AEW’s Tony Khan on His Love of Soapy TV & Why Timothée Chalamet Would Be a Great Wrestler

Scott Fishman February 5, 2025, 9:09 am

All Elite Wrestling takes another step toward expanding its global footprint by hosting Grand Slam Australia. The biggest stars in the company bring their talents down under for a special event to air on TNT and Max after the NBA All-Star game coverage. This will serve as a homecoming of sorts for “Timeless” Toni Storm who challenges AEW Women’s World Champion Mariah May. Meanwhile, Aussie Kyle Fletcher teams with Konosuke Takeshita to battle Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay.

Head honcho Tony Khan, who signed another TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, continues to take big swings. He and the company face a challenging few months looking to build an audience and excitement going into the big All In: Texas stadium show on July 12. That is easier said than done with an extremely competitive marketplace, but don’t tell Khan that. He remains steadfast in the belief in his vision and the roster.

Here Khan speaks about what’s to come, some of the surprisingly soapy places he finds inspiration and more.

Tony Khan

AEW has Grand Slam: Australia. What kind of challenges have you faced logistically with this show?

Tony Khan: It’s my first time going to Australia. I’m really excited about it. I’m excited to learn more about the fans, meet new people and have a great experience. It’s something I look forward to have AEW make its Australian debut in Brisbane for Saturday night, Collision, Grand Slam: Australia. I think it’s going to be a great event. We got huge matches, and I believe it will be one of the greatest Grand Slam cards in AEW’s history. It’s always one of the biggest events on the calendar. There are already some huge matches with “Timeless” Toni Storm returning to fight her protégé “The Glamour” Mariah May for the AEW Women’s World Championship in Toni’s home country. It’s a return and a homecoming.

It’s an important chapter in one of AEW’s greatest rivalries unfolding before us now. The huge tag team match with Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay teaming for the first time ever in AEW to take on the AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita and “The ProtoStar” Kyle Fletcher, who is returning to his home country of Australia. This will be one of the biggest TV events of the year. This will arguably the biggest TV card of the year.

The timing of it and it not being a pay-per-view. Was it always the plan as well?

Yes. Having this be a TV event has always been the plan. That’s something that the network wanted. It’s something the network brought to us recently as an opportunity to follow NBA All-Star Saturday. We saw it as a huge opportunity. It was a great vote of confidence for our partners at Warner Brothers Discovery. It will be one of the biggest nights of the year on TNT. It’s a great opportunity given the lead-in.

What can you tell us in terms of what AEW is working on with the network in terms of synergy and the like to get the company out there?

I expect AEW and Warner Brothers Discovery will have a strong partnership for many years to come. We have a great relationship with management there. Since 2019, we’ve been proud AEW has been a part of the Turner Sports family. This is the greatest step in our partnership, the launch of AEW on Max. The simulcast has been a huge success for everyone involved. We’ve gotten a great audience Wednesday nights on TBS and Saturday nights on TNT. Now those shows are also streaming live on Max. It has made AEW available to a new audience. We don’t have all the numbers for the Max launch, but we’ve been told that AEW is one of the top sports leagues for Max for viewership. That’s really exciting. It bodes well for the partnership for many years to come.

How would you describe the creative dynamic between you and how you take in ideas and how that is funneled through? What is your approach when it comes to collaborating and working with others including talent to bring storylines and characters to TV?

I love working with talented people. I really do enjoy the creative collaboration. It’s a really exciting time for AEW. We’ve been on a strong run of shows. We kicked off 2025 with a very successful debut on Max and had some great shows to launch this new era of simulcasting. I love pro wrestling so much. I’m very focused on the shows each week. Seeing some of our greatest stars return to the fold and adding some very exciting stories. There have been stars who have been there from the beginning and flourishing right now. In particular, the return of Kenny Omega. There was also Will Ospreay and Ricochet and many others. I think it’s a great mix of some of AEW’s greatest names ever. One of the great things about AEW is our wrestlers seizing an opportunity. I believe AEW is where the best wrestle. When they latch on to something special, it’s amazing to see how far they’ll take it.

I’m very impressed by both a long-time star and former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Ricochet, who is a relative newcomer in AEW and arrived on a big stage at All In London. I offered a new opportunity for Ricochet in recent months and am so impressed how he has seized it. In November, when we announced the Continental Classic participants and upcoming matches, I made an opening for Ricochet. What he did with it was very impressive. I thought Ricochet had one of the strongest stories coming out of the Continental Classic with Swerve Strickland. There are a lot of times it’s possible to create specific opportunities for wrestlers to thrive, but it’s really a testament to the wrestlers and their talent when they seize those opportunities and score big. I love collaborating with talent and giving them those opportunities and trying to take the best ideas. My own ideas or suggestions that people make along the way, either the staff or wrestler’s themselves and trying to build the best version of it.

“Timeless” Toni Storm and Mariah May have also been running with the ball.

One of AEW’s popular characters and greatest champions “Timeless” Toni Storm is an example of this. I’m a huge fan of old movies. Two of my favorite old films I’ve seen many times are All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard. They are two different movies with several things in common. They both feature larger-than-life actresses giving amazing performances as larger-than-life actresses. The way that Bette Davis carries herself as Margo Channing in All About Eve and the way that Gloria Swanson conducts herself as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Totally different performances, but there are some common themes of these actresses in very different places in their careers and lives. There are aspects from both I drew inspiration from.

There are aspects from the Toni and Mariah story that come from All About Eve. There are aspects of the madness of Toni Storm’ character from Sunset Boulevard right down to her butler Luther. I came in with a vision for a new character, but it’s a vision and ideas. It will never make it off the page on a screen without a transcendent talent like “Timeless” Toni Storm. Margo Channing never got to get her hands on Eve. They never had the knockdown, drag out fight. Toni Storm and Mariah May had a fantastic match at AEW All In London in England, Mariah May’s home country. Now we get the rematch in Australia, Toni Storm’s home country. I love working with Toni and Mariah. Mariah stepped into her portrayal of pretending to be a person she is not using manipulation, flattery, deception to steal the spot of “Timeless” Toni Storm. She has pulled it off. Fantastic. They are both fantastic.

What’s in your watch queue now?

I recently watched the Dune films on Max. I thought they were absolutely fantastic. I had never seen Dune or read the books. Now I’m interested to learn more about it and read the books. I thought the movies were both fantastic. I’m now starting to watch the Dune: Prophecy TV show. I’m excited to watch that on Max, my favorite place to watch TV. It’s such a blessing to have AEW on the streaming service too.

AEW

How do you think Timothée Chalamet would do in pro wrestling?

That’s a fascinating question. That guy is always surprising people. He went on ESPN College GameDay to talk about football. Before his appearance, a lot of the football fans I know were questioning if he would be the right host for ESPN College GameDay and questioning expertise on college football. He had great insights and was a very knowledgeable and entertaining football host who had some very interesting points about the upcoming games that day. I think he impressed a lot of football fans then. I would imagine if he was covering wrestling or talking about wrestling, he would probably do a great job. From what I have seen he does a great job with what he does. He is incredibly talented. Really impressive. So, I would imagine he would do very well in the ring like everything he does.

You made it a point to secure original music for your shows. What’s on your playlist?

We were able to secure some of my favorite songs recently in AEW. “Welcome to the Jungle” was the theme of AEW Worlds End. “November Rain” was the theme for AEW Full Gear. We’ve had a great collaboration recently with Guns N’ Roses, one of my favorite bands ever. I was really excited about those opportunity to have Guns N’ Roses heard in AEW.

What’s your go-to guilty pleasure show?

I went back and watched every episode of the original Dynasty a few years ago with Joan Collins and John Forsythe. It’s tremendous. What a great show. It’s definitely something of a guilty pleasure. I think of the original Dynasty, Melrose Place. You don’t have to get me on the Seinfeld polygraph to get me to admit I watch Melrose Place. I’ll admit it. I think the original Beverly Hills, 90210 is a great show. The ultimate TV show guilty pleasure for me is the original 1980s Dynasty.

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We need a Dynasty cast member at Dynasty. It only makes sense.

It’s true. Joan Collins is long overdue to make her AEW debut. That would be tremendous. Or to see her go to Japan for Wrestle Dynasty. That’s where inspiration for the show names came from.

Really?!

That’s where both names came from. Dynasty and Wrestle Dynasty. You did get some news out of me.

What’s your go-to meal on the road?

My standard meal on the road is medium rare steak and steamed broccoli. I eat that a couple of times a week on the road, usually the night of Dynamite and Collision. That is what I’ll eat.

What’s the one thing you can’t leave the house without when you’re traveling to places like Australia that would surprise people?

When I leave the house for wrestling or football, I have a book. It’s like a ledger with a lot of notes and ideas that I’ve kept and tracked. Across NFL, Premier League and AEW. Whenever I’m going on a trip for football or wrestling, I try to take that book with me. If I don’t, I’ll take notes separately some place else and put them back in the book

AEW Dynamite, Wednesdays, 8/7c, TBS and Streaming on Max

AEW Collision, Saturdays, 8/7c, TNT and Streaming on Max

AEW Grand Slam: Australia, February 15, Immediately Following NBA All-Star Game Coverage, TNT