not enough TV time. Is that part of buying Ring of Honor? It wasn't the core intention in Ring of Honor purchase. I think the Ring of Honor purchase made a lot of sense because it's a great company. And not only does it have a great video library and great trademarks, but there are a lot of Ring of Honor fans. And frankly, when you talk about dormant fans, I think there were a ton of dormant Ring of Honor fans. When was the last time you bought a Ring of Honor pay-per-view or went to one? Years ago.

Yeah. And I think there are a lot of people who are that way. Clearly the numbers showed because it had been years since Ring of Honor had done these kinds of numbers. And so I think we've rejuvenated a lot of interest in the business. And I do expect that we can continue to do that. You know, in business, they say it's good to buy low and sell high. And I think the value of Ring of Honor was not at an all-time high, to say the least. And now I believe we've injected a lot of life and energy into the business in a short time. And we haven't had to gut the history or do anything inconsistent with what fans like you who used to watch a lot of Ring of Honor were accustomed to. And that was

something I was really happy about. I had to look to One Night Stand, the original One Night Stand, as a great show. There wasn't one really standout wrestling match. I think Masato Tanaka, Mike Awesome was a great spectacle. It was a crazy scene. So that's probably the most memorable match, I would say. But it wasn't really a crazy scene. So that's probably the most memorable match, I would say. But it wasn't really a wrestling match. And that being said, the show was very consistent with what the spirit of ECW was. And it was a great, great, great show.

And for what ECW, the company, had been, I thought it was a great way to honor, pun intended, I guess, their history and utilize stars that were on TV at the time and then stars that had not been on TV in a while who were a big part of the launch of ECW and their glory years. And then taking people that had never been in ECW and bringing them in and creating an intense, exciting situation that built to a cool conclusion. It was a great, great, great show. Supercard of Honor is something totally different.

And whether people like it better or worse, I think that it was from the same place of love trying to revive a brand that had been gone now with ECW they'd been shut down for over four years when they did one night stand whereas Ring of Honor had been shut down for like four months so I it was a little bit different because in my case the body was still warm. So, so I was able, uh, uh, I think to take recent championship matches and current championships. So we had some advantages I thought, and that helped us put on a show that was very consistent with the history of ring of Honor and honoring the lineage of the championships. And then in the end, paid off with arguably the greatest name in Ring of Honor history returning. I thought it was a great moment when the Yon Bucks came and had that great interaction with the Briscoes and FTR and in FTR you saw somebody that was new to Ring of Honor wrestling Hall of Fame stars

putting on a classic match that will be talked about for years to come for the Ring of Honor Tag Team Championships and then the former champs who were really rivals of both teams the Young Bucks come in and set up a scene that paid off in AEW, but also honored Ring of Honor's traditions. And you saw the Hall of Famers of the show, you know, CM Punk and Bryan Danielson have sent in video messages. We saw them at Final Battle also. And the Briscoes wrestled on the show in this great match. But the one Hall of Famer who you hadn't heard from or seen is Samoa Joe. And in the back of people's minds, I think a lot of the hardcore Ring of Honor fans are wondering, is Samoa Joe going to come? Is he going to be a part of this show?

And I think people were hoping for it. And, you know, in the end, that's exactly what we got. It's a pretty crazy story. I haven't told it anywhere else, but I'll tell you here, and this will be exclusive to you, Robbie, and to your show and to Barstool. There was a travel nightmare that weekend. It's one of those stories I haven't told yet, but it worked out great. If you look back at news stories of that weekend it was crazy uh as far as flight travel particularly out of florida and particularly out of tampa and we were able to make it work and it was a classic story that uh you know it's a long one so maybe this isn't the best forum for it but basically

it worked out great and samoa joe uh got there in one piece and and in time to save the day i saw him post a picture from a private jet i was like oh damn samoa joe coming in on a private jet so it had to be yeah something travel going on there yeah well i set the private jet for him but it wasn't originally that wasn't our original plan but it worked out great oh okay well nice you mentioned the video library there as well and as a longtime ring of honor fan i look at that video library as pure gold like that library is the end of raiders of the lost ark where they're like putting the ark in that big room to me and it hasn't really been easily accessible for fans for a long time i just made that reference yesterday to something else the raiders of the lost ark Museum of stuff is just such a great movie.

Yeah. Is there plans to make that library accessible by say like the end of the year? I don't know. I can't promise a timeline, but I'm definitely going to make sure that fans are able to access the classic Ring of Honor library. And there's a lot of stuff that's been available on the Honor Club. Yeah.

But I think we can incentivize fans to check out a lot more historical Ring of Honor content because a lot of these great wrestlers are stars in AEW now. Some of the biggest names in AEW were also some of the biggest names in Ring of Honor. Just off the top of my head, you know, you have Samoa Joe, who's currently the Ring of Honor World Television Champion. And Brian Danielson, who's one of the great champions in Ring of Honor and one of the greatest champions ever in pro wrestling. CM Punk, who's a top contender in AEW now and a legend in Ring of Honor. Adam Cole, who's been a top star for both companies.

And, of course, Dr. Brent Baker, who's been featured for both companies. And now you have the women's world champion, interim champion, Mercedes Martinez, who is going to be facing off against the lineal champion at some point, Deanna Perrazzo. And I'm excited for that also. But, you know, Mercedes Martinez, a great wrestler. Now for us, who's the interim champion of Ring of Honor, a lot of great stars who I think people want to go back, check out their history. And in particular, those great Hall of Famers we mentioned, you know, Punk, Danielson, Joe, the Briscoes, and the Young Bucks, Cole.

They've had so many great matches in Ring of Honor. And when you look back at the classic shows, there's also a lot of stars who were in Ring of Honor for a short time and had some great matches here or there. Christian Cage, Eddie Guerrero. People who had... Jerry Lynn, former Ring of Honor world champ. Jerry Lynn's a great example. I raised my cup of coffee in honor of those people

like Christian Cage, who had a cup of coffee in Ring of Honor. But Jerry Lynn's a great example of somebody who was a star and a champion in Ring of Honor. And then there are people who've never wrestled in AEW who I'm really interested in. And, you know, I now have a lot of their great matches in our video library, people who wrestle for our competition. So it's a goldmine, like you said.

And when you combine the Ring of Honor library with what we can do now, making new shows and creating new moments. And I think with Supercard of Honor which was the first Ring of Honor show I produced and booked the matches for it was one of the most successful events they have I think it's one of the best received events they've had in years if not ever and it we already have made some classic moments and classic matches you know I really believe FTR versus Briscoe's it is a classic great match that is up there with some of the awesome matches like Samoa Joe versus Kenta Kobashi and CM Punk versus Raven in the dog collar match and Punk versus Joe and so many great classics, Bryan Danielson versus Kenta

and great matches that people will remember for a long time to come. And now I believe the Briscoes and FTR have had their five-star match that will stand the test of time also. So in addition to the classic matches from Ring of Honor, I think when we produce new content, it's going to be very enticing. And not only will it appeal to people who are hardcore Ring of Honor fans or even a lapsed Ring of Honor fan like yourself, but I think we can make new fans too, because there are millions of people around the world that follow AEW. And a lot of those people have never followed Ring of Honor, so there's a great chance to introduce them to it. Absolutely. You put together a documentary with all of that footage that you've got in the library, that's going to bring tens of thousands of fans in just for the story alone have the other hall of famers like brian or punk expressed any interest in wanting to wrestle in ring of honor yet again now that the company's under your leadership i mean we saw punk get pretty choked up when even talking about you owning the video library now that was awesome that was awesome that to sit there with punk uh and have

that moment with him and it was it meant a lot to be able to go back into his locker room uh you know a few weeks prior to that and tell him that it was going to happen because i you know i told he was one of the first people i ever mentioned it to in pro wrestling that i was looking to buy ring of honor and that it was probably going to happen. And his reaction in real life was probably even more choked up than it was when we were talking to the media. But that was really how he felt. And I know the history of Ring of Honor means a lot to Punk. And Danielson's not such a sentimental guy, right? Yeah, it doesn't seem like it.

Much more of a jerk than people thought before he came to AEW. Now you're seeing his real personality, I think we'd have to wait and see. There may be a time where it would make sense for them to come. I think we have a lot of great stars in Ring of Honor right now and a lot of great stars in AEW. So I couldn't promise that, but I think there may come a day when it would make sense for all the stars of AEW and all the stars of Ring of Honor to kind of come together as one and have a big event. But, uh, you know, we'll see, uh, we'll see when that time is,

but I wouldn't count on seeing punk and Danielson on every show. Oh yeah. I didn't expect that. Yeah. At some point it might make sense, you know? And so that's something I am excited about as a possibility. And, and we've already tapped into the big stars we could bring into Ring of Honor, bringing in Young Bucks as a surprise, and then doubling down with a huge surprise, Samoa Joe, somebody who's never appeared at AEW or Ring of Honor under our management. All right, got to cut off this interview real quick to tell you guys about GameTime,

something that you can likely use to get some AEW tickets on your hands game time is a new ticketing app that makes it easier to score last minute deals on tickets to sports concerts and shows like I said like AEW they guarantee the lowest price as well they've cracked the code on how to score deals on last minute tickets I've used them before they're amazing I've never had a bad experience with them, whereas other ticketing sites, I have had bad experiences getting tickets last minute. They don't transfer right away. You got to print them, something like that.

No. AEW is coming to Long Island soon. I hope to use GameTime to get into that one. And you could get $20 off your first purchase at GameTime. If you go to the GameTime app, download it on your phone, go to the account tab, create a login and all that, and then redeem the code MMB for $20 off your first purchase. That is a great deal for our listeners only. So download GameTime now. It's the last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Now we can get back into this interview with Tony Khan. All right. Now the wrestling fans that are here for just wrestling talk, you guys could turn the interview off because I'm ending the interview

with some talk about the Batman. I saw you. Then I'd remind people about dynamite. Dynamite, of course, huge dynamite. We let off with a great stuff about dynamite. Don't miss it. I think well, I don't miss it any Wednesday. When Wednesday dynamite, you never know what's going to happen. It's got that five where it's like, you got to watch it. You got to watch it live too. You're one of the people I know I can count on every Wednesday, Robbie. But then there's the viewers that need to be sold. They're what they call in the testing and tracking of film business, the maybes.

Because you're what I'd call a definitely interested. You're definitely interested. There's people who are maybe interested and those are the people on the fence that I really need to convince. There's some people that are just never gonna watch the show and that are either not wrestling fans or resolved that they're against everything I stand for

before we even stood for anything or started. So I think those people you're never gonna get. The definitely interested, I need to do everything i can to keep the definitely interested happy and and continue to service you guys with great wrestling and never take a definitely interested fan like you for granted but the maybes the guy the people on the fence the possibly interested people are the people on the fence, the possibly interested people are the people that we need to convert into regular viewers. And this is a great Wednesday night dynamite to make a casual viewer, or maybe a lifer. This is going to be an awesome show. And on that note, the Batman, the Batman, we got to talk about it because you were tweeting Tony Schiavone about it yesterday.

And this is obviously my mom's basement. We talk about a lot of nerdy things on the podcast. And it seemed like you were pretty enthralled with The Batman. It seemed like you liked it quite a bit. So I just wanted to ask you to kind of expand upon those tweets and tell me what you thought about The Batman. I love The Batman. I don't get to see movies very often. And I was presented with a unique opportunity.

So I'm on the NFL's Fan Engagement and Major Events Committee. So outside of the General Assembly of NFL Owners, there's a select group of owners and executives that get together and talk about different. Well, just there's a lot of committees. My father is the chairman of, applicable to you guys, the Legalized Gambling Committee. And he's the chairman of the to you guys, the legalized gambling committee. Uh, and he's the chairman of the business ventures committee. He's on the finance committee, the health and safety committee compensation. He's, he's highly respected NFL executive and owner. And, uh, while I do not command nearly that same level of respect, I do command some now. So I, uh, I'm on the NFL's fan engagement and major events committee. So it,

it is an elite pun intended, uh, that way this way. Sorry. No, it's like the reverse. Okay. So it's the other shoulder, right? Uh, uh, so anyway, um, that, that, uh, we group of, uh, owners and executives, uh, that we get together and talk about planning big events and also talk about fan engagement, social media, and things that also I look at in pro wrestling. So it's a very interesting place to sit looking at the NFL's fan engagement and big events as I think about fan engagement and major events also in European football with Fulham hopefully now back in the Premier League by the time this airs and also with you know AEW so I got there the night before and I landed in Palm Beach at like just past 9

p.m on a Monday night for a Tuesday meeting and then I went straight from Palm Beach at like just past 9pm on a Monday night for a Tuesday meeting. And then I went straight from Palm Beach to Fort Myers for TV. And it was the debut of Jeff Hardy. And so I left the meeting on Tuesday to go to Fort Myers. And on Monday night, when I landed, I'm a night guy to begin with. And I had a lot of work to do. And I, my committee meeting started a little bit later to give people time in case they wanted to fly in Tuesday morning instead of coming to Palm Beach Monday night. And I found a movie theater in Palm Beach that was showing the Batman at like 10 o'clock on a Monday night. And I was like, okay, interesting. And so I went and saw it by myself. And I hadn't seen a movie by myself in many years since before the pandemic, but I was

really excited for this one. And I, I loved it. And in particular, there were things that Tony was picking apart about the movie that I really liked. Yeah. And the ending of it in particular, which like spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the Batman by now, I don't know if you would care about spoilers if you haven't seen it by now, but the ending, the, the Batman sort of symbolizing hope in a way for the citizens of Gotham and realizing that he can't do all of this for vengeance. That was one of the things that Tony Schiavone didn't like that I am with you. I liked quite a bit. I thought that was like an amazing, amazing ending for that movie me too and it's it's and and not we're not spoiling the ending I don't think without getting too specific but he didn't care to see Batman helping people

who are injured and hurt and getting him to safety and he wanted to see Batman kicking asses which you know he does a couple hours of that He does a lot of that in this movie. Yeah, a lot of ass kicking. Kicks a lot of ass. So I was, you know, not really starving for that. I thought that it was really cool. And as I said to Tony, I think it was an important turning point because this was like early in the Batman's career as Batman. And people didn't really know much about

him yet and a lot of people seem to really be scared of him the average people like he goes to help the guy at the beginning on the subway and the guy's very scared of him the guy who just saved him and i think later there's a juxtaposition when you see that same fear and he helps people and i'd imagine that's probably part of how the people of the city came to like batman and not hate him and be scared of him so i thought that was really cool and interesting and uh so tony also didn't like the fact that he was like what Tony termed like a goth, don't doubt Bruce Wayne, but I thought it made a lot of sense because he says at the very beginning, he works all night, every single night, he comes back in the morning, and it's all blur to him. And he has to force himself to remember a lot of it. So the days, I'd imagine he if he gets any

sleep that has to be when he's doing it is during the day, but he's also kind of a zombie a lot of it so the days I'd imagine he if he gets any sleep that has to be when he's doing it is during the day but he's also kind of a zombie a lot of the time and doesn't seem to really care much about the Bruce Wayne persona like he's so all in on being Batman that it's almost like a chore to be Bruce Wayne it's like a thing he doesn't care about uh which you know uh is I think something we can all relate to like everybody gets very caught up in one part of their life and you lose track of something else

you know I'm sure you could relate you know there's if you get so caught up in work and in your show and realize man I haven't talked to my family in a while what am I doing and the way Pattinson played it all with his eyes the whole movie he's playing the the role with his eyes i thought was brilliant yeah i agree with

that and who was your batman that you grew up with was it keaton well it's interesting i was just talking to eddie kingston about this um the first batman i saw i'm not sure who did the voice i think casey casem was robin uh but the first thing I saw was kind of the super friends, but it wasn't super friends, but also there was like a VHS tape of Batman that they had at the store. That was like adventures of Batman episodes that were from the super friends era. I think it was still the same voices, but there was like, maybe like, you know, a Joker episode and a penguin episode.

And that's the first time I learned about those characters. And there was a lot of Batmania when I was very young. I think I was five. I was five, seven. No, eight, six. I was six years old when the Michael Keaton Batman movie came out. So in the year leading up to that, there was hysteria around Batman. And a lot of the old Batman nostalgia came back.

And so the Michael Keaton was the first Batman movie I'd seen. It was a new movie, but I saw the Adam West movie and the Adam West shows a lot. So like Cesar Romero was the first live action Joker I saw. Frank Gorshin was the first live action Riddler I saw. And then the Michael Keaton was the Batman movies were the Batman movies I saw as a kid. I walked to the movie theater by myself to see Batman Forever when I was what I would have been 11 with Val Kilmer. And that was a great one. it's fitting that you see batman movies alone like you're batman like yeah no i don't know far from it but i don't know you got the money tony you could be a secret vigilante in the in the background i don't know i got the money but i don't have the time

well that's what you want us to believe that's a very at point very apt point except i i actually the night is actually when i do get all the work done yeah so um so and i'm doing my own different um nocturnal thing but um yeah i i have always really liked uh batman movies so i i saw the uh batman forever and i went back and saw it with friends just like i'll probably go back and see the Batman with friends but uh then the Dark Knight you know I took my dad to see the Dark Knight Rises and he loved it and he hadn't seen Batman Begins of the Dark Knight and now he has no interest in it really I got it I just got my I got the ending yeah yeah he really liked it I think he came in and we with a broken Bruce and my my dad came into the U.S. I don't know how much you know about the background of Howard Hughes.

Do you know much about Howard Hughes? No. They were clearly making references to Howard Hughes at the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises. It was just a really cool thing. It was like, it was very, it was in the real world, but it wasn't in the real world it was like there were the dark night rises you had like he was like this howard hughes fallen from grace billionaire who has become a recluse and he's kind of old and washed up and he used to be a hero to many and then you know it's so long before you even see Batman in Dark Knight Rises.

But the first time you see him, it feels so great, you know. And it's a big false finish. It's a big tease because it doesn't really go where you think it's going to go. And by the time he comes out for the third act and actually does, you know, a full on Batman stuff in the third act, man, you've been waiting a long time. It's a great, great movie, probably overlooked by how great The Dark Knight was. That's the issue, yeah. Heath Ledger just put up like the greatest performance anyone ever saw.

It's hard to replicate that. But wouldn't it, isn't it like crazy to think about what The Dark Knight Rises would have been? Because he clearly was going to be in it. Definitely. And when they spring all the inmates and they're having that kangaroo court like he's clearly supposed to be a huge part of that whole thing i agree when you see dr crane

in there for that small part it makes you think like god this would have been so cool if they got the joker yeah um i'm not so i'll be honest the one thing i i'm i'm skeptical but i'm i'm interested so i'm this is a great chance for them to get me is I'm curious about this Joker thing. I agree. I was kind of jokered out going into the movie. Like I don't need another Joker. We've seen so many in the past couple of years.

I thought the scene in the movie was okay. I thought the scene they put out like a deleted scene with Batman talking to the Joker. I don't know if you saw that. It was interesting. I was glad they cut it though. I was like, like yeah i think that would probably be a bit much like i feel the same exact way as you i'm glad they didn't do that scene i don't think it needed it i think it was cool to do the tease it was kind of it was very similar to batman begins it were like they had their own villains but then they're like here's like the card the tease for

the future and building you know the next step in the franchise which i think is great and i think it made a lot of sense for batman begins and and led into the dark knight really well so i did like that i'm i'm curious where it's gonna go because um it's such a hard act to follow as we know yeah it really is all right tony i really appreciate you joining once again dynamite this wednesday huge card coffin match we've got qualifiers huge announcement punk versus dustin rhodes there's a ton to look forward to on that card for any wrestling fan even the maybes so if you're a maybe make sure you're watching that show tony thank you as always

i appreciate the time thank thank you robbie and i I would like to thank the Barstool audience. I haven't seen you in some time. I am really grateful to all of you. And I went on your brother show, Brandon, and promised that Rampage would come back and that we would get the numbers for Rampage up and that I would redouble my efforts, as the guy says to Darth Vader about the Death Star, that I would make Rampage get back to where it was. And we've had the best couple of weeks of ratings for Rampage we've had in many months. And the last time in our time slot here before we

had gotten preempted was the best rating we've done since October 1st. And I'm very grateful to the people on Friday nights who've brought Rampage into their life. Also, we have a great audience on Wednesday nights. And thanks to you guys. We also now have had a great audience on Friday nights, and I'm very grateful for that. So thank you for having me here today. I talked about Batman with you, which I was not expecting. And I'm very, very grateful for the time. Thanks, man. A lot of Batman. The people are going to know what Tony Khan thinks of Batman now. I appreciate that.

Thanks, man. Thanks, Tony.