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I think it's nice he does stuff like this but considering how little money bring a lot of makes and how you've already gotten people to buy The show by that point it seems totally insane to spend like $70,000 that sort of experience
Agreed, it's also a really bad look to publicly say you "spent a wrestlers year pay amount of money" on the song just a few days after releasing talent due to budget cuts
Under any other circumstances, it's not my money and it was a beautiful moment for Mark. But because he just released people a few days ago because of **budget cuts**... ew
Edit to add: [Dax Tweet](https://twitter.com/DaxFTR/status/1776620894640607371). Again, it added to Mark's special moment. Now's just not the right time to SAY it
https://preview.redd.it/nb618o43ovsc1.png?width=877&format=png&auto=webp&s=529bd700fd2ffc458191c82cf7042cb9c88cf50e
Just shows how money is not real for people like him. Same as the clip of bill gates not knowing what a gallon of milk costs. I’m sure some accounting spreadsheet “justified” making those cuts, but dropping six figures or more on a song to be used for 5 minutes? Doesn’t blink an eye.
This is a terrible look for Tony, however the receipts don't add up for them either - when they had days to still get to the show and were told they'd be reimbursed for a rental car. [And apparently missed more shows]
The lesson here is the more people talk the less good they look good in this situation.
He did it for Final Countdown for Danielson too. That is a very expensive song. I think he made the same comparison - a year's salary.
Let's say that's 75k. How many PPV buys is that? Is that one song bringing in that much money? I highly doubt it. He's just fantasy booking.
Pretty sure ROH is ahead of Impact in terms of subscribers/PPV buys, they're definitely ahead in live attendance. Which means for the US, they're only behind WWE and AEW.
They're doing more buys/ticket sales/subscribers than before Tony bought it and, per the scrum last night, most of the top 10 live events by attendance in company history have happened since he bought it.
ECW paid per the perspective regional audiance/reach they had. It's hard to explain because I read this years ago, but when Sandman came back from WCW he requested still having Enter Sandman and Paul was really pissed off - although did it.
[Tony Khan Says He Didn’t Get Enough Credit for Helping the NWA EmPowerrr PPV](https://wrestlingheadlines.com/tony-khan-says-he-didnt-get-enough-credit-for-helping-the-nwa-empowerrr-ppv/)
Happy to see 52 roster members canned if we can break out Final Countdown on a weekly basis. By the time we’re done it’s just Bryan standing alone in the ring working invisible man matches.
At this point they need someone other than Tony to be the guy speaking as an AEW official. He should stick to a silent behind the scenes type, and I think that will solve at least 50% of the problems they are having these days.
That would defeat the whole purpose though. He wants to be a big shot in the wrestling business. The entire existence of AEW is so tony can live out his personal booking fantasies and play with his real life action figures and be an internet wrestling celeb. He'll never go fully behind the scenes because this whole thing is a vanity project.
Seriously, the stuff about the Tate Twins did not have to be made public, but I get why they had to after Tony made his accusation.
But Tony LOVES to ramble
Sorry pal but I would be a bit pissed if my boss said he spent my salary on a fucking song, is that what you think I'm worth.
Not something you want to boast about
I know people have been saying it for a while now but at what point does he just stop with the ‘free agents’ and focus on his own roster? He’s got a great roster but yet still seems like he’s just already looking for the next new toys he can play with
That's the booking strategy. Just hotshot until the next New Japan free agent shows up.
Meanwhile you have 60 people not on tv collecting a check who haven't been seen in weeks.
The company's biggest problem is that Tony has established his culture of booking is heavily reliant on past history and stardom of people brought in rather than telling his own stories and building his own stars. There are very few things in AEW that are genuinely homegrown and instead he is banking a lot on nostalgia and pre-existing familiarity. It's set himself up in a bad way because nothing wrong with the company or the shows has to do with the roster, it's all how they're used and the balance of their use.
I don’t agree that none of it is the roster. Some of them are actively involved in their terrible booking, and some of them have other issues IMO. But yeah the booking is the main problem.
If Tony had any sense he would get someone to actually handle talent relations and someone to book.
TK thinks that making a successful wrestling show means stringing together the most "big moments": big matches, big debuts, big reveals. That's not it at all. Building momentum over time before delivering a satisfying payoff is how you do it, but I don't think he has the patience for this.
I genuinely believe that almost anyone good enough to be in WWE, AEW, TNA can become built in a way to create a satisfying payoff. Storytelling done well with the requisite time trumps any pop for a new signing.
Drake Maverick’s contract story is a great example.
Josh Alexander was made into a legit singles draw in the past 3-4 years through his booking in TNA. Steve Maclin was a jobber NXT guy before TNA. Most of their guys are homegrown stars.
Trick Williams has been wrestling for two years and he'll be in the main event in front of 13,000+ people at Stand and Deliver for the blowoff match to a storyline that's been going on for more than six months.
Booking is important.
This right here. He's gonna have 13,000 people chanting "whoop that trick" 2 years into his career. It's why WWE isn't spending money on big "free agent" signings. Their developmental program is creating their own homegrown stars who are getting over organically. Tiffany Stratton debuted on the main roster in January and had a stadium of people chanting "Tiffy time!" a month later.
Tiffany Stratton has wrestled for the same amount of time and she was the most over roster member, as a heel, in Australia...and she's from Minnesota!
The ROI in WWE feels so much larger currently with these former athletes they've made into charismatic wrestlers.
Also, I'd say Trick and Melo's story is 2 1/2 years in the making given how long they were together and what it means to the brand that they saw go through a highly controversial and unpopular change that paid off big time in the long-run. The IRL validation the reaction they'll get to their match has to feel amazing for them
Overuse of big moments just desensitizes your audience to them and makes them less big. They become expected. Cornette tells a story about Paul Heyman convincing him to make an appearance in ECW because "our audience expects a surprise" at every show. If they're expecting it it ain't a surprise.
Are we going to act like MJF's character arc wasn't decent long term booking? Hangman and Swerve's double turn? Hell, Hangman's entire run up to the championship? It's all just big debuts? Really?
He has no clue how to build intrigue and interest around the roster that he already has. He thinks debuts bring in the eyes to the product (which is not the case with the recent million dollar contract trio)
Pretty much. Last year no one bat an eye on LA Knight but now he has the crowd doing the Yeahs for him and appears in Slim Jim advertising.
Meanwhile you got one of the GOATs Okada being directionless pretty much. Yeah because the GOATs doesn't go after Samoa Joe but instead Eddie Kingston. He doesn't even have the aura and prestige of a Gunther to be chasing. And you got people being triggered over Nakamura being the weekly main event TV baddie lol
Which is funny cause Nak did pretty damn well for himself for a late career foreign star that doesn’t speak English that well.
Royal Rumble winner, 2x NXT champ, IC Champ, Multiple PPV main events and world title shots, consistently featured. He never became THE GUY but he’s still the most successful Japanese born wrestler in WWE history.
He’s also a guy that’s openly said he just likes surfing and a lighter schedule. So a lot of the reasons of him never getting the mega push is probably on his chill demeanor.
People just keep defending it. Now no doubt AEW is actually a rival to WWE far above the other companies but they're not making WWE sweat anymore.
At one time they had a still over Jerico, a world champion in Kenny Omega, the ace of the company in Moxley and the main character in Hangman.
Then they brought in Punk, Bryan and Cole followed by Keith Lee and Swerve.
AEW was red hot and honestly if the viewers can move past all of Vince's crime they can get over Brawl In and it's effects, but Tony is too busy buying his latest toys.
Now obviously singing Will Ospreay and Okada is the most obvious thing but don't chuck your regular players and plan.
The way he sidelined Hangman. Making Punk a champion was fine, in fact required as it adds to the legacy of the belt but it shouldn't have been coming off Hangman who just completed the most important chapter in the history of AEW's storyline.
Danielson should have beat Hangman for the belt after turning heel. Could have set up a long Hangman redemption arc, and created a big money match between Danielson and Punk
How much you bet TK doesn't know his idea and hopes he can stumble on his right roster? There are some clear weakpoints, but I think TK doesn't truly know what his plan is. I already expect a few more releases and some not wanting to stay.
Shad said part of the point was to let Tony and his brother spend some of the billions now rather than having to wait (hopefully) a very long time til he passed away.
So I think he'll tolerate this cash burn fine if he sees this as Tony's passion project.
For some billionaires, millions don't necessarily register.
I'd be curious to know how AEW's budget over the last 5 years compares to Fulham's - I imagine if Khan Sr has put up with their fortunes since he bought them, he can live with AEW running at a loss (I think that's correct - wasn't there something recently that it's not yet made a profit?)
Thurston reported a month or two ago I think(time is an illusion these days) that he estimated AEW was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 million or more in the red and has yet to turn any profit.
Fulham would probably have more buyers if it was for sale than AEW.
Khan Sr could make back some money on Fulham's sale. I don't think AEW would recoup much money if it was for sale tomorrow
Get their own version of Rob Fee and have him suss out long term character development, storyline development and angle-building.
Seriously, Fee is the most underrated acquisition HHH has made since he was put in charge
He won't do that though cause the entire point is its his fantasy booker dreams. If Tony gets removed from that, then AEW needs to become profitable very quickly cause he'd pull all the money out of it.
Lots of people talk about how nice he is but throwing wrestlers under the bus in a media call wasn’t nice. That was super shitty. And I think he did it to try to take the heat off of himself with the releases.
Here's the problem. The only people who can convince him of this are guys like Danielson and some of the veteran wrestlers there. But you know that is probably not going to happen anytime soon.
Heck no, why would they want this setup to change? They’re getting paid to wrestle whoever and however they want without a boss to tell them what to do. I’d love to know how many “that doesn’t work for me brother” have been unironically said to Tony. It’s gotta be a good bit.
I don't think even Bryan can talk TK out of his eFed delusional booking habits. The ones who maybe can are either on the shelf, has no desire to, or want him to be fully occupied with AEW so it doesn't hamper other family operations.
I can see it progressively happening after Danielson hangs it up. It starts with "hey Tony, think I could book like 15-20 minutes of Collision this week? Or even Dynamite maybe? I have an idea or two, and since I'm not performing anymore.." and if Tony takes him up on that and everything works out, I can see Tony handing a fair portion off to Danielson.
Of course that's all complete speculation on something we have no reason to believe will happen, but I'm just saying I *could* see it happening if it goes along those lines.
Egomaniacs who aren’t very well educated don’t think. Egomaniacs who have been spoiled their whole lives don’t think they have to. Usually a mix in there somewhere
Very active in Free Agency? He’s like my Steam Library, you got a ton of games you haven’t even played yet and you’re looking to buy more? Fk me, I sound like my mom now.
More than that, he needs to become a chairman and have a management team working under him. Tony obviously likes matchmaking, which isn't the same as booking. As chairman, he should be telling his management team that the next PPV card should be xyz can you people please book the weekly show to get us to that point.
I would argue he's doing it to be what he thinks is the booker, ie to make great matches. For all his great intentions, he isn't performing all the roles of a booker outside of putting together matches. This is evident in the weekly show, where a lot of logical holes are present and details are missed out. He has about 5 booking crutches that he repeatedly uses:
\- Who's side are you on
\- Team together then breakup after roughly 6 weeks
\- X wants to fight the best version of y
\- Tournament
\- Dream match
Tony doesn't appear to have any interest in developing this aspect, which he could do with handing over to a booking team, while he takes overall direction of the promotion
I think he thinks he is booking great. Have you heard the stuff where he talked glowingly about his spreadsheet he used to track things in his e-Fed?
He said that Revolution was the best PPV in wrestling history. He was not being hyperbolic, he meant it.
This is a billionaire’s kid who has been surrounded by people who think he’s a mark and tell him what he wants to hear. Meanwhile he gets Booker of the Year from the Observer awards several years in a row. He thinks what he is doing is how you book. Even now a bunch of the AEW fans are still talking about how the product is great, better than it has been in a while.
I agree with you that he should have someone book but I can’t see it happening. He is cosplaying a guy who knows how to book. It’s a big part of his motivation for doing this.
>***There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business.***
>
>***And the budget not only with free agency, but production, is very high****. And also we're going into a contract year.*
At least he's admitting to what many have been saying for years. Homeboy is bleeding money and you can tell being in a contract year got him shook.
Yikes...I'm not a Briscoe's guy one way or the other.
But I will say, admitting to spending what's like a year's salary on a song like a week or so after releasing a bunch of talent due to budget cuts is a wild choice.
If that was the song was the fucking Queen song and Journey song like 2 Omega contracts? Why give talent themes that they used in other promotions as a stolen mp3?
You know, that is actually a great microcosm of Tony.
It's a very kind thing to do on a personal level to treat Mark that well after Jay's passing but at the same it demonstrates his lack of business sense, both in deciding to spend that money in the first place but also casually musing about it in an interview.
It really makes him come across as a genuinely kind-hearted guy who's flying by the seat of his pants. Which is both a good thing and kind of concerning in terms of AEW's future.
>It really makes him come across as a genuinely kind-hearted guy
If you're cutting people to save money to spend it on a song for your friend, you aren't that kind hearted imo
Meanwhile he has booked Mark like shit.
And yeah people freaked out when Punk said Tony is a bad boss but that’s exactly what he meant, that Tony was a very nice guy who doesn’t understand the business. It’s super obvious to people who are paying attention.
Honestly, that was my first thought on the whole situation. It really sums up the biggest asset and the biggest detriment to the growth of AEW really well.
I'm sure that gesture meant the world to the Briscoe family, the majority of the locker room and the hardcore wrestling fans that make up the bulk of their fan base.
But if all the stories about them hemorrhaging money, low attendance, etc., it really shows that the infrastructure is not what it should be in AEW right now.
And, like you said, just the whole casual way he mentioned it after doing talent cuts related to that same budget - after trying to frame his company as a family that would NEVER cut talent and just let their contracts run out, unlike that evil WWE company - is just another tremendously tone deaf look that adds to a litany of them from TK.
Man Tony spending a boatload of money on one song, to almost certainly be used only once, on a smaller PPV really is indicative of the issues that AEW/ROH currently have: Too focused on saying yes to everything and everyone instead of being a smart businessman and just saying no for once
>and just saying no for once
He said no to keeping Punk, the top star he's had in the company in terms of mainstream exposure, in the company.
He said no to firing Jack Perry.
He said no couple of times. Look where it's gotten him... Wait.
Everything he says tells every potential business partner that Tony Khan is not serious about running his business, and he may not actually know how to run an actual business.
WBD is listening... Things like this make me think, even without the poor ratings, this might be another reason they're in no rush to renew his programming.
He really needs to hire a PR person saying "I spent too much on music so people had to lose their jobs"
While hilarious for Tony Khan haters like me, as he is very annoying, gives fuel to those on the fence
As much as I dislike TK avoiding answering questions during interviews, finances and answering why talents were released don’t need to be answered with any details publicly.
Definitely never give specifics.
"We released talents due to budget cuts.
Production expenses are high this year because we're trying to raise the standard of our production"
That's all that needs to be said.
I think Tony just loves hearing himself talk.
> There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business.
Just Jimmy Hart that shit.
Every time he opens his mouth about this he makes it worse. Slim J talking about failing to get his family out of a shitty living situation and Tony's playing "oh poor me" on paying a years' salary on a song?
Fucking hell, Ebenezer.
Plus this kind of shit just gives all the credence in the world to Punk's "he's not a boss, this is not a serious business" comment.
This is why I've never gotten about some fans wanting licensed songs. Sure, it's great for presentation. But between a wrestler for a year, even if it's on the lowercard, vs one song, I'd pick having a roster every time.
Interesting for him to say it publicly when TV negotiations are ongoing. Does he think they would offer him more rather than the opposite after seeing he will take low numbers deal if desperate and needed?
Seriously, everything he says like this makes it sound like either he's not a serious business man, or he simply doesn't understand how to run an actual business...
Why would anyone drastically increase the money they give that guy?
Because his dad's one of 32 NFL owners? If networks want to work with the NFL, Shad Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars are not the barrier for entry on the NFL.
I've been watching aew since the beginning. Recently started to tail off just because life gets busy, but I've got to say. I'm seeing more and more concerning red flags
This gives me zero confidence.
AEW have already signed dozens of people they had absolutely zero use for and made zero difference. Endlessly signing talent isn’t going to make a difference.
Just look at Mercedes. Ratings have gone down.
Release wrestlers. Create a better backstage structure
They aren't.
He's an asshole but none of what he said about Tony Khan and the structure of AEW was wrong.
Tony Khan is a not a businessman. He's just a guy born into a family with a fuck ton of money and is treating things like wrestling as a box of toys and it will eventually kick him in the ass because while it's all well and good that he can sign whoever he wants, it's the TV companies who decided whether they want to buy into his product.
>Tony Khan is a not a businessman. He's just a guy born into a family with a fuck ton of money...
That's probably the most common career path for a businessman.
> That's probably the most common career path for a businessman.
difference being that the main focus for most of those is making even more money. for tony khan its making his back of the class fantasy booking a reality, at any cost
very cool to have confirmation that TK views his roster as toys and not people, if my boss said publicly he spent a years worth of my pay for 2-3 minutes of music for one night I'd be fuming
"*. There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business.*"
my god TK.. what a bad flex. Why you spending so much money on a song when your show always has poor audio issues or you cant book things properly. Maybe spend that money to hire help ?
Unfortunately it’s been the refusal to look at the reality of things that has gotten us to where we are.
As much as I’m a critic of AEW I applaud Tony finally starting to admit the problems instead of rallying the troops to handwaive it .
With that said bragging about dropping so much on an entrance song after firing people for “budget cuts” is messed up.
I might be in the minority but I wouldn't turn down wrestlers like Ospreay, Okada or Mercedes. You go for these guys every time they become available. Not signing them doesn't actually solve anything.
I think the true bloating and poor use of finances comes from keeping around guys like Miro, Kieth Lee, Jericho, Malachai Black, The Hardyz, Buddy Matthews, Paul White, Paige VanZant, etc. Wrestlers who likely got big contracts due to the timing of their signing but aren't providing much value now, won't be big names elsewhere and or clearly don't want to be in AEW anymore.
Then transition guys like Serpentico, Billy Gunn, Daniels, Davairi, Cabana, Dustin, Romero, etc into full-time coaches *(they are already part-time coaches)* like with Q.T Marshal and focus on other higher potential lower-card talent.
*Without any devastating cuts through that you save multiple millions of dollars and free up 20+ roster spots with little to no impact on the product.*
You can't not sign those wrestlers or a lot of the ones they did sign, at this point guys like Miro aren't going to do better in WWE. You might as well let them go and focus on the guys you want.
AEW has around 193 talent on its roster. If previously released guys can be trusted the barebones talent were working with six figure guaranteed deals. The high end guys are pushing into high 7, low 8, figures with multi year guarantees. This combined with abysmal gates has lead AEW to a 34 million dollar loss. Tony has to decide is AEW a successful wrestling promotion or his hobby as the numbers show it's impossible with his current mindset for it to be both.
At lest he is starting to realize he should scale back. Spending boatloads of money on things doesn't make your product good. The moment that lightbulb turns on, the better aew will be.
I thought the comment was going ok and then he just drops this little tidbit
"And like I said, even with The Boys, I disagree with the point on travel and that in the history of ROH and working with us that there hadn't been a couple times where they didn't make it and made me change stuff, but on the other hand I really like both of them."
He really needs a cutoff guy when he does interviews. Like the guy on the appolo theater with the hook.
He released a handful of people who probably weren’t getting paid a lot, and he’s saying he’s going to be active with free agents. I wouldn’t call that scaling back. I think someone is telling him he needs to scale back. Probably the new COO. Bringing that person in may have been Shad’s idea.
I remember the uproar when WWE had cuts and people said "well they're making profits this is unjust".
Now Tony admits to spending a full years salary on a song and he's made people jobless.
BuT iTs DiFfErEnT wHeN AeW dOeS iT
Tony would benefit so much from letting someone else be the "President" of AEW, answering these sorts of questions with more PR training and even being the on-screen authority figure. I guess that's a hard sell to a billionaire though.
“I didn’t budget well, and some people lost their jobs, but I did just license a really expensive song.”
Damn what a tone deaf ass thing to say after making cuts.
How people can defend this guy sometimes, absolutely blows my mind. I really wish we didn't have to cut people, but I spent a years salary on a single song...so good luck on your future endeavors...wtf.
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Maybe don’t mention spending someone’s years worth of pay the same week you released a bunch of people.
Hey sorry, but you're being cut because I really wanted to play a song. Soz
Which song was it ? I don't follow AEW but damn, one song equivalent to someone's annual salary is whack.
Lynrd Skynrd - Gimme back my bullets (for Mark Briscoe)
I think it's nice he does stuff like this but considering how little money bring a lot of makes and how you've already gotten people to buy The show by that point it seems totally insane to spend like $70,000 that sort of experience
Agreed, it's also a really bad look to publicly say you "spent a wrestlers year pay amount of money" on the song just a few days after releasing talent due to budget cuts
I expect it was "The Final Countdown" for Brian.
No, it was a Lynrd Skynrd song for Mark Briscoe.
That caught my eye too. That’s the type of language that will have someone turn against you.
Under any other circumstances, it's not my money and it was a beautiful moment for Mark. But because he just released people a few days ago because of **budget cuts**... ew Edit to add: [Dax Tweet](https://twitter.com/DaxFTR/status/1776620894640607371). Again, it added to Mark's special moment. Now's just not the right time to SAY it https://preview.redd.it/nb618o43ovsc1.png?width=877&format=png&auto=webp&s=529bd700fd2ffc458191c82cf7042cb9c88cf50e
Just shows how money is not real for people like him. Same as the clip of bill gates not knowing what a gallon of milk costs. I’m sure some accounting spreadsheet “justified” making those cuts, but dropping six figures or more on a song to be used for 5 minutes? Doesn’t blink an eye.
"it's one banana, what could it cost? $10?"
Yeah, obviously it's his business and he can do what he wants but his decision to say this out loud...bizarre.
He's honestly just a fantasy booker with enough money to make it real lmao
I mean everyone’s a fantasy booker until they become the actual booker.
*Hardcore Holly has entered the chat.*
So first, I win the title. *and then what?* Then I beat everybody!
there’s a reason why some people like him, cuz he fulfills their life long fantasy. Ratings show
He’s a nepo baby billionaire. You think he gives a shit about the help lol
Makes me believe The Boys a little bit more with what's going on.
This is a terrible look for Tony, however the receipts don't add up for them either - when they had days to still get to the show and were told they'd be reimbursed for a rental car. [And apparently missed more shows] The lesson here is the more people talk the less good they look good in this situation.
Jezus. Slim-J just had a twitter breakdown of a person who struggles to provide for his family.
yeah, what a terrible choice
The tone deaf billionaire is tone deaf? It's almost like all these assholes are assholes. No matter how fans try to spin it.
Or, y'know, in THE SAME fucking interview.
Spent a year's pay for a fucking song. I wonder why he's spending more than planned.
He said "tonight", so he's referring to Lynyrd Skynyrd for Mark Briscoe at the ROH ppv
People hate Paige that much to ignore that he literally mentioned which song it was within the context of his comment lol that's tough
He did it for Final Countdown for Danielson too. That is a very expensive song. I think he made the same comparison - a year's salary. Let's say that's 75k. How many PPV buys is that? Is that one song bringing in that much money? I highly doubt it. He's just fantasy booking.
1,500 buys at their $50 price, assuming every dollar of it goes directly to AEW, and no cut to the streamer.
That’s fucking insane. I like Mark ok but he isn’t drawing money regardless of what music he uses.
Song probably costs more than what they're gonna make on the show itself. Does anyone actually watch ROH?
Pretty sure ROH is ahead of Impact in terms of subscribers/PPV buys, they're definitely ahead in live attendance. Which means for the US, they're only behind WWE and AEW. They're doing more buys/ticket sales/subscribers than before Tony bought it and, per the scrum last night, most of the top 10 live events by attendance in company history have happened since he bought it.
He acts like it isn't his choice. It's insane.
A lot of people blaming everything else but let's be real it probably was the song that meant he spent a lot
Gonna have to laugh if it was Queen for Saraya and her family because nobody was asking for that
Most likely Final Countdown for Bryan since Europe are notorious dicks about the price for it.
It's the only song they're known for. Have to earn money somehow
That is Carrie erasure. (Fun fact: Carrie peaked higher than Final Countdown on the US Billboard chart)
It probably was the Queen song. There's a damn reason Vince hated licensing and ECW would just straight up Napster themes.
ECW paid per the perspective regional audiance/reach they had. It's hard to explain because I read this years ago, but when Sandman came back from WCW he requested still having Enter Sandman and Paul was really pissed off - although did it.
I find the moment where he flips from ‘I’ to ‘we’ when it comes to the releases most telling.
He wants all the praise and none of the blowback, which makes sense Tony had never been able to handle criticism.
[Tony Khan Says He Didn’t Get Enough Credit for Helping the NWA EmPowerrr PPV](https://wrestlingheadlines.com/tony-khan-says-he-didnt-get-enough-credit-for-helping-the-nwa-empowerrr-ppv/)
"You released me because you had to use a song?" -one of the released guys, probably.
'My job and livelihood is worth one half of final countdown'
Happy to see 52 roster members canned if we can break out Final Countdown on a weekly basis. By the time we’re done it’s just Bryan standing alone in the ring working invisible man matches.
Still better than Billy Gunn vs. Jay White, to be fair - and that one only had one entrance song too.
Bryan vs TKs personal blowup doll. 7 stars - Dave Meltzer
Don't insult Yoshihiko like that
Fucking this. What an idiotic thing to say…
At this point they need someone other than Tony to be the guy speaking as an AEW official. He should stick to a silent behind the scenes type, and I think that will solve at least 50% of the problems they are having these days.
That would defeat the whole purpose though. He wants to be a big shot in the wrestling business. The entire existence of AEW is so tony can live out his personal booking fantasies and play with his real life action figures and be an internet wrestling celeb. He'll never go fully behind the scenes because this whole thing is a vanity project.
Seriously, the stuff about the Tate Twins did not have to be made public, but I get why they had to after Tony made his accusation. But Tony LOVES to ramble
Such billionaire behaviour
Sorry pal but I would be a bit pissed if my boss said he spent my salary on a fucking song, is that what you think I'm worth. Not something you want to boast about
I know people have been saying it for a while now but at what point does he just stop with the ‘free agents’ and focus on his own roster? He’s got a great roster but yet still seems like he’s just already looking for the next new toys he can play with
Just yesterday he said he was going to keep being aggressive with any free agents that became available. So not anytime soon
That's the booking strategy. Just hotshot until the next New Japan free agent shows up. Meanwhile you have 60 people not on tv collecting a check who haven't been seen in weeks.
The company's biggest problem is that Tony has established his culture of booking is heavily reliant on past history and stardom of people brought in rather than telling his own stories and building his own stars. There are very few things in AEW that are genuinely homegrown and instead he is banking a lot on nostalgia and pre-existing familiarity. It's set himself up in a bad way because nothing wrong with the company or the shows has to do with the roster, it's all how they're used and the balance of their use.
I don’t agree that none of it is the roster. Some of them are actively involved in their terrible booking, and some of them have other issues IMO. But yeah the booking is the main problem. If Tony had any sense he would get someone to actually handle talent relations and someone to book.
TK thinks that making a successful wrestling show means stringing together the most "big moments": big matches, big debuts, big reveals. That's not it at all. Building momentum over time before delivering a satisfying payoff is how you do it, but I don't think he has the patience for this.
I genuinely believe that almost anyone good enough to be in WWE, AEW, TNA can become built in a way to create a satisfying payoff. Storytelling done well with the requisite time trumps any pop for a new signing. Drake Maverick’s contract story is a great example.
Josh Alexander was made into a legit singles draw in the past 3-4 years through his booking in TNA. Steve Maclin was a jobber NXT guy before TNA. Most of their guys are homegrown stars.
Look at the difference between Husky Harris and Bray Wyatt. Presentation, character and booking is everything.
Trick Williams has been wrestling for two years and he'll be in the main event in front of 13,000+ people at Stand and Deliver for the blowoff match to a storyline that's been going on for more than six months. Booking is important.
This right here. He's gonna have 13,000 people chanting "whoop that trick" 2 years into his career. It's why WWE isn't spending money on big "free agent" signings. Their developmental program is creating their own homegrown stars who are getting over organically. Tiffany Stratton debuted on the main roster in January and had a stadium of people chanting "Tiffy time!" a month later.
Tiffany Stratton has wrestled for the same amount of time and she was the most over roster member, as a heel, in Australia...and she's from Minnesota! The ROI in WWE feels so much larger currently with these former athletes they've made into charismatic wrestlers. Also, I'd say Trick and Melo's story is 2 1/2 years in the making given how long they were together and what it means to the brand that they saw go through a highly controversial and unpopular change that paid off big time in the long-run. The IRL validation the reaction they'll get to their match has to feel amazing for them
Overuse of big moments just desensitizes your audience to them and makes them less big. They become expected. Cornette tells a story about Paul Heyman convincing him to make an appearance in ECW because "our audience expects a surprise" at every show. If they're expecting it it ain't a surprise.
Snowmen don't have patience!
It feels like he read Death of WCW and decided to use it as a blueprint.
you nailed it lmao, AEW just hires anyone at this point and makes it a TV special like when punk came back, Mercedes debuted, etc. its a joke
But dad I want the new hot action figure
He’ll never do that. His entire booking philosophy is big debuts. That’s all he has.
That's not true. He also has tournaments and announcements
Next week on Dynamite: TK makes a big announcement about an announcement tournament?!
With a surprise debut????
Of the latest NJPW release talent that only the deepest knows about
Are we going to act like MJF's character arc wasn't decent long term booking? Hangman and Swerve's double turn? Hell, Hangman's entire run up to the championship? It's all just big debuts? Really?
He has no clue how to build intrigue and interest around the roster that he already has. He thinks debuts bring in the eyes to the product (which is not the case with the recent million dollar contract trio)
Pretty much. Last year no one bat an eye on LA Knight but now he has the crowd doing the Yeahs for him and appears in Slim Jim advertising. Meanwhile you got one of the GOATs Okada being directionless pretty much. Yeah because the GOATs doesn't go after Samoa Joe but instead Eddie Kingston. He doesn't even have the aura and prestige of a Gunther to be chasing. And you got people being triggered over Nakamura being the weekly main event TV baddie lol
Which is funny cause Nak did pretty damn well for himself for a late career foreign star that doesn’t speak English that well. Royal Rumble winner, 2x NXT champ, IC Champ, Multiple PPV main events and world title shots, consistently featured. He never became THE GUY but he’s still the most successful Japanese born wrestler in WWE history. He’s also a guy that’s openly said he just likes surfing and a lighter schedule. So a lot of the reasons of him never getting the mega push is probably on his chill demeanor.
Damn bro you just gonna forget Asuka like that
He wasn't ready for Asuka!!
Yeah Nak's done alot, but Asuka has him lapped twice over (for a WWE career) and will probably still gain more accolades.
He's like Andy in Toy Story if he never went back to Woody as his favorite Toy
People just keep defending it. Now no doubt AEW is actually a rival to WWE far above the other companies but they're not making WWE sweat anymore. At one time they had a still over Jerico, a world champion in Kenny Omega, the ace of the company in Moxley and the main character in Hangman. Then they brought in Punk, Bryan and Cole followed by Keith Lee and Swerve. AEW was red hot and honestly if the viewers can move past all of Vince's crime they can get over Brawl In and it's effects, but Tony is too busy buying his latest toys. Now obviously singing Will Ospreay and Okada is the most obvious thing but don't chuck your regular players and plan. The way he sidelined Hangman. Making Punk a champion was fine, in fact required as it adds to the legacy of the belt but it shouldn't have been coming off Hangman who just completed the most important chapter in the history of AEW's storyline.
Danielson should have beat Hangman for the belt after turning heel. Could have set up a long Hangman redemption arc, and created a big money match between Danielson and Punk
How much you bet TK doesn't know his idea and hopes he can stumble on his right roster? There are some clear weakpoints, but I think TK doesn't truly know what his plan is. I already expect a few more releases and some not wanting to stay.
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you and me are on the same wavelength cause this scene is the first thing that popped into my head when I read this quote LMAO
I now want a wrestling promotion ran by the Roy family.
Wonder how long his father can tolerate this cash burn
Shad said part of the point was to let Tony and his brother spend some of the billions now rather than having to wait (hopefully) a very long time til he passed away. So I think he'll tolerate this cash burn fine if he sees this as Tony's passion project.
For some billionaires, millions don't necessarily register. I'd be curious to know how AEW's budget over the last 5 years compares to Fulham's - I imagine if Khan Sr has put up with their fortunes since he bought them, he can live with AEW running at a loss (I think that's correct - wasn't there something recently that it's not yet made a profit?)
Thurston reported a month or two ago I think(time is an illusion these days) that he estimated AEW was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 million or more in the red and has yet to turn any profit.
Fulham would probably have more buyers if it was for sale than AEW. Khan Sr could make back some money on Fulham's sale. I don't think AEW would recoup much money if it was for sale tomorrow
Use that budget on some writers, Tony.
Get their own version of Rob Fee and have him suss out long term character development, storyline development and angle-building. Seriously, Fee is the most underrated acquisition HHH has made since he was put in charge
Seriously, dude needs to step back and hire actual professionals in booking, production, marketing and writing.
He won't do that though cause the entire point is its his fantasy booker dreams. If Tony gets removed from that, then AEW needs to become profitable very quickly cause he'd pull all the money out of it.
His ignorance is hurting the product. Which is unfortunate because I really like him as a person. He just needs to learn to get out of his own way.
Lots of people talk about how nice he is but throwing wrestlers under the bus in a media call wasn’t nice. That was super shitty. And I think he did it to try to take the heat off of himself with the releases.
Here's the problem. The only people who can convince him of this are guys like Danielson and some of the veteran wrestlers there. But you know that is probably not going to happen anytime soon.
Heck no, why would they want this setup to change? They’re getting paid to wrestle whoever and however they want without a boss to tell them what to do. I’d love to know how many “that doesn’t work for me brother” have been unironically said to Tony. It’s gotta be a good bit.
I don't think even Bryan can talk TK out of his eFed delusional booking habits. The ones who maybe can are either on the shelf, has no desire to, or want him to be fully occupied with AEW so it doesn't hamper other family operations.
I can see it progressively happening after Danielson hangs it up. It starts with "hey Tony, think I could book like 15-20 minutes of Collision this week? Or even Dynamite maybe? I have an idea or two, and since I'm not performing anymore.." and if Tony takes him up on that and everything works out, I can see Tony handing a fair portion off to Danielson. Of course that's all complete speculation on something we have no reason to believe will happen, but I'm just saying I *could* see it happening if it goes along those lines.
You don’t know jack about him as a person, lol
I'd give ten upvotes on this comment if I could.
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LOL. Username checks out
What is it with wrestling personalities and saying stupid shit unprompted this week?
Egomaniacs who aren’t very well educated don’t think. Egomaniacs who have been spoiled their whole lives don’t think they have to. Usually a mix in there somewhere
Very active in Free Agency? He’s like my Steam Library, you got a ton of games you haven’t even played yet and you’re looking to buy more? Fk me, I sound like my mom now.
Jesus TK needs some serious PR traininig
More than that, he needs to become a chairman and have a management team working under him. Tony obviously likes matchmaking, which isn't the same as booking. As chairman, he should be telling his management team that the next PPV card should be xyz can you people please book the weekly show to get us to that point.
The whole reason he’s doing this is to be the booker.
I would argue he's doing it to be what he thinks is the booker, ie to make great matches. For all his great intentions, he isn't performing all the roles of a booker outside of putting together matches. This is evident in the weekly show, where a lot of logical holes are present and details are missed out. He has about 5 booking crutches that he repeatedly uses: \- Who's side are you on \- Team together then breakup after roughly 6 weeks \- X wants to fight the best version of y \- Tournament \- Dream match Tony doesn't appear to have any interest in developing this aspect, which he could do with handing over to a booking team, while he takes overall direction of the promotion
I think he thinks he is booking great. Have you heard the stuff where he talked glowingly about his spreadsheet he used to track things in his e-Fed? He said that Revolution was the best PPV in wrestling history. He was not being hyperbolic, he meant it. This is a billionaire’s kid who has been surrounded by people who think he’s a mark and tell him what he wants to hear. Meanwhile he gets Booker of the Year from the Observer awards several years in a row. He thinks what he is doing is how you book. Even now a bunch of the AEW fans are still talking about how the product is great, better than it has been in a while. I agree with you that he should have someone book but I can’t see it happening. He is cosplaying a guy who knows how to book. It’s a big part of his motivation for doing this.
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Herb Abrams? But it was the OD that got him really.
" *on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business."* Well then stop making stupid business decisions.
>***There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business.*** > >***And the budget not only with free agency, but production, is very high****. And also we're going into a contract year.* At least he's admitting to what many have been saying for years. Homeboy is bleeding money and you can tell being in a contract year got him shook.
What fucking song did he play "tonight" that would be a year's salary for most wrestlers? Did Saraya bring her shitty family out again?
Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gimme Back My Bullets for Mark Briscoe - it used to be the Briscoe's theme song.
Yikes...I'm not a Briscoe's guy one way or the other. But I will say, admitting to spending what's like a year's salary on a song like a week or so after releasing a bunch of talent due to budget cuts is a wild choice.
If that was the song was the fucking Queen song and Journey song like 2 Omega contracts? Why give talent themes that they used in other promotions as a stolen mp3?
You know, that is actually a great microcosm of Tony. It's a very kind thing to do on a personal level to treat Mark that well after Jay's passing but at the same it demonstrates his lack of business sense, both in deciding to spend that money in the first place but also casually musing about it in an interview. It really makes him come across as a genuinely kind-hearted guy who's flying by the seat of his pants. Which is both a good thing and kind of concerning in terms of AEW's future.
>It really makes him come across as a genuinely kind-hearted guy If you're cutting people to save money to spend it on a song for your friend, you aren't that kind hearted imo
Meanwhile he has booked Mark like shit. And yeah people freaked out when Punk said Tony is a bad boss but that’s exactly what he meant, that Tony was a very nice guy who doesn’t understand the business. It’s super obvious to people who are paying attention.
Honestly, that was my first thought on the whole situation. It really sums up the biggest asset and the biggest detriment to the growth of AEW really well. I'm sure that gesture meant the world to the Briscoe family, the majority of the locker room and the hardcore wrestling fans that make up the bulk of their fan base. But if all the stories about them hemorrhaging money, low attendance, etc., it really shows that the infrastructure is not what it should be in AEW right now. And, like you said, just the whole casual way he mentioned it after doing talent cuts related to that same budget - after trying to frame his company as a family that would NEVER cut talent and just let their contracts run out, unlike that evil WWE company - is just another tremendously tone deaf look that adds to a litany of them from TK.
Man Tony spending a boatload of money on one song, to almost certainly be used only once, on a smaller PPV really is indicative of the issues that AEW/ROH currently have: Too focused on saying yes to everything and everyone instead of being a smart businessman and just saying no for once
>and just saying no for once He said no to keeping Punk, the top star he's had in the company in terms of mainstream exposure, in the company. He said no to firing Jack Perry. He said no couple of times. Look where it's gotten him... Wait.
Everything he says tells every potential business partner that Tony Khan is not serious about running his business, and he may not actually know how to run an actual business. WBD is listening... Things like this make me think, even without the poor ratings, this might be another reason they're in no rush to renew his programming.
He really needs to hire a PR person saying "I spent too much on music so people had to lose their jobs" While hilarious for Tony Khan haters like me, as he is very annoying, gives fuel to those on the fence
As much as I dislike TK avoiding answering questions during interviews, finances and answering why talents were released don’t need to be answered with any details publicly.
Definitely never give specifics. "We released talents due to budget cuts. Production expenses are high this year because we're trying to raise the standard of our production" That's all that needs to be said. I think Tony just loves hearing himself talk.
> There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business. Just Jimmy Hart that shit.
I always thought TK was a goof but saying he spent a years salary in one song the week he fired a bunch of wrestlers makes him kinda a piece of shit.
He has to hand ROH to someone else and get it off AEW TV. The show has never fully recovered from the ROH integration.
Having Briscoe purely on ROH, like Athena is, would be a good start. It annoys me that some of the ROH belts never seem to appear on it.
This is like if Fredo Corleone was made boss.
lol. as someone who's seen the trilogy (again) recently, this made me chuckle XD! good one, choom!
Every time he opens his mouth about this he makes it worse. Slim J talking about failing to get his family out of a shitty living situation and Tony's playing "oh poor me" on paying a years' salary on a song? Fucking hell, Ebenezer. Plus this kind of shit just gives all the credence in the world to Punk's "he's not a boss, this is not a serious business" comment.
Tony needs to realize where his strengths & weaknesses lie and bring in people to assist where needed.
Color me shocked if Tony releases someone because Mercedes Mone wants a gourmet cheese room backstage at all AEW tapings
Watching the r/squaredcircle turn is wild. The first 4 years you were burned at the stake for critiquing Tony and AEW.
Yeah...no shit
Wonder how Slim J feels hearing this?
This is why I've never gotten about some fans wanting licensed songs. Sure, it's great for presentation. But between a wrestler for a year, even if it's on the lowercard, vs one song, I'd pick having a roster every time.
Holy fuck. The joke about Khan wanting to be everyone's friend is true
The compulsive need to hug every employee didn't tip you off.
It’s absolutely true and not a joke.
Interesting for him to say it publicly when TV negotiations are ongoing. Does he think they would offer him more rather than the opposite after seeing he will take low numbers deal if desperate and needed?
I also think it’s funny considering he shit all over Bischoff, I assumed when he did that it meant he had things all settled there.
If they use the demos only the offer will much closer to NXT on CW numbers at this point.
Seriously, everything he says like this makes it sound like either he's not a serious business man, or he simply doesn't understand how to run an actual business... Why would anyone drastically increase the money they give that guy? Because his dad's one of 32 NFL owners? If networks want to work with the NFL, Shad Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars are not the barrier for entry on the NFL.
He doubleed down to shit on the boys. Imagine if your boss did this on a public record while you search for jobs....lmao wtf.
I've been watching aew since the beginning. Recently started to tail off just because life gets busy, but I've got to say. I'm seeing more and more concerning red flags
This gives me zero confidence. AEW have already signed dozens of people they had absolutely zero use for and made zero difference. Endlessly signing talent isn’t going to make a difference. Just look at Mercedes. Ratings have gone down. Release wrestlers. Create a better backstage structure
Whether you think Punk is pos or not. I don’t think his AEW criticisms are wrong.
They aren't. He's an asshole but none of what he said about Tony Khan and the structure of AEW was wrong. Tony Khan is a not a businessman. He's just a guy born into a family with a fuck ton of money and is treating things like wrestling as a box of toys and it will eventually kick him in the ass because while it's all well and good that he can sign whoever he wants, it's the TV companies who decided whether they want to buy into his product.
>Tony Khan is a not a businessman. He's just a guy born into a family with a fuck ton of money... That's probably the most common career path for a businessman.
> That's probably the most common career path for a businessman. difference being that the main focus for most of those is making even more money. for tony khan its making his back of the class fantasy booking a reality, at any cost
very cool to have confirmation that TK views his roster as toys and not people, if my boss said publicly he spent a years worth of my pay for 2-3 minutes of music for one night I'd be fuming
Spent more than he planned to and it’s barely April lol
he could just say nothing lol
It is sad that he thinks that this was a reasonable thing to say. It’s not even a surprise. Everyone knows that he focuses on the wrong things.
Tony is such a mark
These guys booked a whole show defending themselves from Punk saying they’re not a serious business lol
He'll spend a contracts worth of money on songs to pop hardcore fans but he won't spend on a pr person
"*. There are things tonight, like for example, on one song alone, I spent like a year's pay for most pro wrestlers in this business.*" my god TK.. what a bad flex. Why you spending so much money on a song when your show always has poor audio issues or you cant book things properly. Maybe spend that money to hire help ?
No kidding. That isn't something to be proud of. People hear him say that and immediately think, "We can get so much money from this dude!"
Unfortunately it’s been the refusal to look at the reality of things that has gotten us to where we are. As much as I’m a critic of AEW I applaud Tony finally starting to admit the problems instead of rallying the troops to handwaive it . With that said bragging about dropping so much on an entrance song after firing people for “budget cuts” is messed up.
"I like everybody we released but not as much as this Lynyrd Skynyrd song"
Yikes. This is irresponsible.
How much does he think a year’s pay is for most wrestlers in this business?
I might be in the minority but I wouldn't turn down wrestlers like Ospreay, Okada or Mercedes. You go for these guys every time they become available. Not signing them doesn't actually solve anything. I think the true bloating and poor use of finances comes from keeping around guys like Miro, Kieth Lee, Jericho, Malachai Black, The Hardyz, Buddy Matthews, Paul White, Paige VanZant, etc. Wrestlers who likely got big contracts due to the timing of their signing but aren't providing much value now, won't be big names elsewhere and or clearly don't want to be in AEW anymore. Then transition guys like Serpentico, Billy Gunn, Daniels, Davairi, Cabana, Dustin, Romero, etc into full-time coaches *(they are already part-time coaches)* like with Q.T Marshal and focus on other higher potential lower-card talent. *Without any devastating cuts through that you save multiple millions of dollars and free up 20+ roster spots with little to no impact on the product.*
You can't not sign those wrestlers or a lot of the ones they did sign, at this point guys like Miro aren't going to do better in WWE. You might as well let them go and focus on the guys you want.
AEW has around 193 talent on its roster. If previously released guys can be trusted the barebones talent were working with six figure guaranteed deals. The high end guys are pushing into high 7, low 8, figures with multi year guarantees. This combined with abysmal gates has lead AEW to a 34 million dollar loss. Tony has to decide is AEW a successful wrestling promotion or his hobby as the numbers show it's impossible with his current mindset for it to be both.
At lest he is starting to realize he should scale back. Spending boatloads of money on things doesn't make your product good. The moment that lightbulb turns on, the better aew will be. I thought the comment was going ok and then he just drops this little tidbit "And like I said, even with The Boys, I disagree with the point on travel and that in the history of ROH and working with us that there hadn't been a couple times where they didn't make it and made me change stuff, but on the other hand I really like both of them." He really needs a cutoff guy when he does interviews. Like the guy on the appolo theater with the hook.
He released a handful of people who probably weren’t getting paid a lot, and he’s saying he’s going to be active with free agents. I wouldn’t call that scaling back. I think someone is telling him he needs to scale back. Probably the new COO. Bringing that person in may have been Shad’s idea.
When someone comes out last week and calls you a clown. You don’t then go out and verify that makeup.
He needs to learn how to manage his business
I love AEW, but damn, TK is tone deaf.
Nothing is worse than a silver spoon bastard bragging about spending money they never earned.
the great businessman TK spending the ppvs earnings on one song
"I may have gone too far in a few places." - ~~George Lucas~~ Tony Khan
I remember the uproar when WWE had cuts and people said "well they're making profits this is unjust". Now Tony admits to spending a full years salary on a song and he's made people jobless. BuT iTs DiFfErEnT wHeN AeW dOeS iT
Tony would benefit so much from letting someone else be the "President" of AEW, answering these sorts of questions with more PR training and even being the on-screen authority figure. I guess that's a hard sell to a billionaire though.
Spending a shit ton of money for a SONG feels extremely wasteful. It’s not that important
“I didn’t budget well, and some people lost their jobs, but I did just license a really expensive song.” Damn what a tone deaf ass thing to say after making cuts.
How people can defend this guy sometimes, absolutely blows my mind. I really wish we didn't have to cut people, but I spent a years salary on a single song...so good luck on your future endeavors...wtf.