All Elite Tony Khan
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When AEW was announced on Jan 1st 2019 there were so many questions, Who was going to be on the roster, what shows would they have? and how would they compete in the wrestling world?
The biggest question of all though who was behind the formation of AEW - that man name is Tony Khan.
Tony Khan states that the wheels were turning for starting a promotion in 2018 and then Tony Khan went to All In event that was ran by Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. After this event Tony Khan started having conversations in the following months with these talents about forming a new promotion and what he wanted to achieve and what he saw his vision was.
Tony Khan advises that the way he got AEW started was by going to his father Shad Khan with a very detailed business plan of what they needed to invest and what was needed to bring it together. Tony explains that he had to present his idea to his father and it had to make good business sense for this to happen.
Tony Khan advises that his short term goals in starting AEW was to start running PPVs and TV shows and in 5 years that AEW is a growing business that doesn't alienate its fans or performers and that it does something good for the fans, wrestlers and everybody that interacts for the promotion.
Who is Tony Khan though?
Tony Khan was born and grew up in Champaign, Illinois and Tony had stated on several interviews that around the age of 7 he became a fan Tony Khan states that the first wrestler he ever saw was Hulk Hogan on The A Team then after this would see wrestling shows on TV. Tony First PPV Live WCW PPV was Superbrawl 1991.
Tony used to go into video stores and get, rent and buy as many wrestling tapes as he could. Tony stated that he was a wrestling tape trader when he was younger and that he wanted to consume as much wrestling content as he could.and loved the sport of pro wrestling.
Tony Khan stated that his parents didn't give him any money for wrestling tapes so in one case he would do HTML for people websites and he would get wrestling tapes in return for doing this.
Tony Khan stated his father Shad would take him to various wrestling shows when he was younger including a trip to see ECW to see Chris Jericho final two matches in ECW when he was 13 years old.
Tony talks fondly about his passion for ECW and also passion for Chris Jericho and can name events, dates and times of when he saw Chris Jericho and can even recollect dates and event show times of matches that he didn't even attend for shows all over the world from, Japan, Mexico, USA and more!
Tony stated that got through one of his friends a tape of Chris Jericho vs Ultimo Dragon from 7 July 1995 and it is one of his favourite matches.
Tony Khan states that from 1995 as a child he started writing wrestling TV shows called Dynamite and would write them in notebooks or on his computer and would do this as a hobby and something that he liked to do as a fan. Tony states that he even sent to script for Raw which he had written to Randy Hales.
Tony Khan Father is Shalid (also known as Shad) Khan and Shad has one of the biggest car parts company Flex-N-Gate.
Shad purchased NFL American Football Team Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011 and Fulham F.C. in 2013. Tony works also two roles with both these teams.
At Jacksonville Jaguars Tony Khan is Senior Vice President of Football Technology & Analytics check out Tony Khan Jacksonville Jaguars profile here
At Fulham Football club in England Tony Khan Role is Vice Chairman and Director of Football Operations. you can check out Tony Fulham FC bio here https://www.fulhamfc.com/shahid-khan/tony-khan
Tony Khan also owns and runs a sports analytics company TruMedia Networks check out his company here http://www.trumedianetworks.com/
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In his personal life Tony Khan has made several donations to charity and good causes both himself and as an individual and also in all his business endeavors has a strong belief that his teams Jaguars, Fulham Fc and AEW play a strong role in the community and in society too in making the world a better more inclusive place through the means of sport bringing people together and using it as a tool to educate and inform.
To me that is so important because you see more to Tony Khan than just being an owner,you see a bit more of Tony Khan the person how much he cares about the world, how much he cares about charity, good causes and helping people less fortunate than himself.
Tony Khan has changed pro wrestling. Pro Wrestling now has viable competition to WWE. AEW has been tremendous since its launch in particular AEW Dynamite which on a weekly basis beats WWE NXT in TV ratings and since 2001 wrestling fans have and alternative and it makes it better for all involved.
AEW has gone from strength to strength and is currently producing a 2nd show for TNT has another Show on Youtube called AEW Dark and also has AEW Unrestricted Podcast and lots of merchandise on Pro Wrestling tees.
Tony Khan states that his vision is exciting, great quality and great production values of pro wrestling. Tony Khan Won best promotor of The Year as voted for by The Wrestling Observer in 2019.
In my Opinion For me Tony Khan has been a breath of fresh air in the wrestling business he has been someone who has such a passion of wrestling and the wrestling product but he is also a businessman and is doing what makes sense for the company and making sure that AEW has a future and is able to go forward and be successful.
Tony is also very media friendly holding media scrums after AEW PPVs where he will talk to the wrestling media and answer many questions from them and is always willing to stay as long as they need him. These have been highlights for me after PPVs as its great to get more of an insight into the decision making process in the company and to hear directly from Tony Khan about various issues than seeing it on a wrestling news site, it's very refreshing that Tony Khan handles himself in this way.
Tony Khan has signed a new deal with TNT for AEW to stay on Dynamite until 2023 which means AEW and Tony Khan will be around for a long time. Without Tony Khan wrestling fans wouldn't have an alternative and the wrestlers wouldn't have another place where they can be on TV, be themselves and be able to connect with fans and an audience he has changed wrestling and will continue to change wrestling.
Thanks for Reading
@jon422002
Jonathan Orchard
Sources
AEW unrestricted w/Tony Khan
Talk is Jericho w/Chris Jericho
Photos from AEW/Fulham FC/Jacksonville Jaguars and TruMedia
Plus my own Observations/Opinions and Thoughts
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