Tony Khan is building more than a wrestling company

[00:05] editor Brian Sozzi. I am pumped for my next guest because I and I think I've said this in a few prior episodes, I am a wrestling fan. My next guest calls me a laughed wrestling fan, but I'm still a fan nonetheless. That is AEW CEO Tony

[00:19] >> see you, man. >> I last saw you at at Khan. We were on wrestling. I can't think of a better moment in my life. I've ever done and it was certainly one of the most beautiful sets I've ever

[00:33] seen and your show Power Players sounds like a wrestling show. That's why I love >> I wait for you to just hit me over the head with a chair or something, which I super nice guy. >> You've been lifting. You look like you

[00:45] >> It's ridiculous. [laughter] You know who has been lifting? Wasn't Billy Gunn? Like guy, he's over 60. Like I I aspire to be in shape like him. How >> Billy Gunn's got amazing genetics, first of all. In his 60s, he looks incredible.

[00:59] wrestling and and he's training wrestlers, including his sons. And Billy Gunn's sons, Austin and Colten, wrestle for me now, as does Billy. And they're part of the Bang Bang Gang. Billy is mostly stays behind the scenes as a

[01:13] and do very well. >> I'm glad you mentioned cuz I go to I There's some people in here that look alike." don't you? Wasn't Sting's son >> Yeah. We're training Sting's son,

[01:27] Steven, right now. He wrestles before all the shows in what we call the dark tremendous wrestler. I'm really really proud of the work he's doing and right before we started the interview, we were talking about the fact that

[01:40] Sting retired in AEW. He's one of my all-time favorite wrestlers and the work of our greatest stuff. >> This has to be amazing. So, what people don't know, perhaps don't know about you that are watching this program, this

[01:54] are a hardcore wrestling fan and you've been a wrestling fan, I think you and I Uh you and I grew up watching A-Team, uh watching Hulk Hogan on TV. This is like Night Rider. This is like This is what we did. Um and I still kind of do it,

[02:08] must be amazing to see this next generation uh of these iconic wrestlers >> Absolutely. We have some of the all-time greats in AEW as far as some of the veterans who uh like I said, to have a Sting, uh to have his input, to have

[02:25] Samoa Joe, who I think is one of the greats. Uh right now the AEW World Tag >> Yes. >> Uh I won't say their names that I >> There we go. Fair enough. >> And uh I have to say that uh having some

[02:40] of these great legends in AEW along with some of the greatest young stars, it's really awesome because when you watch AEW, you see the very best. AEW is where the best wrestle. We do every Wednesday night, it's on TBS and it streams on HBO

[02:56] Max. It's called Wednesday Night Dynamite. It's the longest-running primetime pro wrestling show ever on TBS. And you're a wrestling fan, that covers a lot of ground because several wrestling promotions have had shows

[03:10] dating back to 1971 on TBS. And AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite has outlasted them all. Every Wednesday night on TBS and streaming on HBO Max. And then Saturdays, we have a great show we do called AEW Collision. That's on

[03:25] TNT. And that also you can watch on HBO Max. It's been on for years, and that's some of the best hard-hitting wrestling. And we've got the best young wrestlers, but we also have the best veterans and the best competition. There's great

[03:38] uh and really some of the stories that are unfolding are I think the best in wrestling right now. >> Have you still not missed an an a taping being a good boy. >> to every AEW show we've done, which is

[03:52] and hundreds of shows over seven years. >> That is amazing. What what drives you? You don't have to be doing this. Like what why are you still this? >> I love professional wrestling and to be

[04:05] able to be the CEO and to be the head of creative of what I believe is the best wrestling promotion in the world. I'm very proud of it. I love sports and my family works in the NFL and the Premier

[04:18] League and I love football and I love wrestling and it's really a blessing to day. The difference with wrestling certainly there's no off-season in >> Yeah. >> Is uh are you still doing work with the

[04:31] >> Yeah. What do you what do you do there? >> I'm the uh officer. So, I'm the head of football analytics and uh I created the football analytics department at the Jaguars 15 years ago. And I also I'm the owner and

[04:46] chairman of True Media Networks which is the number one sports analytics in the world. We do work for 29 out of the 30 Major League Baseball clubs. Uh ESPN is an amazing partner for True Media and there are thousands of users at ESPN

[05:02] every day who use True Media which is amazing. That says a lot of about deep ESPN stats and research is. >> How how is the analytics game in sports changing? I of course now we have AI on the scene, but I mean you literally got

[05:15] said 15 years ago. How's it different? >> It's completely different. There's so much more data-driven decision-making across all sports. Certainly baseball it's very apparent to anybody who watches baseball how much the

[05:28] presentation of the game has changed, but also if you follow the sport how the decision-making has changed. And I also believe in the NFL from being there in the meetings and being part of the league for the last 15 years, it's

[05:41] much the league has progressed in 15 years as far as utilizing data and information. Next Gen Stats is a big NFL years that uh the league now has data that the fans

[05:55] can look at and use in their fantasy leagues and in their following the sport and making their predictions. And also for the NFL uh for the teams, we have great opportunity to get that data and use it

[06:07] in making decisions, whether it's in free agency or then looking at the best college data to prepare for the NFL draft. Something I'm still very involved in is the undrafted free agency, and that's kind of where I still come in and

[06:22] to do all this? It's tough. Like you were just all you're all you're on the >> I First of all, I've got wrestling every week, and then throughout the football into the games and I can look at the games week to week to week. But, there

[06:37] is some downtime for me. Like in the NFL right now, this is kind of a slow time because uh you know, I I I like to ramp up going into the draft, and then uh I do a lot of work during the season, but right now in NFL-wise, it's a slow time.

[06:51] Very busy time for the Premier League. Fulham, we just hired a new head coach, which I'm very excited about. And also, uh we're doing the transfer business, League. >> I just uh

[07:04] everybody using these advanced analytics, is it hard to spot the undervalued athlete? >> It's harder than ever. It definitely uh is a much more competitive market for

[07:20] certain players uh where there's a lot more research and a lot more teams know some of the things to look for. Uh there's a lot more readily available there's a lot more readily available data. There are analysts at all 32 NFL

[07:35] teams and all 20 Premier League teams now. So, absolutely, there's a lot more research being done, and uh again, you know, as somebody who studies finance and you know, that being a topic that this show is largely based in and

[07:51] and looking at finance, the stock market, and things like that, I do think just as there's much more research and uh many more tools for preparing and making investments now that there are also a lot more research tools available

[08:07] football. >> I think I need to be talking about conversation with Kara Norton, uh really one of the OG investors in the soccer space. And she said the whole thing is blowing up. Now, she wouldn't

[08:20] say that there will be, I guess, the similar valuations uh on some of the women's soccer teams as, you know, the men's or even in other sports. Like, soccer go in the next decade? >> Well, it's fascinating. Uh

[08:34] is the English Premier League. And certainly the great competition that's happening right now is the World Cup. Uh our club is Fulham Football Club. It's London's oldest club. We're really proud of the team, and also several of the

[08:49] players have done very well in this World Cup. We had six players across World Cup. We had six players across five teams in the round of uh 16, and then going into the quarterfinals, we had two players that got knocked out by

[09:03] their teammates' teams. So, then we had four players for Fulham in the round of well. Uh and they're including players from Norway, Belgium, and Morocco, which are teams that all went to the

[09:17] quarterfinals. Uh but really, going into this season with Fulham, the Premier League, it's so competitive every year, and there's so much excitement, and it's one of the leagues fans around the world

[09:31] follow. Just as there are NFL fans that follow this league with 32 teams here in the United States, and there's fans all over the world who like to watch it. The Premier League, people watch it all over the world, and I consider it the jewel

[09:44] of the that sport. And we are seeing that there's so much interest in the Premier League. It's become much bigger on TV here in the United States in recent years with the TV deal with NBC and streaming on Peacock. And I

[09:59] Fulham, and the popularity of the Premier League in general is trending up in the United States in a major way. >> Do you even have a second to zoom out hell of a moment to be in sports." We have rising valuations on these soccer

[10:13] Uh we have the Seahawks just sold for $9.6 billion partially to a veteran tech Um we have the World Cup rocking and rocking and rolling. Like what

[10:27] we're seeing Oh, another one. I talked to Paul Rabil, uh his Premier Lacrosse Like this This has to be an amazing moment in sports for you. >> Yes, it is an amazing time, but I think that's what's great about sports is it's

[10:40] constantly changing, and it's always a great time, isn't it? When is it ever been a In our lives, hasn't it always been great? And that's what's awesome. too. >> Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's really

[10:52] awesome because that's what makes sports so cool. Like when we were kids, sports was great. You know, we grew up and we had Brett Favre and Michael Jordan and had Brett Favre and Michael Jordan and Ric Flair. And now just as uh

[11:05] now working in sports, and I get to work around Trevor Lawrence and Kenny Omega and MJF and uh top players in the Premier League. And so, that's like really to me, sports, whether it's wrestling,

[11:19] uh NFL, NBA, these sports all doing very well, all on the cutting edge, but uh they manage to keep themselves relevant and also to keep fans hooked. You know, I I think that's

[11:34] what's awesome about sports and being a sports fan. It's always there for you, break. >> What was your vision when you founded AEW? What are you 7 years into this already? What was your vision and have

[11:48] you achieved that vision? >> Absolutely, yes. Uh my vision and dream have it be a lasting thing, bring wrestling back to TBS and TNT, where I grew up watching wrestling. Uh and thankfully, we've been able to do that.

[12:02] We started having Wednesday night Dynamite in 2019. The show still runs, as I was saying, on TBS every Wednesday. And uh then we have Collision every Saturday. This is my dream, to be able to keep the show strong, and the show is

[12:17] thriving. Last year, Sports Illustrated voted AEW the best wrestling promotion in the world. Also, a number of uh major media companies, including Yahoo, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The New York Post, all awarded AEW the best wrestling

[12:33] event of the year. And these are awards we hadn't won the year before. So, to be able to stack up all these awards last year, it showed we're making progress. This year, I feel we're doing even better in 2026. Halfway into the year,

[12:46] our viewership is up double digits. We're trending in a great direction. AEW's doing really well on TV, but also our major pay-per-view events are way >> I think that the quality of the wrestling has been very consistent and

[12:58] keeps getting better. The best matchups, uh people love seeing the great rivalries. We just had our most watched episode of Wednesday night Dynamite in years for the big Beach Break show last week with MJF versus Kenny Omega for the

[13:12] World Championship. And now we're heading towards AEW at Wembley Stadium, >> When is that? >> That is going to be August 30th, and I'm champion, at this as it stands, it's Kenny Omega is the champion. He won the

[13:27] title last Wednesday, and Will Ospreay is the number one contender. No Englishman has ever won a world title in England, and Will Ospreay's goal is to go to Wembley Stadium, the national stadium in England, and to go to London,

[13:42] to go to the capital, and be the first Englishman ever to win the world title in England. And if that match-up holds up, if Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay meet as it stands for the world title, first of all, that's a rubber match because

[13:55] they fought in two incredible matches. It'll be such a huge stage to go to Wembley Stadium and have that dream match-up as being what they are. Kenny's been a mentor to Will. They're friends. This

[14:10] has all been unfolding on television for a long time. There's a lot of excitement have been delivering at a high level, women and men. And I think the excitement right now is at an all-time

[14:22] high, which is evidenced by the viewership because last week was our viewership because last week was our highest viewership in years on TBS. And it was the most since our big Blood and Guts cage match in 2024.

[14:34] >> I told him we're telling him I love that name. I just It's a great name, dude. >> Well, it's funny because the name actually comes from taking it something and twisting it around because Vince McMahon on an investor call said,

[14:48] "We're not like those Blood and Guts guys." And at that point I said we have to use that. We have to use that. That's such a great quote. So, Vince actually named it. And so, 2024, in July, 2 years, was the last

[15:02] time the viewership on TBS had been this high. But, 2 years ago, we weren't streaming on HBO Max yet. So, the viewership now, the true viewership, is we have the TBS viewers, but also we have streaming viewership. So,

[15:16] in reality, this is the the hottest and most viewers we've had in in a long time, if ever. And it feels like the excitement around AEW today is at an >> How does How is your wrestling different at this point, 7 years in, compared to

[15:29] >> That's a great question. Uh well, I say AEW is where the best think we have the best roster of wrestlers, and we're very focused on that. Uh we make sure that all of our pay-per-views are action-packed. I try

[15:43] to pack as many great rivalries in as we can. We have and we have a lot of great champions, cuz we have 4 hours of television, and I think when you have 4 hours, 52 weeks a year, you're doing 104 episodes, you

[15:58] stakes, and great fights. And so, across the women and men, we have a lot of great champions and championships, but there, believe me, when you look at how how many great wrestlers there are, the truth is, there are so many of them that

[16:12] championships. The wrestlers would say they want more, but there are a lot of think that's what makes it exciting. We had three great championship fights on the show Saturday. Wednesday's show, Beach Break, was the most-watched show

[16:27] it. It's a show I think people will remember in 20 years from now with the great fights we had. Saturday's show, it may not be a show they talk about 20 years from now, but it was a fantastic show, and there are matches that people

[16:40] will remember for a long time, and I think all of our shows are important, attention into that one, even though it wasn't didn't have it necessarily all the hype and ads around it. But, uh every show is important, and just as an

[16:54] example, we had uh multiple championship fights on each show last week, and multiple championship changes, and I think that that's what part of what makes it exciting every week to to come and see

[17:08] stakes. >> Uh you work with a lot of in this business for a long period of time, and it is usually universally viewed as you have all the respect because you are back there with them

[17:21] doing this since day one. And I think what I think there's a good a good lesson here to be learned to a CEO of a public company. How do you gain the in your case, you know, colleagues, employees, however

[17:34] you want to call them. You have seemed to have pulled it off. >> Well, you have to really know your craft. My dad, for example, knows a million times more than I do about auto parts, but also my dad is a

[17:48] leading expert in that field. He didn't just uh walk into the business. He rolled up his sleeves. He's an engineer by trade and he built that business. So, in the auto industry, they know he really understands that business very

[18:01] really understands that business very well. And uh my dad's the kind of person that if you ask him what time it is, he could tell you how to build a watch. And uh so, I I think that it started people

[18:14] wrestling, but I had never produced a wrestling show first hand. I actually grew up dreaming of doing this and Dynamite is a show that I have written in notebooks and emails and message boards since 1995. Since I was 12 years

[18:30] old, I've been doing a show called Dynamite. And then in 2019, we actually a real show called Dynamite and it's a lot different just like fantasy football

[18:42] is a lot different than the NFL. Writing a show in your notebook and on message different than producing a show with human beings, that's for sure. Um so, I

[18:55] ideas from the very beginning and got more and more involved uh until, you know, we ramped up. And I think people backstage saw that I had a mind for it

[19:08] and had good ideas and then as we went into our second year, when the pandemic happened, I went from being very hands-on to being the only person >> What was that like? >> That's the best experience I've ever

[19:23] happened to the company. It really leveled the odds for uh the two wrestling promotions and so many people around the world, people to this day talk about the quality of wrestling and say that wow, when you put it all back

[19:36] like that and put everyone on a level playing field, so many people saw that AEW is the best wrestling. So, for me, that was the best experience and those are probably the shows I'm the proudest of with a skeleton crew. We were putting

[19:48] world still talk about during the pandemic with AEW. >> What did you I mean, your dad has had um just amazing career, has achieved many amazing things. What business lessons did you learn from him? Besides, you

[20:00] know, working hard and staying focused that you have have built into AEW. >> There's so many aspects of it. First of all, my dad is a very hard person, but big heart. And uh

[20:13] uh he's also a very fair person. And I think that's a good different focus areas than he does, which I think

[20:27] is good because we look at different parts of the business. So, uh we can work in some ways as a as a team, but also it's good because he has so much experience and wisdom that he can share from all walks of life. Uh for

[20:43] me, I'm very focused on wrestling and and match-ups and rivalries and TV shows. And he has all kinds of strategic ideas that he can bring in that he can ideas that he can bring in that he can teach me so many things still. And

[20:58] his experiences in the NFL, it's really cool because now he's owned the Jaguars for 15 years and I've gotten to see him learn so much about football and become such an expert much more than he was at the beginning and it's really great. For

[21:13] an example, I think a lot of the NFL fans can really see that unfold. The hiring and the work he did to put such a tremendous group coach with Liam Cohen and my dad did a great job

[21:26] identifying Liam, interviewing him and making sure that we got our guy and Liam making sure that we got our guy and Liam does a fantastic job. And uh I really believe that his experience and

[21:39] the fact that he came here to the United States with almost nothing in his pocket and the opportunity to go to college here and that he grew up here, he really does embody the American dream.

[21:52] >> And now he owns a team and he has like a cool son running like AEW. What is What's next for AEW? I mean, you have the TV deal. viewership is up double digits doing good there. What's next for this

[22:06] left to achieve that you haven't achieved yet? >> I'm surprised that you have not asked me about the merger and I will say that the last time I was here, we were sitting on a dock in Can and you asked me about the

[22:23] plan to split the company up and to have global networks and to have >> I want to make sure they watch the whole >> And though they're going to see so I think we were set up great there

[22:38] because we have a great viewership on TBS and TNT for the global networks and we have a great partnership and and we've been very successful now since the we launched pay-per-views on HBO Max. >> So you're talking about the Paramount

[22:51] >> Yes. >> Now now since our last interview last year, that has come into focus and a lot changed because Um, Paramount now has come in to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery and I think

[23:04] it and you asked me about the opportunities for AEW and I think that's a huge opportunity for AEW because we've premiered our pay-per-views on HBO Max and we have a great audience. And now

[23:17] with Paramount making a deal to acquire HBO Max for me as a showrunner that's worked at Warner Brothers for over 7 years now, I have to say I'm very excited about it and really welcoming the ownership from Paramount.

[23:32] it the is it the ability to put on more live programming? Is that where it is? >> It's the ability to first of all bring in more subscribers. I think HBO Max and Paramount are going to be much stronger and far more competitive together in the

[23:45] streaming space than they are separately. And they both have a great together, I think it's a much more competitive company. It's not going to streaming because it's a hard fight out there, but together, I think we'll have

[23:59] more viewers with Paramount and we'll be able to sell pay-per-views into more and we'll have a bigger future. And there's uh first of all, the leadership of David Ellison I think is going to be huge for the companies to have the

[24:13] supreme commander coming in who is the same age as me and you, somebody who's a wrestling fan, somebody who uh has a vision for it and is already promoting sports and uh is growing other sports businesses and is I think doing a

[24:28] fantastic job with Paramount. Now coming into Warner Brothers, for us it's perfect timing because we've been now for 7 years on TBS and TNT. Uh last year we launched our pay-per-views on HBO Max and also

[24:44] HBO Max. And this is really exciting for us because with Paramount coming in, we're at an all-time high on our pay-per-views and our HBO Max

[24:58] pay-per-view business continues to grow. Our Double or Nothing event that we had in May was a massive success, and that's actually the 7-year anniversary of the actually the 7-year anniversary of the very first AEW show. And as a live event

[25:11] here in New York at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, we sold every ticket. It was the biggest gate we've ever had for Double or Nothing in all these years. The original AEW show. And as a pay-per-view, it was the biggest one

[25:24] pay-per-view, it was the biggest one we've done yet on HBO Max. And we've seen continued growth. I think the the three consecutive pay-per-views all set the record on HBO Max. So, it's a great time for Paramount to come in and and

[25:36] then add more homes for us when this goes through. Thanks for doing this again. I appreciate I can't believe it's been a >> It's Well, you know what? It's been a year, and we've done now your office in

[25:49] >> [laughter] >> location for next year's interview. >> That's great. Come out to LA. We'll do it in the ring. >> Thanks for having me. >> All right, that's it for the latest

[26:01] >> All right, that's it for the latest episode of Power Players.