Tony Khan Recounts How AEW Started At An LA Party

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Tony Khan has narrated the origins of AEW and how it came to be following a chance meeting with the TBS and TNT president.

Khan, a lifelong pro wrestling fan, stated in a recent interview with “Going Ringside” that he pitched the idea of a new pro wrestling company to the then-president of TBS and TNT at a party. 

“When I launched it, I was in LA. I was at a cocktail party and saw the president, at the time, of TBS and TNT. I knew him, so I went up and said, ‘With the way wrestling TV rights are going, I think it would make a lot of sense for us to start a wrestling league.’ I would put the shows on TBS and TNT,” he recalled.

Khan stated that there was a history of wrestling shows broadcast on both networks, although there hadn’t been one for nearly 20 years before AEW began. He recalled speaking to the then-president of TBS and TNT, Kevin Reilly, and had several meetings with him. He also revealed that he signed wrestlers to the then unnamed promotion, even before signing a television deal.

“In 2018, I went to the president of TBS and TNT and said, ‘Let’s look at this,’ and he took it seriously. We had a lot of meetings. It was over a year before anything really happened, but there were a lot of discussions. I started to realize there was definitely a market for this. I began signing the wrestlers. It was a major commitment and actually a bit of a gamble because I started signing wrestlers before I had the TV deal. I could feel the deal was coming and that there was a market for what AEW was going to do.”

The AEW CEO had previously discussed how becoming a pro wrestling promoter was his childhood dream, something he had envisioned back in seventh grade.

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