February 4, 2026 • 25 mins
Tony Khan sits down with the Battleground Podcast ahead of a massive AEW Dynamite! We talk about the shocking debut and TNT Title win of Tommaso Ciampa, and the latest on Britt Baker’s return. Tony also opens up about the future of ROH, the AEW women's division, and reflects on the legendary career of AJ Styles.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's a Battle.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
Brown, Battle Brown, Battle Brown podcast. You know, I got
to sit here and reflect for a second before we
get into our interview with Tony Kahan.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, what's going on? It's battle Uh here we are.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
This is episode number three hundred and fifty five. Now,
I will tell you when I started this podcast back
in twenty eighteen, I didn't start it as a wrestling podcast.
I started it as a podcast to just put up
interviews from my radio show. And you know, we've had
when we first started out, like Hangman Adam Page was
(00:41):
the first guest we ever had, and at the time
he was the Ring of Honor six man tag champ
with the Young Bucks. And then it went from Hangman
Adam Page to God Rest his Soul, Rip, Bob Saggatt
to John love It. I mean, we had everybody on here, right,
and then eventually we're like.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Hey, let's just stick to wrestling.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And obviously it's turned out pretty well because here we
are episode three hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Which is just crazy to think about.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
That Royal rumble over the weekend. Yeah, that was interesting.
I saw where ww's like, we're not gonna put led
lights on our seats anymore. I will say that it's
cool of a concept as it is. I don't know
if I would have put the lights on it, because
it did look very empty in the stadium. Now we
all saw the photos of everything, and there were people
(01:29):
there the lights.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It was not good on TV.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
But yeah, obviously Royal rumble over the weekend, Lived Morgan
winning it for the women, Roman Reigns winning it for
the men's, So it should be fun to see how
that all plays out. Of course, so we're getting Roman
and seeing Punk at WrestleMania, which will be fun. And
of course I think there was like some reports out
there saying that they're not gonna do the whole theatrical thing.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
They're gonna go old school where they're actually gonna show
up on.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Raw every week and cut promos on each other, which
to be completely think that's what we need. So it'll
definitely be fun to watch those two go at it
on the MIC and then seeing them headline WrestleMania. Also
another news last night, former guests of the show Joe
(02:15):
Hendry picking up a big win, winning the vacated NXT
Championship in that brutal ladder match it was down to
him and Ricky Saints, and he shoved Ricky Sanks Saints
off the ladder and Joe Hendry picked up the win
last night. Although I did say his name, he hasn't
appeared just yet, but if you go back a few episodes,
(02:38):
he'll appear on your podcast feed. All right, enough of
me chit chatting by myself, Let's bring in our special
guest today, Tony.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Kah, what's up you guys.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
Today I am joined by my co host, the president
of All Elate Wrestling, Tony kh I told you last
time you were here, because you've been on here for
so many times, you're now a co host, so.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I appreciate it. It's great to be on with you again.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I always love being on the Battleground with you, and
thanks for having me on today. It's gonna be a
great AW Wednesday night, Dynamite tonight. I'm very excited and
it's always great to be on your show.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's always great to have you and of course aw
Dynamite tonight. I mean you look at the photo right
there behind you. That's obviously a dream match. A lot
of people want to talk about what's it like now
being able to have Andrade back on TV and being
able to put him in matches like this with Kenny tonight.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
This is a huge match with massive stakes. I'm so
excited for tonight's show. It is so great to have
Andradi Ledlo back in AEW. I think Andrade is better
than ever right now, and it's so great to have
Kenny Omega in top form. When Kenny Omega is firing
on all cylinders, Aw's at its best, and it's great
(03:54):
to have Kenny at his best, Androtti at his best,
and it's gonna be an awesome dynamite. There's a lot
of really great things happening in AW right now, So
it's a great time for me to come back to
the Battleground with a huge Wednesday night dynamite plan for tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, and you talk about the best, and we all
know that AWS were the best wrestle and one of
the big signings that you recently got to Maso Champa
which shocked everybody coming to AW and literally second night
there when's the TNT title, So quickly walk us through it.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
How did it all come together?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Kind of behind the scenes, pulled the curtains back and
why put the title on him so quickly?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I thought it was a very exciting thing. It was
an awesome collision this past Saturday. After a really great
Dynamite last Wednesday, I thought we followed up with a
really tremendous live collision. It was our last collision in
the Dallas residency. We were in Arlington around the Dallas
Metroplex and we'd had these great events and because Dallas
(04:54):
had been hit hard with the weather and the fans
were unable to come out, you know, a lot of
events got canceled, and for us, we ended up moving
the Collision show two saturdays ago.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So I wanted to give the fans something really really special.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
And when Champa became available, I thought that was such
an exciting development. He's such a great wrestler, he has
great history and ring of honor, and he's never been
in AW and talk about somebody who is a fantastic wrestler.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
AW is where the best wrestle.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So when the top free agents become available, I've always
wanted to sign them, whether it's somebody who's never wrestled
in AW before, like Tomaso Champa the new TNT Champion
after this fantastic match he had versus Mark Briscoe for
the TNT title.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I thought that was just outstanding.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And whether it's a new free agent, somebody that's never
been here like Champa, or somebody coming back like Andradi
Ledlo making his return to aw and somebody that's wrestling
I believe again better than ever going into their match
against one of the best wrestlers ever. In my opinion,
Kenny Omega and I cannot wait for this Dynamite Tonight.
(06:06):
It's gonna be a fantastic show. We're coming off this
great collision. Like you mentioned, we have a new TNT champion,
and tonight on TBS and you can stream it on
HBO Max. This is the kind of wrestling show I've
always wanted to put on TBS, to have such a
stack lineup of big matches like we have tonight, And
certainly when you talk about huge matches, I'm so excited
(06:30):
for Kenny Omega versus Andrade Ledelo and a lot more
to talk about, a lot more to look forward to
on Dynamite Tonight. And I always love being on the
show with you, Tim, Thanks for having me on. You've
always been somebody that's given AW great coverage and give
us a chance to talk about why all elite wrestling
is where the best wrestle and even coming to the
show with your son and sit in ringside as a
(06:52):
fan and making a fan out of your son. I
always love being on your show. So thanks for having
me on to talk about AW tonight.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Absolutely, and we always love having you on here, and
it's always always great getting to talk with you. And
you know, we've talked about this and everybody from the
roster that's been on, they have hammered it home. AW
is where the best wrestle and one of the best
wrestlers I would say of all time.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You and I both could probably agree. Is Sting?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Something really cool recently that I saw on social media
is Sting's son, Steve Borden using Sting's old WCW theme
song that Tobo charged. How did that come about and
who made that call?
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I wanted to use that song. It was my idea.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
It's a song that was in a library and we
made a deal to get a certain number of plays.
We haven't used it on air yet, but we have
a deal to use turbo Charge which is a track
that was available through a music library, and I love
licensing great music and that's one of my favorite songs
for my childhood. I think about it all the time,
and I thought it would be really cool for Steven
(07:56):
to come out to it. And Steven still has never
been on a you TV. But he's somebody we're developing,
and I have so much respect for Steven. He's a
rising young wrestler. He played college football at Kentucky. I
followed his football career and now I'm proud to say
we're working on developing him as a pro wrestler for
AEW again. AW we have the greatest wrestlers in the
(08:19):
world and one of the all time greats. Somebody who
was undefeated in AW is sting and absolutely Stephen in
developing him for the future is a huge priority to
me and everyone in AW.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And you talk about developing that young talent, and of
course you know there was talks about you know, Edge
or Adam Copeland and FTR kind of opening up a
school in the Carolina.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Is some other stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
How does one develop, you know, an up becoming wrestler
if you don't have like kind of like a home
base like a training facility.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Well, we have training facilities, and we've had Steven stay
for extended periods. There's great aw First of all, that
Adam Copeland and FTR school. I've always been really excited
about the idea of that. It's a really personal set
of differences that's happened with FTR and Adam Copeland. When
(09:14):
you bring somebody's family into it, when you attack someone's family,
that changes things. And there's a lot of animosity between
FTR and Adam Copeland, so that really makes it untenable
for them to go do this school, which I was
so excited about. I think that would be another great
place in Ashville, North Carolina where we have these great
wrestlers if they could ever get back on the same page.
(09:37):
Right now, I don't know if that'll ever be possible,
but certainly you have these great wrestlers there in that base.
In the New York area, Pat Buck is a great trainer.
In Atlanta, QT Marshall trains, Dustin Rhodes is training wrestlers
in Texas. We have some of the best trainers developing
wrestlers in the different areas. So absolutely the wrestlers have
(09:59):
gone there. Benefited. Steven's done a lot of training and
development work with US in Texas, but also in going
Georgia in the Nightmare Factory and working with Qt's wrestled
against QT, and for me, absolutely, I think that having
a base is important, but that's also why it's important
to wrestle in front of crowds and different crowds. So
(10:19):
we've had Steven wrestling dart matches right now and working
on building him for the future because he's somebody I
think has tremendous star potential, certainly the great genetics, but
somebody I followed as an athlete. Again going back to
when he was a college football player, he played tight
end at Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
He was very good in the blocking.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
They didn't give him chances in the past game as
much because they didn't throw the ball back then to
the tight end as much. But there's some great people
there at University of Kentucky, at the program at the time.
There's been some great people since, including Liam Cohen, head
coach of the Jeguars. And Steven certainly was a great
football and that's actually when I first met him with
(11:02):
scouting football and have stayed in touch with him over
the years, and he's a tremendous athlete, and I'm really
glad that he wants to get in the ring and wrestle,
So something I'm excited about for the future of AW.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Absolutely, I think we're all excited, especially with that lineage
of who his dad is. Obviously, it's gonna be fun
to watch him come into who Steve Borden is and
jump out of his dad's shadow for sure. Now when
you look at the roster for aew, it's stacked from
top to bottom, both men and women's division, and you know,
(11:36):
as as the guy that holds the pencil to try
to figure out who gets what TV time. I know
that you have said before and everybody's asked about about
Britt Baker's return at some point soon, just trying to
kind of get her into the fold with a lot
of storylines that are going on right now. Any any
update on potentially when we could see her back or
(11:57):
you asked, I really like Britt a lot, and I
think there's there's so many exciting things happening in the
women's division, So Britt somebody I really like and respect
a lot and definitely think.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
As we've evolved with more tag teams and singles wrestling
opportunities now across multiple shows. Now that we have four
hours of TV with Dynamite and Collision, I think there's
gonna be more and more opportunities. You're seeing them signing
a lot more young wrestlers, and BRIT's still somebody very
highly regarded and respected here in AW. So I would
(12:30):
expect to see Britt back in AW. I just don't
want to say when.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Well, we'll just have to tune into AW every week, Dynamite, Collision,
everywhere else in between, because you never know when she's
gonna pop up, Because I mean, Tony's not gonna tell us, hey,
BRIT's gonna be there tonight.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You just have to watch the programming.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
It's good to be a good thing for everybody when
Britt returns, and I think it's going to be very
very good in terms of for AW right now. When
you look at how the roster has evolved, there's more
and more fresh matches, there's a lot more people to
wrestle and fresh rivalries, chance to revisit old rivalries. But
certainly the women's division, I think we've grown so much
(13:07):
and added new stars in the past year alone. So
many great young wrestlers that have come into AW. So
I think there's going to be more fresh matchups and
rivalries and Britt somebody I would absolutely love to have
back in AW soon.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Oh man, It'll be an exciting time for sure. I
can't wait to hear that pop on TV when it happens.
You know the Fight Forever game that was a big
cultural win for AEW putting a wrestling video game out there?
Is there any talks because I knew that there was
some rumblings online. Is there talks for maybe another AW
video game or is it kind of more focusing on
(13:43):
the real wrestling and not the video game wrestling?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Well, at some point I would like to have more games,
and we have released games on different platforms, mobile games,
and I think that absolutely there's going to be more
and more opportunities.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I really your point.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I try to focus as much as possible on the wrestling.
It's a wrestling show. We put on wrestling shows, live
events and TV every week, including tonight eight pm Eastern,
seven pm Central. Where you're located, tim It'll be on
tonight hours from now and every Wednesday night and Saturday night.
We always try to put on the very best show,
(14:23):
and I think we're off to a great start in
twenty six, and by focusing on the wrestling and really
making that the thing I care about the most, the
thing I look at the most. Making the shows good,
the rivalry strong, and putting on great pay per view
events is something we've always really succeeded at, and our
TV shows I think have been more consistently excellent in
(14:45):
the past couple of years than ever before. Now that
we have this really great thing with Wednesday night TBS
and Saturday night TNT and all the shows being available
on HBO Max, we've really settled in this past last
year and the accolades that have poured in for twenty
twenty five here in the beginning of twenty six, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
It's such an incredible thing. And to have.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Huge outlet like Sports Illustrated choose AW as the best
pro wrestling promotion in the world, and to have the
top outlets like ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Yahoo all picking
AW events as their favorite event of the year. But
then you've got for just as an example, ESPN said
(15:32):
they thought the best wrestling show all year was AW Revolution.
We've had Sports Illustrated and numerous outlets saying that they
thought the best event all year was Double or Nothing,
and then we've had the New York Post, Yahoo Fight Full,
so many wrestling sources saying aw All in Texas was
(15:54):
the best wrestling event of the year. So for me,
I think that really the kind of coverage and the
kind of success we.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Had in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Being so positive, I think that in twenty twenty six
we set a really high standard for ourselves, and so far,
I think we're off to a great start. Revolution is
going to be an awesome show March fifteenth on pay
per view. We're heading to Grand Slam Australia coming up
in a few weeks, and tonight we've got this massive,
(16:25):
massive show.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's a stack lineup.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
In addition to the Kenny Omega Andreda Alitolo match we
talked about, I'm very excited to have MJF in an
eliminator match against Brody King tonight. That's going to be
tremendous and a lot more to look forward to on
this show as well.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I have to say.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Tim coming in since I saw you very recently, just
in the past couple months in person at the show
and that was I believe Thanksgiving Eve Boy. There's been
a lot of them amazing stuff since then. It's you know,
it wasn't that long ago that I saw you around
the holidays, and think about all the great things that
(17:07):
have happened. John Moxley was victorious and what I think
might have been the greatest wrestling tournament I've ever seen
in my life, the Continental Classic. In twenty twenty five,
we've got this fascinating World Championship scene MJF tonight in
the eliminator match with Brody King. Everybody's chasing this opportunity
(17:27):
to go to Revolution and fight whoever the champion is.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
MJF.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Possibly could be Brody King getting a title shot after
tonight as well. So many things happening in AW and
big time rivalries, big time matches, And I have to say, Tim,
you've been here ringside literally at times and certainly figuratively.
(17:53):
I think I've probably been on your show more times
than any other guest over the years, and I really
appreciate that. I think that you've always been so kind
to me in AW and however we can repay the
kindness to you. I'm really grateful for the chances you
give me to talk about our shows, including the one
tonight on TBS.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Absolutely, and it's always, like I said, always an honor
or privilege to have you on the show. I mean,
you've taken very good care of us every time a
AW has been in here.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
And you know, and and you're always good.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
And Liam's always asking about, you know, what's Tony doing?
And he like tells me, if hey, can you can
you email him I have an idea for a match,
And I'm like, sure, I'll eat My nine year old
wants to email Tony a match idea, so I'll tell
him that he's been practicing with his wrestling figures.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But again, we thank you for for everything that you
do for us.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
And you know, with with with all this new content, Dynamite, Collision,
pay per views, everything, how do you balance giving you know,
legends their due while making space for fresh stars.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I think every week we're trying to constantly give opportunities
to the very best wrestlers, which is the AAW roster.
So there's a lot of great people here and absolutely
every week I'm trying to put on a great show
but also build matches for the future and keep a
lot of wrestlers in the mix. I think over the
(19:21):
past year you've seen so many great matches on AWTV,
featuring so many different women and men, and in twenty
twenty six, you can expect that to continue. We have
a really deep roster and we're building exciting rivalries, some
new teams being formed, and that is also one of
the reasons I'm really excited about the women's tag team
(19:43):
division now giving us more opportunities to feature more women
in more exciting matches. And also we already have the
best tag team wrestling in the world. We have for years,
great teams that have been around, like the Young Bucks
and FTR, new teams like Broddo one of the best
teams of the year, and absolutely now with some of
(20:04):
the top women's tag teams as well.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
So singles and tag teams.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Aw is where the best wrestle and I'm excited about
giving more and more young wrestlers these opportunities. So I've
tried to add a lot of great young wrestlers to
the roster in the past year and particularly in recent months,
and we're giving them opportunities, but also giving great chances
to the veteran stars, including some of them that have
been in aw from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Right absolutely, And of course you said you've got You've
got multiple times a week that you can watch wrestling
when it comes to aew.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
You got Wednesday night Dynamite.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Would you can watch Tonight eight seven Central TBS, HBO Max,
you got Collision on Saturdays. You've got ROH during the
week as well. Is there any update that you could
give us about possibly an ROH TV deal? Is that
still kind of in the works or is that anything
you want to say.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I definitely am still evaluating the best opportunities for a
w and ROH strategically and trying to put on exciting events.
ROH has had so many great matches, even recently, I'm
excited about the upcoming Global Wars.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
ROH Metroplex show.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
We filmed some great stuff for ROH that's going to
be airing in the weeks to come. We have top
champions there, and I'm really proud of what we did.
I think twenty twenty five it was my favorite year
start to finish of all the ROH The first year
we had three excellent pay per views with some of
the best wrestling matches I think ever, including to me,
the FTR versus the Brisco's trilogy, probably the greatest tag
(21:35):
team wrestling trilogy ever and one of the greatest wrestling
trilogies I think ever, And what a great privilege it
was to work with the late great Jay Brisco as
well as Mark Brisco and of course FTR, the AW
World Tag Team Champions and doing these ROH shows. I
think this year we put on great pay per views
(21:57):
and also had great TV events. We had Global Wars
Mexico and huge matches all over the world, so we
did some really exciting things and the people who watched ROH,
I really believe, would tell you that a lot of
the best wrestling in the world this past year and
best events came in ROH. So I can't say exactly
when and how we'll be showing the TV to more people,
(22:19):
but there's a great platform right now with watchrooh dot
Com that's does well for us, and that's why I've
stuck with that for now until I figure out the
best solution that works for everyone, including AW. And I
think there's a lot of exciting opportunities for AW and
ROH coming up absolutely.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And of course again tonight, AW Dynamite Stack Card You've
got Kenny Omega Andrade Alilalo, you got MJF and Brody King,
and you know, at the end of the day, we're
all wrestling fans. I know you're a wrestling fan. And
recently we saw the retirement of one AJ Styles, who
has a lot of history with a lot of the
roster that you have there with them. This is somebody
(23:00):
like AJ Styles mean to wrestling in general.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Oh, I'm a huge fan of AJ Styles. I think
he's incredible. He's had great matches all over the world.
We were just talking about ROH. He did some incredible
things in ROH that are a part of our library,
and also with our partners at New Japan Pro Wrestling,
he was involved in some of the all time greatest matches.
His match with Minoro Suzuki is one of my all
(23:24):
time favorites, and he's had great matches with multiple companies
all over the world. He's never been in aw before,
but he certainly with a lot of the promotions we
work with, and of course in ROH. He has a
great history and for me, he's one of my all
time favorites. Just personally in my opinion, I think he's
one of the greatest wrestlers ever, so I have only
(23:44):
the highest praise for AJ styles.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Absolutely well, Tony.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I don't want to take up too much your time
because you got to get ready for AW Dynamite tonight
with that stacked lineup before we let you go. Anything
you want to say to the fans right now that
are watching and listen to this right now.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I really appreciate you. Thank you to everybody who supports AW.
We've got a great, great show coming up tonight. Thank
you again. Tim gave a great plug. It's at eight
pm Eastern or seven pm Central and your time zone,
Tim at tonight, it's on TBS. You can stream it
on HBO Max. Just to reiterate the things he said
and promote the show. But outside of the promotion of
(24:21):
the show, I'm very grateful to you, Tim, and to
everybody at the Battleground and to all the listeners that
you've had me on so many times. Your loyal listeners
all over the country have really been great supporters of
AAW and I really appreciate all these opportunities, and I
hope to see you again very soon here on the show,
but also in person at the AEW events.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Absolutely, Tony. It's an honor and privileged to have you
on the show.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Looking forward to watching aw Dynemite tonight again eight seven Central, TBS,
HBO Max and of course Collision every Saturday night. Tony again,
it's great to have you on and look forward to
talking to you again, Sir, you too, Thanks again, Tim
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's a Battle.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
Brown, Battle Brown, Battle Brown podcast. You know, I got
to sit here and reflect for a second before we
get into our interview with Tony Kahan.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, what's going on? It's battle Uh here we are.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
This is episode number three hundred and fifty five. Now,
I will tell you when I started this podcast back
in twenty eighteen, I didn't start it as a wrestling podcast.
I started it as a podcast to just put up
interviews from my radio show. And you know, we've had
when we first started out, like Hangman Adam Page was
(00:41):
the first guest we ever had, and at the time
he was the Ring of Honor six man tag champ
with the Young Bucks. And then it went from Hangman
Adam Page to God Rest his Soul, Rip, Bob Saggatt
to John love It. I mean, we had everybody on here, right,
and then eventually we're like.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Hey, let's just stick to wrestling.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And obviously it's turned out pretty well because here we
are episode three hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Which is just crazy to think about.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
That Royal rumble over the weekend. Yeah, that was interesting.
I saw where ww's like, we're not gonna put led
lights on our seats anymore. I will say that it's
cool of a concept as it is. I don't know
if I would have put the lights on it, because
it did look very empty in the stadium. Now we
all saw the photos of everything, and there were people
(01:29):
there the lights.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It was not good on TV.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
But yeah, obviously Royal rumble over the weekend, Lived Morgan
winning it for the women, Roman Reigns winning it for
the men's, So it should be fun to see how
that all plays out. Of course, so we're getting Roman
and seeing Punk at WrestleMania, which will be fun. And
of course I think there was like some reports out
there saying that they're not gonna do the whole theatrical thing.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
They're gonna go old school where they're actually gonna show
up on.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Raw every week and cut promos on each other, which
to be completely think that's what we need. So it'll
definitely be fun to watch those two go at it
on the MIC and then seeing them headline WrestleMania. Also
another news last night, former guests of the show Joe
(02:15):
Hendry picking up a big win, winning the vacated NXT
Championship in that brutal ladder match it was down to
him and Ricky Saints, and he shoved Ricky Sanks Saints
off the ladder and Joe Hendry picked up the win
last night. Although I did say his name, he hasn't
appeared just yet, but if you go back a few episodes,
(02:38):
he'll appear on your podcast feed. All right, enough of
me chit chatting by myself, Let's bring in our special
guest today, Tony.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Kah, what's up you guys.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
Today I am joined by my co host, the president
of All Elate Wrestling, Tony kh I told you last
time you were here, because you've been on here for
so many times, you're now a co host, so.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I appreciate it. It's great to be on with you again.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I always love being on the Battleground with you, and
thanks for having me on today. It's gonna be a
great AW Wednesday night, Dynamite tonight. I'm very excited and
it's always great to be on your show.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's always great to have you and of course aw
Dynamite tonight. I mean you look at the photo right
there behind you. That's obviously a dream match. A lot
of people want to talk about what's it like now
being able to have Andrade back on TV and being
able to put him in matches like this with Kenny tonight.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
This is a huge match with massive stakes. I'm so
excited for tonight's show. It is so great to have
Andradi Ledlo back in AEW. I think Andrade is better
than ever right now, and it's so great to have
Kenny Omega in top form. When Kenny Omega is firing
on all cylinders, Aw's at its best, and it's great
(03:54):
to have Kenny at his best, Androtti at his best,
and it's gonna be an awesome dynamite. There's a lot
of really great things happening in AW right now, So
it's a great time for me to come back to
the Battleground with a huge Wednesday night dynamite plan for tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, and you talk about the best, and we all
know that AWS were the best wrestle and one of
the big signings that you recently got to Maso Champa
which shocked everybody coming to AW and literally second night
there when's the TNT title, So quickly walk us through it.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
How did it all come together?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Kind of behind the scenes, pulled the curtains back and
why put the title on him so quickly?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I thought it was a very exciting thing. It was
an awesome collision this past Saturday. After a really great
Dynamite last Wednesday, I thought we followed up with a
really tremendous live collision. It was our last collision in
the Dallas residency. We were in Arlington around the Dallas
Metroplex and we'd had these great events and because Dallas
(04:54):
had been hit hard with the weather and the fans
were unable to come out, you know, a lot of
events got canceled, and for us, we ended up moving
the Collision show two saturdays ago.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So I wanted to give the fans something really really special.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
And when Champa became available, I thought that was such
an exciting development. He's such a great wrestler, he has
great history and ring of honor, and he's never been
in AW and talk about somebody who is a fantastic wrestler.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
AW is where the best wrestle.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
So when the top free agents become available, I've always
wanted to sign them, whether it's somebody who's never wrestled
in AW before, like Tomaso Champa the new TNT Champion
after this fantastic match he had versus Mark Briscoe for
the TNT title.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I thought that was just outstanding.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And whether it's a new free agent, somebody that's never
been here like Champa, or somebody coming back like Andradi
Ledlo making his return to aw and somebody that's wrestling
I believe again better than ever going into their match
against one of the best wrestlers ever. In my opinion,
Kenny Omega and I cannot wait for this Dynamite Tonight.
(06:06):
It's gonna be a fantastic show. We're coming off this
great collision. Like you mentioned, we have a new TNT champion,
and tonight on TBS and you can stream it on
HBO Max. This is the kind of wrestling show I've
always wanted to put on TBS, to have such a
stack lineup of big matches like we have tonight, And
certainly when you talk about huge matches, I'm so excited
(06:30):
for Kenny Omega versus Andrade Ledelo and a lot more
to talk about, a lot more to look forward to
on Dynamite Tonight. And I always love being on the
show with you, Tim, Thanks for having me on. You've
always been somebody that's given AW great coverage and give
us a chance to talk about why all elite wrestling
is where the best wrestle and even coming to the
show with your son and sit in ringside as a
(06:52):
fan and making a fan out of your son. I
always love being on your show. So thanks for having
me on to talk about AW tonight.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Absolutely, and we always love having you on here, and
it's always always great getting to talk with you. And
you know, we've talked about this and everybody from the
roster that's been on, they have hammered it home. AW
is where the best wrestle and one of the best
wrestlers I would say of all time.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You and I both could probably agree. Is Sting?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Something really cool recently that I saw on social media
is Sting's son, Steve Borden using Sting's old WCW theme
song that Tobo charged. How did that come about and
who made that call?
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I wanted to use that song. It was my idea.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
It's a song that was in a library and we
made a deal to get a certain number of plays.
We haven't used it on air yet, but we have
a deal to use turbo Charge which is a track
that was available through a music library, and I love
licensing great music and that's one of my favorite songs
for my childhood. I think about it all the time,
and I thought it would be really cool for Steven
(07:56):
to come out to it. And Steven still has never
been on a you TV. But he's somebody we're developing,
and I have so much respect for Steven. He's a
rising young wrestler. He played college football at Kentucky. I
followed his football career and now I'm proud to say
we're working on developing him as a pro wrestler for
AEW again. AW we have the greatest wrestlers in the
(08:19):
world and one of the all time greats. Somebody who
was undefeated in AW is sting and absolutely Stephen in
developing him for the future is a huge priority to
me and everyone in AW.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And you talk about developing that young talent, and of
course you know there was talks about you know, Edge
or Adam Copeland and FTR kind of opening up a
school in the Carolina.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Is some other stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
How does one develop, you know, an up becoming wrestler
if you don't have like kind of like a home
base like a training facility.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Well, we have training facilities, and we've had Steven stay
for extended periods. There's great aw First of all, that
Adam Copeland and FTR school. I've always been really excited
about the idea of that. It's a really personal set
of differences that's happened with FTR and Adam Copeland. When
(09:14):
you bring somebody's family into it, when you attack someone's family,
that changes things. And there's a lot of animosity between
FTR and Adam Copeland, so that really makes it untenable
for them to go do this school, which I was
so excited about. I think that would be another great
place in Ashville, North Carolina where we have these great
wrestlers if they could ever get back on the same page.
(09:37):
Right now, I don't know if that'll ever be possible,
but certainly you have these great wrestlers there in that base.
In the New York area, Pat Buck is a great trainer.
In Atlanta, QT Marshall trains, Dustin Rhodes is training wrestlers
in Texas. We have some of the best trainers developing
wrestlers in the different areas. So absolutely the wrestlers have
(09:59):
gone there. Benefited. Steven's done a lot of training and
development work with US in Texas, but also in going
Georgia in the Nightmare Factory and working with Qt's wrestled
against QT, and for me, absolutely, I think that having
a base is important, but that's also why it's important
to wrestle in front of crowds and different crowds. So
(10:19):
we've had Steven wrestling dart matches right now and working
on building him for the future because he's somebody I
think has tremendous star potential, certainly the great genetics, but
somebody I followed as an athlete. Again going back to
when he was a college football player, he played tight
end at Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
He was very good in the blocking.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
They didn't give him chances in the past game as
much because they didn't throw the ball back then to
the tight end as much. But there's some great people
there at University of Kentucky, at the program at the time.
There's been some great people since, including Liam Cohen, head
coach of the Jeguars. And Steven certainly was a great
football and that's actually when I first met him with
(11:02):
scouting football and have stayed in touch with him over
the years, and he's a tremendous athlete, and I'm really
glad that he wants to get in the ring and wrestle,
So something I'm excited about for the future of AW.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Absolutely, I think we're all excited, especially with that lineage
of who his dad is. Obviously, it's gonna be fun
to watch him come into who Steve Borden is and
jump out of his dad's shadow for sure. Now when
you look at the roster for aew, it's stacked from
top to bottom, both men and women's division, and you know,
(11:36):
as as the guy that holds the pencil to try
to figure out who gets what TV time. I know
that you have said before and everybody's asked about about
Britt Baker's return at some point soon, just trying to
kind of get her into the fold with a lot
of storylines that are going on right now. Any any
update on potentially when we could see her back or
(11:57):
you asked, I really like Britt a lot, and I
think there's there's so many exciting things happening in the
women's division, So Britt somebody I really like and respect
a lot and definitely think.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
As we've evolved with more tag teams and singles wrestling
opportunities now across multiple shows. Now that we have four
hours of TV with Dynamite and Collision, I think there's
gonna be more and more opportunities. You're seeing them signing
a lot more young wrestlers, and BRIT's still somebody very
highly regarded and respected here in AW. So I would
(12:30):
expect to see Britt back in AW. I just don't
want to say when.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Well, we'll just have to tune into AW every week, Dynamite, Collision,
everywhere else in between, because you never know when she's
gonna pop up, Because I mean, Tony's not gonna tell us, hey,
BRIT's gonna be there tonight.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You just have to watch the programming.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
It's good to be a good thing for everybody when
Britt returns, and I think it's going to be very
very good in terms of for AW right now. When
you look at how the roster has evolved, there's more
and more fresh matches, there's a lot more people to
wrestle and fresh rivalries, chance to revisit old rivalries. But
certainly the women's division, I think we've grown so much
(13:07):
and added new stars in the past year alone. So
many great young wrestlers that have come into AW. So
I think there's going to be more fresh matchups and
rivalries and Britt somebody I would absolutely love to have
back in AW soon.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Oh man, It'll be an exciting time for sure. I
can't wait to hear that pop on TV when it happens.
You know the Fight Forever game that was a big
cultural win for AEW putting a wrestling video game out there?
Is there any talks because I knew that there was
some rumblings online. Is there talks for maybe another AW
video game or is it kind of more focusing on
(13:43):
the real wrestling and not the video game wrestling?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Well, at some point I would like to have more games,
and we have released games on different platforms, mobile games,
and I think that absolutely there's going to be more
and more opportunities.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I really your point.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I try to focus as much as possible on the wrestling.
It's a wrestling show. We put on wrestling shows, live
events and TV every week, including tonight eight pm Eastern,
seven pm Central. Where you're located, tim It'll be on
tonight hours from now and every Wednesday night and Saturday night.
We always try to put on the very best show,
(14:23):
and I think we're off to a great start in
twenty six, and by focusing on the wrestling and really
making that the thing I care about the most, the
thing I look at the most. Making the shows good,
the rivalry strong, and putting on great pay per view
events is something we've always really succeeded at, and our
TV shows I think have been more consistently excellent in
(14:45):
the past couple of years than ever before. Now that
we have this really great thing with Wednesday night TBS
and Saturday night TNT and all the shows being available
on HBO Max, we've really settled in this past last
year and the accolades that have poured in for twenty
twenty five here in the beginning of twenty six, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
It's such an incredible thing. And to have.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Huge outlet like Sports Illustrated choose AW as the best
pro wrestling promotion in the world, and to have the
top outlets like ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Yahoo all picking
AW events as their favorite event of the year. But
then you've got for just as an example, ESPN said
(15:32):
they thought the best wrestling show all year was AW Revolution.
We've had Sports Illustrated and numerous outlets saying that they
thought the best event all year was Double or Nothing,
and then we've had the New York Post, Yahoo Fight Full,
so many wrestling sources saying aw All in Texas was
(15:54):
the best wrestling event of the year. So for me,
I think that really the kind of coverage and the
kind of success we.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Had in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Being so positive, I think that in twenty twenty six
we set a really high standard for ourselves, and so far,
I think we're off to a great start. Revolution is
going to be an awesome show March fifteenth on pay
per view. We're heading to Grand Slam Australia coming up
in a few weeks, and tonight we've got this massive,
(16:25):
massive show.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's a stack lineup.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
In addition to the Kenny Omega Andreda Alitolo match we
talked about, I'm very excited to have MJF in an
eliminator match against Brody King tonight. That's going to be
tremendous and a lot more to look forward to on
this show as well.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I have to say.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Tim coming in since I saw you very recently, just
in the past couple months in person at the show
and that was I believe Thanksgiving Eve Boy. There's been
a lot of them amazing stuff since then. It's you know,
it wasn't that long ago that I saw you around
the holidays, and think about all the great things that
(17:07):
have happened. John Moxley was victorious and what I think
might have been the greatest wrestling tournament I've ever seen
in my life, the Continental Classic. In twenty twenty five,
we've got this fascinating World Championship scene MJF tonight in
the eliminator match with Brody King. Everybody's chasing this opportunity
(17:27):
to go to Revolution and fight whoever the champion is.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
MJF.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Possibly could be Brody King getting a title shot after
tonight as well. So many things happening in AW and
big time rivalries, big time matches, And I have to say, Tim,
you've been here ringside literally at times and certainly figuratively.
(17:53):
I think I've probably been on your show more times
than any other guest over the years, and I really
appreciate that. I think that you've always been so kind
to me in AW and however we can repay the
kindness to you. I'm really grateful for the chances you
give me to talk about our shows, including the one
tonight on TBS.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Absolutely, and it's always, like I said, always an honor
or privilege to have you on the show. I mean,
you've taken very good care of us every time a
AW has been in here.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
And you know, and and you're always good.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
And Liam's always asking about, you know, what's Tony doing?
And he like tells me, if hey, can you can
you email him I have an idea for a match,
And I'm like, sure, I'll eat My nine year old
wants to email Tony a match idea, so I'll tell
him that he's been practicing with his wrestling figures.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But again, we thank you for for everything that you
do for us.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
And you know, with with with all this new content, Dynamite, Collision,
pay per views, everything, how do you balance giving you know,
legends their due while making space for fresh stars.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I think every week we're trying to constantly give opportunities
to the very best wrestlers, which is the AAW roster.
So there's a lot of great people here and absolutely
every week I'm trying to put on a great show
but also build matches for the future and keep a
lot of wrestlers in the mix. I think over the
(19:21):
past year you've seen so many great matches on AWTV,
featuring so many different women and men, and in twenty
twenty six, you can expect that to continue. We have
a really deep roster and we're building exciting rivalries, some
new teams being formed, and that is also one of
the reasons I'm really excited about the women's tag team
(19:43):
division now giving us more opportunities to feature more women
in more exciting matches. And also we already have the
best tag team wrestling in the world. We have for years,
great teams that have been around, like the Young Bucks
and FTR, new teams like Broddo one of the best
teams of the year, and absolutely now with some of
(20:04):
the top women's tag teams as well.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
So singles and tag teams.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Aw is where the best wrestle and I'm excited about
giving more and more young wrestlers these opportunities. So I've
tried to add a lot of great young wrestlers to
the roster in the past year and particularly in recent months,
and we're giving them opportunities, but also giving great chances
to the veteran stars, including some of them that have
been in aw from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Right absolutely, And of course you said you've got You've
got multiple times a week that you can watch wrestling
when it comes to aew.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
You got Wednesday night Dynamite.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Would you can watch Tonight eight seven Central TBS, HBO Max,
you got Collision on Saturdays. You've got ROH during the
week as well. Is there any update that you could
give us about possibly an ROH TV deal? Is that
still kind of in the works or is that anything
you want to say.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I definitely am still evaluating the best opportunities for a
w and ROH strategically and trying to put on exciting events.
ROH has had so many great matches, even recently, I'm
excited about the upcoming Global Wars.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
ROH Metroplex show.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
We filmed some great stuff for ROH that's going to
be airing in the weeks to come. We have top
champions there, and I'm really proud of what we did.
I think twenty twenty five it was my favorite year
start to finish of all the ROH The first year
we had three excellent pay per views with some of
the best wrestling matches I think ever, including to me,
the FTR versus the Brisco's trilogy, probably the greatest tag
(21:35):
team wrestling trilogy ever and one of the greatest wrestling
trilogies I think ever, And what a great privilege it
was to work with the late great Jay Brisco as
well as Mark Brisco and of course FTR, the AW
World Tag Team Champions and doing these ROH shows. I
think this year we put on great pay per views
(21:57):
and also had great TV events. We had Global Wars
Mexico and huge matches all over the world, so we
did some really exciting things and the people who watched ROH,
I really believe, would tell you that a lot of
the best wrestling in the world this past year and
best events came in ROH. So I can't say exactly
when and how we'll be showing the TV to more people,
(22:19):
but there's a great platform right now with watchrooh dot
Com that's does well for us, and that's why I've
stuck with that for now until I figure out the
best solution that works for everyone, including AW. And I
think there's a lot of exciting opportunities for AW and
ROH coming up absolutely.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And of course again tonight, AW Dynamite Stack Card You've
got Kenny Omega Andrade Alilalo, you got MJF and Brody King,
and you know, at the end of the day, we're
all wrestling fans. I know you're a wrestling fan. And
recently we saw the retirement of one AJ Styles, who
has a lot of history with a lot of the
roster that you have there with them. This is somebody
(23:00):
like AJ Styles mean to wrestling in general.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Oh, I'm a huge fan of AJ Styles. I think
he's incredible. He's had great matches all over the world.
We were just talking about ROH. He did some incredible
things in ROH that are a part of our library,
and also with our partners at New Japan Pro Wrestling,
he was involved in some of the all time greatest matches.
His match with Minoro Suzuki is one of my all
(23:24):
time favorites, and he's had great matches with multiple companies
all over the world. He's never been in aw before,
but he certainly with a lot of the promotions we
work with, and of course in ROH. He has a
great history and for me, he's one of my all
time favorites. Just personally in my opinion, I think he's
one of the greatest wrestlers ever, so I have only
(23:44):
the highest praise for AJ styles.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Absolutely well, Tony.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I don't want to take up too much your time
because you got to get ready for AW Dynamite tonight
with that stacked lineup before we let you go. Anything
you want to say to the fans right now that
are watching and listen to this right now.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I really appreciate you. Thank you to everybody who supports AW.
We've got a great, great show coming up tonight. Thank
you again. Tim gave a great plug. It's at eight
pm Eastern or seven pm Central and your time zone,
Tim at tonight, it's on TBS. You can stream it
on HBO Max. Just to reiterate the things he said
and promote the show. But outside of the promotion of
(24:21):
the show, I'm very grateful to you, Tim, and to
everybody at the Battleground and to all the listeners that
you've had me on so many times. Your loyal listeners
all over the country have really been great supporters of
AAW and I really appreciate all these opportunities, and I
hope to see you again very soon here on the show,
but also in person at the AEW events.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Absolutely, Tony. It's an honor and privileged to have you
on the show.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Looking forward to watching aw Dynemite tonight again eight seven Central, TBS,
HBO Max and of course Collision every Saturday night. Tony again,
it's great to have you on and look forward to
talking to you again, Sir, you too, Thanks again, Tim
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