Tony Khan On How He Feels Recent WWE Changes Help AEW

Since AEW was formed in January 2019, it has been a much different wrestling landscape, with Tony Khan's promotion offering the first legitimate competitor to WWE since WCW closed in 2001. And there's little doubt AEW has competed in the three years since, defeating NXT head to head in the ratings for the majority of a year and a half, drawing big crowds to the United Center and Arthur Ashe Stadium, and bringing in former big-time WWE stars such as Bryan Danielson and CM Punk, all while proving to be a legitimate #2 player in wrestling.

In recent weeks however, there's been another change in the wrestling landscape, with Vince McMahon retiring in disgrace amid investigations into hush payments made to former employees. McMahon's exit handed day-to-day control of the company over to Stephanie McMahon, Nick Khan, and Triple H. It's the latter figure that has drawn the most attention, with many hoping that Triple H's run as WWE Head of Creative and Head of Talent Relations will help make WWE's on-screen product more enjoyable. As it turns out, Khan is hoping for the same, and said so in a recent interview with DAZN.

"I think that's a good thing in some ways," Khan said. "If you like good wrestling, you're just more likely to want to see it because our competitor has been doing better shows recently than they had been doing...I think they've been better. It seems like that's the consensus among people who watch them. I think in general, if it's gonna get more people watching wrestling, that's probably not gonna hurt any wrestling company. And we stand to gain the most in many ways because if you're a big wrestling fan, and if you've been away...you might be saying 'Where are Chris Jericho and Bryan Danielson? CM Punk's back?'

"So as we get to an exciting point of a lot of people coming back to the company, but a lot of new fans also...hopefully they want to embrace the new wrestlers in AEW and also a lot of the big names in AEW that you'll be able to see on a regular basis, people that are on the show every week and have been going all summer like Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley. Then again, whenever CM Punk is back, there's a big setup for an undisputed championship to be crowned. I think if you're a fan of good wrestling, it'd be a great time to step back in and check it out because right now, there's a lot of good wrestling on TV."