Tony Khan On Not Promoting Impact PPV, Paying Attention To TV Ratings When Booking
AEW President Tony Khan appeared on Busted Open Radio this week. Khan discussed having longer matches on Dynamite and how he thinks it is good for the show to feature longer bouts.
"I get that not every match can be twenty or thirty minutes," Khan said. "But having some good long matches in the show every week is very important. You know, we don't three or four PPV's a month. Our PPV's are quarterly, they're big events. And I'd be remiss if I didn't tell people you get to see great, long matches (on Dynamite). You're going to see ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty, twenty five minute matches.
"Last week the Young Bucks with PAC and Fenix went close to a half an hour and had one of the best matches you're ever going to see. And that was totally free on Dynamite. And every Wednesday, on TNT, we try to offer people that promise, that guarantee that you're going to see quality wrestling on this show."
With AEW drawing their highest rating since their debut last week, Tommy Dreamer asked Khan how he put together a card for a typical Dynamite. In particular he wondered if Khan pays attention to ratings trends when putting a card together.
"Yeah, I do" Khan said. "This week with so many tough matches on the card it was really tough slotting the matches. But on the other hand, based on the way a lot of the stars are performing, you know the show rating was very consistent last week. So we've gotten to a point, on TV wrestling, I'm not really sure it really matters in the two hour card where you are as long as you get some good time. Because it's all prime time. 8 to 10 Eastern, 7 to 9 Central, these are prime hours. Anything you get in there is good. So I think everybody's really clamped onto that real estate and we were able to maintain a great audience throughout the show. There wasn't a lot of flipping in and out.
"When I was putting it together (last night's show), yeah, you want big stars in those spots. And we have people who have delivered in those spots, consistently. Hangman has gone out, time and time again, and come out and opened the show with some great, great matches and started us out with some big ratings.
"Ricky Starks, same thing. Both guys have been in segments coming out of the gate that have done a million. That's a huge, huge match for us."
Focus then turned to Impact Wrestling. Khan was asked about Impact Knockout's Champion Deonna Purrazzo's desire to wrestle members of the AEW women's division.
"Well Deonna is a great wrestler," Khan stated. "That would be great for everybody. I hadn't necessarily considered unifying those titles, but that's something to see.
Khan then brought up the upcoming Kenny Omega-Rich Swann, AEW Championship vs. Impact Championship match at Rebellion this Sunday. Here Khan decided to blur the lines between reality and storyline.
"I think people have asked me why I haven't gone out and spent a lot of money, Tommy, on promoting it (Omega-Swann)," Khan said. "And I think it's when I've gone to your guys shows (Impact) to promote cards, I've had to pay and buy ads. So that's kind of on you guys.
"But here's a little free ad from me, that this weekend Kenny Omega is coming up to Impact Wrestling. And he's going to be wrestling for the world title. It's possible Rich Swann could be the AEW World Champion next week. It's also quite possible Kenny Omega will be the Impact Champion, the AAA Champion and of course the AEW World Champion. But we'll see next week."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open Radio and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription