January 7, 2026 • 21 mins
AEW President Tony Khan joins the Battleground Podcast for a deep-dive on how AEW has evolved since Year One, what fans still get wrong about creative freedom/creative control, and the real misconceptions around competition in pro wrestling. Plus: the business vs. fan balance in AEW x New Japan and what the G1 Climax in Chicago means behind the scenes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground podcastock you'll play for all things pro.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Wrestling and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers
around podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Stop it good, What's up you guys?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
And man, what a great way to kick off twenty
twenty six with today's guests. I don't even really consider
him a guest anymore. I'm just gonna go ahead and
say he is a co host because he's been able
to show so many times.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Give it up for our co host, Tony Kahan joined
very much.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's great to see you Tim and Eli, and it
was great to see Liam earlier and great to be
here with the whole Battleground family.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I appreciate it. Y'all come into AEW.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And we were there around Nashville, and it's great to
see you now back on the.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Battleground absolutely and it's always great to have you in here.
So let's kind of jump back a few days ago
twenty twenty five between.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
AAW and the Jags.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Twenty twenty five had to have been a monster year
in the world of Tony Kahn. What has been the
most rewarding part of such a huge year for you.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, it's been a lot of great things.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's been an awesome, awesome example of everybody, including the
wrestling fans, coming together.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I think AW is where the best wrestle.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
We have the best wrestlers, this incredible staff, and we
have the incredible fans, and I think that together we've
really put together an amazing year. And it starts with
all of you, including both of you guys, the fans
really supporting AW this year. And from when I saw
you guys in January to when I saw you again
(01:47):
at the end of the year in person, when we
did shows in Tennessee, it felt like we came such
a long way. I'm here right now to pick up
the Sports Illustrated Pro Wrestling.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Promotion of the Year Award, and I'm in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The awards are tonight, and then we have a big
lineup tonight. It's the first Wednesday Night aw Dynamite of
twenty twenty six, and after such an incredible twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Five, I can't wait for tonight.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
It'll be on seven pm Central, eight pm Eastern, and
it's gonna be a fantastic show on TBS Tonight or
streaming on HBO Max. We've been having this incredible, incredible
run of shows. We've been on TBS and TNT and
kept it going for years. And adding HBO Max to
the partnership in twenty twenty five, I think was another
(02:37):
thing that really helped us take it to another level.
So it's really a great partnership between the wrestlers, the staff,
the fans, and the media partners.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And that begins with Warner Brothers Discover. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, you know, twenty twenty five is definitely gonna be
one for the books. You guys were awarded so many
end of year awards between Hangman Mail, Wrestler of the
Year no sorry, Mercedes Mercedes were Female rest of the Year.
You guys were one Promotion of the Year. But from
several publications and award of that nature, you know, is
(03:13):
it hard not the gloat? I mean, you know, is
it hard not to like really kind of soak it
in or is it more like what you guys said
at the beginning of twenty five, You're really gonna just
put your you know, head down, focus and just move
forward that way.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, in twenty twenty four, we didn't win all these awards,
and we're building things for the future. You know, you
could see things at the end of twenty twenty four,
the Death Riders and everything happening with Timeless Tony Storm
and Mariam Ay and Ricochet's evolution in aw and all
these things happening at the end of twenty twenty four.
We took these great things we had and changed some things.
(03:47):
I think at the start of twenty twenty five. And
I told you guys at the start of the year,
I was really gonna put my head down to try
to make sure twenty twenty five is our best year yet.
And I think we had certainly a fantastic year. It's
the most awards we've ever won. And to your point, Eli,
in twenty twenty four aw did not win that award.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
In twenty twenty five, we did.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
That's why I'm here at the SI Awards now and
I wasn't invited to this last year. So I think
we did put our head down and do a lot
of work. And you know, I think it's good to
be out and promote the show, and you.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Got to find a balance with humility and promotion.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
But it's think you can do both and again as
accordingly so I would be remiss if I didn't say
how grateful I am to you guys for how many
times you've had me on and your listeners for supporting AW,
watching the shows, hopefully spreading that virus that is pro
wrestling to other people trying to make wrestling.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Fans, as you Tim have clearly done with your son.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Who is a great AW fan that I saw you
guys at ringside at the All Wrestling Show in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And I think the fans have really supported us, and
we've delivered great wrest week in week out in twenty
twenty five, and it bodes really well for tonight for
Wednesday Night Dynamite. It'd be a fantastic show. It would
be a great way to start the year on.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Dynamo, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Of course, our guests on the show with us right now,
Tony Connin, you know, AW feels different now they did
in year one. So let me ask you this, how
much of that is creative growth and then how much
is it just you know, kind of learning what it
takes to run a massive company with so many big names.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
There's been a lot of progress, but I would also say,
look at any sports team, and how much change do
you see in seven years, Like any of the teams
you follow, how many of the players are still there
seven years later.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
We start to have so many of the great original.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Stars, and we've made a great push to sign the
top free agents year in, year out, and I think
we've built the best wrestling roster in the world and
changes I think mostly for the positive and certainly the
recognition we're getting for those contributions to wrestling and the
work we've done.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's very gratifying and I'm very proud of it.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I think with any sports team or any entertainment property,
and wrestling is really one of the only things that
fits in with TV and film and the excitement of
the rivalries and the way the story telling unfolds, but
also the hard hitting action and the matches, and that
wrestling begins it ends with wrestling, So it's a sport.
(06:21):
These are athletes that do this fifty two weeks a year.
I'm so proud of the aw wrestlers. They won awards,
whether it's Hangman Page Male Wrestler of the Year, Mercedes Monet,
Female Wrestler of the Year, Eli Timeless, Tony Storm did
win Best on the mic, she was best on the microphone,
Will Osprey, Best Entering Wrestler, FTR Tag Team of the Year,
(06:45):
one Tag Team of the Year on ESPN, and Sports Illustrated, Breakout.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Wrestler of the Year Kyle Fletcher.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Kyle Fletcher won, and Sports Illustrated and ESPN Monster.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, incredible year.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And to have all these great things, the rivalry between
Hangman Page and On Moxley, the rivalry of the Year,
Hangman's Redemption, the story of the Year, the show of
the Year.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Aaw double or nothing.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And to have aw voted the pro wrestling promotion of
the Year by the journalist panel at Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And I thought it was really cool when the ESPN
Awards came out yesterday on ESPN, they had, like I said,
FTR Tag Team of the Year, Kyle Fletcher, Breakout Wrestler
of the Year, Harley Cameron, Most Improved. And I also
thought it was cool they had aw Revolution.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
As the best show of the Year.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And it speaks to the quality of the company that
Revolution was ESPN's pick for the best wrestling show in
the world last year, and Sports Illustrated thought the best
wrestling show in the World was double or nothing. I
think there's a lot of people that would say the
best wrestling show last year was aw All in Texas.
So we really put out so many tremendous shows throughout
(07:57):
the year. Those three were excellent, but it's a fifty
two week year business, and we put out so many
tremendous shows, Dynamites and Collisions like Spring Breakthrough, Grand Slam Australia,
Grand Slam Mexico, and so many others, including ending the
year on such a high note with a series of
great shows like Christmas Collision and New Year's Mash. These
(08:17):
are great shows with great wrestling. So for anybody who
likes wrestling, you can watch the show every Wednesday on TBS,
every Saturday on TNT, and you can stream everything on
HBO Max too. So it's a really exciting time for
us with all the partnerships that we built worldwide, especially
here in America with HBO and TNT and TBS, and
(08:39):
with tonight being the first Dynamite of this year, coming
off the success at twenty twenty five, This will be
an awesome show tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You won't want to miss it.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, you know, one thing that's been kind of a
success story for you, like specifically, you've kind of redefined
what success looks like when it comes to dealing with
outside promotions and stuff like that. What do you thinks
the biggest misconceptions you know fans still have about competition
and wrestling.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I can't say what people necessarily conceiver don't or misconceiver don't,
but I would say I would think probably people may
not know how great a collaboration we've been able to
build with partners around the world. New Japan Pro Wrestling
has become a great partner of AW.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Wasn't that way at the start.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
JMLLL has now become a great partner of AW. These
are fantastic partners CMLL in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I'm very honored to be able to work with them.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
We have a great relationship with Salvador and everyone at CMLL,
and of course President Tanahashi just celebrated his retirement and
I was very glad that AW was able to be
represented there, and I think that he's had one of
the most fantastic careers.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And to see the massive, massive success of Wrestling.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Kingdom, headlined by mister ton Hashi's retirement match and this
epic about with Okata versus tana Hashi and the retirement
of Arroshi tana Hashi. I thought that was so special,
and I think it's a great example of some of
the great things that can be achieved to have the
massive audience that the show pulled and the huge crowd
(10:20):
live and the TV audience, very befitting tana Hashi's legendary status.
He's a great choice to be the president of New Japan.
We're very blessed to work with him, and I'm so
glad that his retirement was a great success, and I
think it's a tribute to him, and we're just blessed
to be a part of that. So we're great, great
(10:41):
partners with each other, I think with CMLA and New
Japan Pro Wrestling, and I'm very proud of those relationships.
So you know, wrestling companies around the world can work
together successfully.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You mentioned to sorry to sketch out battles.
The scudos to cml I mean, a monster year twenty
twenty five for them as well. So it looks like
all the partners are kind of right rising each other up.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
A little bit. Absolutely, it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And Claudia being the world champion. It's just incredible. Sorry,
we love Claudia over here.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, and I love Claudia. He's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Now, you mentioned working with New Japan, and one thing
that a lot of fans were excited about was they
announced that the g One Climax is coming to your
backyard of Chicago. How much has AW involved in this
and are you involved in this creatively at all? Are
you just you know, strictly letting New Japan do their
thing with this.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
New Japan may.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Come to meet to book wrestlers into the tournament, but
how they handle their business that's completely New Japan's prerogative.
But we may work together. I think there could potentially
be involvement from AW wrestlers. I believe there will be
based on our early talks. So I'm excited about that.
And the g One come in this summer do America.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Yeah, It's gonna be fun. And you know the one
thing that we love to see is, like you said,
you mentioned the collabse with CML and New Japan. How
do you balance being a fan versus being a businessman
protecting your own brand of AW with working with these
other companies.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Let's like so many other things, you know, partnerships, friendships.
In sports, you can work together and help each other
and be collaborative. And obviously you're all running your own
teams and your own leagues, but it's possible for sports
teams to be collaborative and work together, and it's possible
for wrestling leagues to work together and be collaborative. And
(12:33):
thankfully we're not playing head to head, it's not like that.
So it's great to be able to have aw having
an amazing twenty twenty five ANCR partners having in great
times too. Well.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
You mentioned the big show tonight Dynamite for first of
twenty twenty six to be on TBS.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Is that on TVs? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Okay, I was Lio Max. I was like, is this
TNT Okay, TVs and HBO Max. A couple of little highlights.
John Moxley versus Shelton Benjamin huge huge implications there. It's
a Continental Championship eliminator match, right, Bendido versus Sammy Gervara.
Now that match is for if Sammy wins, he gets
(13:17):
the world title shot.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, he says he's going to put Bandido out and
Bandido is not going to make it out of this
manch so and Sammy's got a legitimate beef with Bandido.
Bandido wasn't trying to do anything or hurt anybody, but
Rusche was injured in this match. Rushe and Sammy were
on a role in ROH and I think doing some
of the most exciting work Sammy's had in years, and
I really like the partnership now. Beast Mortos is excellent.
(13:39):
He stepped up and he's Sammy's partner, but they're both
very tied with Rouge and they both don't want to
see Bandido succeed. We saw beast Morto's take on Bandido
last week. Sammy said on Collision He's coming to take
Bandido out and take a spot.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Bendido is the most wanted man, and.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
One week from tonight he challenges MJF for the aw World.
Bandido's already the ROH World Champion. He could become the
first man ever to hold both those titles at the
same time. He would join a very, very prestigious list
of people that have held both championships. Nobody's ever held
them at the same time. Bandido is one of the
greatest wrestlers in the world. I think he's done some
(14:18):
of the best wrestling and had some of the greatest
matches and some of the gutsiest fights I've seen all
over the world in the past year, and I'm really
excited for that. So to have Bandido wrestling tonight, I
had a maximum carnage.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And MJF the AW World Champion, is in the house tonight.
We'll hear from him and for sure he'll be watching
Bandido versus Sammy Govara very closely tonight too, just like
the rest of us.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Well, and another marquee match, just to get your thoughts
on it. Hangman, Adam Page and Swear Strickland against the
Ops of Hook and Powerhouse Hobs and now this is
going to be in a lights out match. There's been
a lot of tension and turmoil between Ops and Hangman
and s coming out of the world title match and everything.
What are we looking forward to in this match.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I'm looking forward to a hard hitting fight.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
A lights out match is always an exciting thing in
AW and I think this is going to be a
wild fight and it should be a lot of fun.
I'm really looking forward to it, and I think it'll
be awesome. They're gonna beat the hell out of each other,
and Hangman and Swerve seeing them have a common goal.
(15:29):
I like both of them a lot, and it's nice
seeing them on the same page. To me, even though
I think there's still bad blood between them, they have
common enemies, and the ops are some of the most
dangerous wrestlers, obviously, after everything Hook's done to hang In
in particular, I know Hangman's wanted to get his hands
on Hook for a really long time. So I think
(15:51):
this would be an awesome match. And anytime Hangman or
Swerve are involved in a lights out match, it's very
exciting to begin with. And now they're both in the match,
that's incredible, and they'll have great competition with Hook and
Powerhouse Hobbs, who's one third of the World Trios Champions
and somebody else who's done amazing things in aw and
(16:13):
very excited about that light and.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The greatest second generation wrestler of all time.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Evidently yeah, allegedly.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Yeah, of course watch aw Dynamite Tonight eight Eesterron seven Central.
You can check it out TVs. HBO Max. It's fantastic.
Now I do want to go back for a second,
because there was a lot of aw wrestlers on Wrestle Kingdom,
and one of the things that a lot of people
on the internet were talking about was when Andrade was introduced.
(16:40):
Later in the night, commentary noted his association with All
Elite Wrestling. Is there any update with Andrade or is that?
Do you want to clear the air on that.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I'd say that bodes well, wouldn't you. I think it does.
I think it bodes very well.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
It looks like we're heading towards maybe at match with
him and Kenny Omega. So if we get that, it's
voting very well, voting very well. Oh man, it's awesome
to hear that stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And of course, you know, Tony con is our guest
here on the show, is what do you think, because
everybody likes to talk about on the internet creative freedom
and creative control, what do you think is the biggest
misconceptions fans have about that creative freedom or that creative control.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Now, there's no creative control. Only I have it. No
wrestler has that.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And there's a lot of freedom to work with the
staff and the coaches and the wrestlers together and come
up with ideas I am one of the most collaborative
people on the plan and that's how I've been able
to succeed in multiple sports and build the greatest sports
analytics engineering firm in the world, True Media, where we
(17:43):
service twenty nine out of the thirty Major League Baseball teams,
and the one team we don't have, their pitchers buy
it out of their own pocket, so and that team
shall remain nameless. And they're not anybody's favorite other than
a lot of people's.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
But you know, I had a couple of guesses.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
There are a lot of people's favorite, and there are
a lot of people's least favorite.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But they're a huge organization.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Hopefully they'll sign up with us somedays so the pictures
don't have to pass out of their own pocket.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
So we do great things.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I love working with partners all over the world, media partners,
and in wrestling, I think we are really collaborative, and
when AW is at its best, that's what it is
is the wrestlers coming in with ideas, I come in
with ideas.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
We work together, and that's what I love.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah, and we've kind of gathered that as much from
anytime we've had your roster on the show. When we've
talked about that, they're like, hey, I've got this idea.
I ran it by Tony. He tweaked it this way.
I talked about this. And that's something cool that you
don't normally hear is they could come to their boss
and collaborate and say, hey, I've got this idea and
(18:51):
you're like, I like that, but what if we do
it this way right?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And a lot of times there's ideas that are fantastic,
and I say, that's a great idea. There's other times
where maybe it isn't necessarily going to work, and there
may be something to it, but the timing or the
scheduling or something about it doesn't work. A lot of
times the wrestlers come up with great ideas, but I
have to choose what we do and don't do, and
(19:15):
within the constraints of doing two hour TV shows, there's
only so many things you can do. So I think
we've been really great about pacing the TV shows and
putting on great TV shows every Wednesday on TBS and
every Saturday on T and T, and now with everything
being on HBO Max and I really love trying to
find things, trying to find ways to work with and
(19:36):
collaborate with the wrestlers and the staff and the great
people in aw And I also come up with a
lot of ideas myself and trying to find a way
to take my own ideas and the ideas of other
people and make it all work.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
And it seems like the whole collabing and everybody working
together has paid off, because you're racking up on tons
of year end awards and looking forward to seeing more
awards happening at the end.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And even though I am a Tennessee Titans fan, I'm
cheering on the Jaguars to all this year because I
made somebody from the AFC South to win and not
the Texans.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You may be a Tennessee Titans fan, but your son
is a big jab warry, that is true.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
He is wearing his Trevor Lawrence jersey all over the place.
But again, Tony Kahan is our co host on the
show today, not special guests. Before we let you go,
is there anything you want to say to the fans
watching or listening to this right now?
Speaker 3 (20:27):
God bless you all. I really appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Thank you for taking the time to listen to Battleground
with me on it, and thank you for supporting Tim
and Eli and Liam and the old Battleground family, and
thanks for supporting aw All Elite Wrestling. We have great shows.
We do shows every Wednesday night on TBS, every Saturday
night on TNT. We were just voted the best wrestling
promotion in the world by Sports Illustrated. We've won numerous
(20:54):
awards this year from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Yahoo, all these
great publications, and the most important thing of all, we
have great support from fans. If you haven't seen the show,
or if you haven't seen it in a while, come
check out tonight.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
It's on tonight.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
It's on seven pm Central Time for you guys in Nashville,
but eight pm Eastern eight pm for a lot of
the country that listens to your show.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Now that you're a big national star.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And try and do at least Yeah, but it would
be a great show tonight, and I really appreciate you
having me on again to talk about it. I think
I've turned into like the Steve Martin of your show,
which is good.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
So I really appreciate you having me on again.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Thank you, guys, and hopefully you guys enjoy the show tonight,
AW Wednesday night, Nyeamite tonight on TBS.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
We're streaming on HBO Max.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But we just really appreciate you guys always having AW
guests on, and me in particular being here so often.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Thank you
Welcome to the Battleground podcastock you'll play for all things pro.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Wrestling and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers
around podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Stop it good, What's up you guys?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
And man, what a great way to kick off twenty
twenty six with today's guests. I don't even really consider
him a guest anymore. I'm just gonna go ahead and
say he is a co host because he's been able
to show so many times.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Give it up for our co host, Tony Kahan joined
very much.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's great to see you Tim and Eli, and it
was great to see Liam earlier and great to be
here with the whole Battleground family.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I appreciate it. Y'all come into AEW.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And we were there around Nashville, and it's great to
see you now back on the.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Battleground absolutely and it's always great to have you in here.
So let's kind of jump back a few days ago
twenty twenty five between.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
AAW and the Jags.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Twenty twenty five had to have been a monster year
in the world of Tony Kahn. What has been the
most rewarding part of such a huge year for you.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, it's been a lot of great things.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's been an awesome, awesome example of everybody, including the
wrestling fans, coming together.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I think AW is where the best wrestle.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
We have the best wrestlers, this incredible staff, and we
have the incredible fans, and I think that together we've
really put together an amazing year. And it starts with
all of you, including both of you guys, the fans
really supporting AW this year. And from when I saw
you guys in January to when I saw you again
(01:47):
at the end of the year in person, when we
did shows in Tennessee, it felt like we came such
a long way. I'm here right now to pick up
the Sports Illustrated Pro Wrestling.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Promotion of the Year Award, and I'm in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The awards are tonight, and then we have a big
lineup tonight. It's the first Wednesday Night aw Dynamite of
twenty twenty six, and after such an incredible twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Five, I can't wait for tonight.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
It'll be on seven pm Central, eight pm Eastern, and
it's gonna be a fantastic show on TBS Tonight or
streaming on HBO Max. We've been having this incredible, incredible
run of shows. We've been on TBS and TNT and
kept it going for years. And adding HBO Max to
the partnership in twenty twenty five, I think was another
(02:37):
thing that really helped us take it to another level.
So it's really a great partnership between the wrestlers, the staff,
the fans, and the media partners.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And that begins with Warner Brothers Discover. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, you know, twenty twenty five is definitely gonna be
one for the books. You guys were awarded so many
end of year awards between Hangman Mail, Wrestler of the
Year no sorry, Mercedes Mercedes were Female rest of the Year.
You guys were one Promotion of the Year. But from
several publications and award of that nature, you know, is
(03:13):
it hard not the gloat? I mean, you know, is
it hard not to like really kind of soak it
in or is it more like what you guys said
at the beginning of twenty five, You're really gonna just
put your you know, head down, focus and just move
forward that way.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, in twenty twenty four, we didn't win all these awards,
and we're building things for the future. You know, you
could see things at the end of twenty twenty four,
the Death Riders and everything happening with Timeless Tony Storm
and Mariam Ay and Ricochet's evolution in aw and all
these things happening at the end of twenty twenty four.
We took these great things we had and changed some things.
(03:47):
I think at the start of twenty twenty five. And
I told you guys at the start of the year,
I was really gonna put my head down to try
to make sure twenty twenty five is our best year yet.
And I think we had certainly a fantastic year. It's
the most awards we've ever won. And to your point, Eli,
in twenty twenty four aw did not win that award.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
In twenty twenty five, we did.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
That's why I'm here at the SI Awards now and
I wasn't invited to this last year. So I think
we did put our head down and do a lot
of work. And you know, I think it's good to
be out and promote the show, and you.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Got to find a balance with humility and promotion.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
But it's think you can do both and again as
accordingly so I would be remiss if I didn't say
how grateful I am to you guys for how many
times you've had me on and your listeners for supporting AW,
watching the shows, hopefully spreading that virus that is pro
wrestling to other people trying to make wrestling.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Fans, as you Tim have clearly done with your son.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Who is a great AW fan that I saw you
guys at ringside at the All Wrestling Show in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And I think the fans have really supported us, and
we've delivered great wrest week in week out in twenty
twenty five, and it bodes really well for tonight for
Wednesday Night Dynamite. It'd be a fantastic show. It would
be a great way to start the year on.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Dynamo, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Of course, our guests on the show with us right now,
Tony Connin, you know, AW feels different now they did
in year one. So let me ask you this, how
much of that is creative growth and then how much
is it just you know, kind of learning what it
takes to run a massive company with so many big names.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
There's been a lot of progress, but I would also say,
look at any sports team, and how much change do
you see in seven years, Like any of the teams
you follow, how many of the players are still there
seven years later.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
We start to have so many of the great original.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Stars, and we've made a great push to sign the
top free agents year in, year out, and I think
we've built the best wrestling roster in the world and
changes I think mostly for the positive and certainly the
recognition we're getting for those contributions to wrestling and the
work we've done.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's very gratifying and I'm very proud of it.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I think with any sports team or any entertainment property,
and wrestling is really one of the only things that
fits in with TV and film and the excitement of
the rivalries and the way the story telling unfolds, but
also the hard hitting action and the matches, and that
wrestling begins it ends with wrestling, So it's a sport.
(06:21):
These are athletes that do this fifty two weeks a year.
I'm so proud of the aw wrestlers. They won awards,
whether it's Hangman Page Male Wrestler of the Year, Mercedes Monet,
Female Wrestler of the Year, Eli Timeless, Tony Storm did
win Best on the mic, she was best on the microphone,
Will Osprey, Best Entering Wrestler, FTR Tag Team of the Year,
(06:45):
one Tag Team of the Year on ESPN, and Sports Illustrated, Breakout.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Wrestler of the Year Kyle Fletcher.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Kyle Fletcher won, and Sports Illustrated and ESPN Monster.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, incredible year.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And to have all these great things, the rivalry between
Hangman Page and On Moxley, the rivalry of the Year,
Hangman's Redemption, the story of the Year, the show of
the Year.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Aaw double or nothing.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And to have aw voted the pro wrestling promotion of
the Year by the journalist panel at Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And I thought it was really cool when the ESPN
Awards came out yesterday on ESPN, they had, like I said,
FTR Tag Team of the Year, Kyle Fletcher, Breakout Wrestler
of the Year, Harley Cameron, Most Improved. And I also
thought it was cool they had aw Revolution.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
As the best show of the Year.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And it speaks to the quality of the company that
Revolution was ESPN's pick for the best wrestling show in
the world last year, and Sports Illustrated thought the best
wrestling show in the World was double or nothing. I
think there's a lot of people that would say the
best wrestling show last year was aw All in Texas.
So we really put out so many tremendous shows throughout
(07:57):
the year. Those three were excellent, but it's a fifty
two week year business, and we put out so many
tremendous shows, Dynamites and Collisions like Spring Breakthrough, Grand Slam Australia,
Grand Slam Mexico, and so many others, including ending the
year on such a high note with a series of
great shows like Christmas Collision and New Year's Mash. These
(08:17):
are great shows with great wrestling. So for anybody who
likes wrestling, you can watch the show every Wednesday on TBS,
every Saturday on TNT, and you can stream everything on
HBO Max too. So it's a really exciting time for
us with all the partnerships that we built worldwide, especially
here in America with HBO and TNT and TBS, and
(08:39):
with tonight being the first Dynamite of this year, coming
off the success at twenty twenty five, This will be
an awesome show tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You won't want to miss it.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, you know, one thing that's been kind of a
success story for you, like specifically, you've kind of redefined
what success looks like when it comes to dealing with
outside promotions and stuff like that. What do you thinks
the biggest misconceptions you know fans still have about competition
and wrestling.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I can't say what people necessarily conceiver don't or misconceiver don't,
but I would say I would think probably people may
not know how great a collaboration we've been able to
build with partners around the world. New Japan Pro Wrestling
has become a great partner of AW.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Wasn't that way at the start.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
JMLLL has now become a great partner of AW. These
are fantastic partners CMLL in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I'm very honored to be able to work with them.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
We have a great relationship with Salvador and everyone at CMLL,
and of course President Tanahashi just celebrated his retirement and
I was very glad that AW was able to be
represented there, and I think that he's had one of
the most fantastic careers.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And to see the massive, massive success of Wrestling.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Kingdom, headlined by mister ton Hashi's retirement match and this
epic about with Okata versus tana Hashi and the retirement
of Arroshi tana Hashi. I thought that was so special,
and I think it's a great example of some of
the great things that can be achieved to have the
massive audience that the show pulled and the huge crowd
(10:20):
live and the TV audience, very befitting tana Hashi's legendary status.
He's a great choice to be the president of New Japan.
We're very blessed to work with him, and I'm so
glad that his retirement was a great success, and I
think it's a tribute to him, and we're just blessed
to be a part of that. So we're great, great
(10:41):
partners with each other, I think with CMLA and New
Japan Pro Wrestling, and I'm very proud of those relationships.
So you know, wrestling companies around the world can work
together successfully.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You mentioned to sorry to sketch out battles.
The scudos to cml I mean, a monster year twenty
twenty five for them as well. So it looks like
all the partners are kind of right rising each other up.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
A little bit. Absolutely, it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And Claudia being the world champion. It's just incredible. Sorry,
we love Claudia over here.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, and I love Claudia. He's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Now, you mentioned working with New Japan, and one thing
that a lot of fans were excited about was they
announced that the g One Climax is coming to your
backyard of Chicago. How much has AW involved in this
and are you involved in this creatively at all? Are
you just you know, strictly letting New Japan do their
thing with this.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
New Japan may.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Come to meet to book wrestlers into the tournament, but
how they handle their business that's completely New Japan's prerogative.
But we may work together. I think there could potentially
be involvement from AW wrestlers. I believe there will be
based on our early talks. So I'm excited about that.
And the g One come in this summer do America.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Yeah, It's gonna be fun. And you know the one
thing that we love to see is, like you said,
you mentioned the collabse with CML and New Japan. How
do you balance being a fan versus being a businessman
protecting your own brand of AW with working with these
other companies.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Let's like so many other things, you know, partnerships, friendships.
In sports, you can work together and help each other
and be collaborative. And obviously you're all running your own
teams and your own leagues, but it's possible for sports
teams to be collaborative and work together, and it's possible
for wrestling leagues to work together and be collaborative. And
(12:33):
thankfully we're not playing head to head, it's not like that.
So it's great to be able to have aw having
an amazing twenty twenty five ANCR partners having in great
times too. Well.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
You mentioned the big show tonight Dynamite for first of
twenty twenty six to be on TBS.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Is that on TVs? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Okay, I was Lio Max. I was like, is this
TNT Okay, TVs and HBO Max. A couple of little highlights.
John Moxley versus Shelton Benjamin huge huge implications there. It's
a Continental Championship eliminator match, right, Bendido versus Sammy Gervara.
Now that match is for if Sammy wins, he gets
(13:17):
the world title shot.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, he says he's going to put Bandido out and
Bandido is not going to make it out of this
manch so and Sammy's got a legitimate beef with Bandido.
Bandido wasn't trying to do anything or hurt anybody, but
Rusche was injured in this match. Rushe and Sammy were
on a role in ROH and I think doing some
of the most exciting work Sammy's had in years, and
I really like the partnership now. Beast Mortos is excellent.
(13:39):
He stepped up and he's Sammy's partner, but they're both
very tied with Rouge and they both don't want to
see Bandido succeed. We saw beast Morto's take on Bandido
last week. Sammy said on Collision He's coming to take
Bandido out and take a spot.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Bendido is the most wanted man, and.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
One week from tonight he challenges MJF for the aw World.
Bandido's already the ROH World Champion. He could become the
first man ever to hold both those titles at the
same time. He would join a very, very prestigious list
of people that have held both championships. Nobody's ever held
them at the same time. Bandido is one of the
greatest wrestlers in the world. I think he's done some
(14:18):
of the best wrestling and had some of the greatest
matches and some of the gutsiest fights I've seen all
over the world in the past year, and I'm really
excited for that. So to have Bandido wrestling tonight, I
had a maximum carnage.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And MJF the AW World Champion, is in the house tonight.
We'll hear from him and for sure he'll be watching
Bandido versus Sammy Govara very closely tonight too, just like
the rest of us.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Well, and another marquee match, just to get your thoughts
on it. Hangman, Adam Page and Swear Strickland against the
Ops of Hook and Powerhouse Hobs and now this is
going to be in a lights out match. There's been
a lot of tension and turmoil between Ops and Hangman
and s coming out of the world title match and everything.
What are we looking forward to in this match.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I'm looking forward to a hard hitting fight.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
A lights out match is always an exciting thing in
AW and I think this is going to be a
wild fight and it should be a lot of fun.
I'm really looking forward to it, and I think it'll
be awesome. They're gonna beat the hell out of each other,
and Hangman and Swerve seeing them have a common goal.
(15:29):
I like both of them a lot, and it's nice
seeing them on the same page. To me, even though
I think there's still bad blood between them, they have
common enemies, and the ops are some of the most
dangerous wrestlers, obviously, after everything Hook's done to hang In
in particular, I know Hangman's wanted to get his hands
on Hook for a really long time. So I think
(15:51):
this would be an awesome match. And anytime Hangman or
Swerve are involved in a lights out match, it's very
exciting to begin with. And now they're both in the match,
that's incredible, and they'll have great competition with Hook and
Powerhouse Hobbs, who's one third of the World Trios Champions
and somebody else who's done amazing things in aw and
(16:13):
very excited about that light and.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
The greatest second generation wrestler of all time.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Evidently yeah, allegedly.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Yeah, of course watch aw Dynamite Tonight eight Eesterron seven Central.
You can check it out TVs. HBO Max. It's fantastic.
Now I do want to go back for a second,
because there was a lot of aw wrestlers on Wrestle Kingdom,
and one of the things that a lot of people
on the internet were talking about was when Andrade was introduced.
(16:40):
Later in the night, commentary noted his association with All
Elite Wrestling. Is there any update with Andrade or is that?
Do you want to clear the air on that.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I'd say that bodes well, wouldn't you. I think it does.
I think it bodes very well.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
It looks like we're heading towards maybe at match with
him and Kenny Omega. So if we get that, it's
voting very well, voting very well. Oh man, it's awesome
to hear that stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And of course, you know, Tony con is our guest
here on the show, is what do you think, because
everybody likes to talk about on the internet creative freedom
and creative control, what do you think is the biggest
misconceptions fans have about that creative freedom or that creative control.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Now, there's no creative control. Only I have it. No
wrestler has that.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And there's a lot of freedom to work with the
staff and the coaches and the wrestlers together and come
up with ideas I am one of the most collaborative
people on the plan and that's how I've been able
to succeed in multiple sports and build the greatest sports
analytics engineering firm in the world, True Media, where we
(17:43):
service twenty nine out of the thirty Major League Baseball teams,
and the one team we don't have, their pitchers buy
it out of their own pocket, so and that team
shall remain nameless. And they're not anybody's favorite other than
a lot of people's.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
But you know, I had a couple of guesses.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
There are a lot of people's favorite, and there are
a lot of people's least favorite.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But they're a huge organization.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Hopefully they'll sign up with us somedays so the pictures
don't have to pass out of their own pocket.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
So we do great things.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I love working with partners all over the world, media partners,
and in wrestling, I think we are really collaborative, and
when AW is at its best, that's what it is
is the wrestlers coming in with ideas, I come in
with ideas.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
We work together, and that's what I love.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Yeah, and we've kind of gathered that as much from
anytime we've had your roster on the show. When we've
talked about that, they're like, hey, I've got this idea.
I ran it by Tony. He tweaked it this way.
I talked about this. And that's something cool that you
don't normally hear is they could come to their boss
and collaborate and say, hey, I've got this idea and
(18:51):
you're like, I like that, but what if we do
it this way right?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And a lot of times there's ideas that are fantastic,
and I say, that's a great idea. There's other times
where maybe it isn't necessarily going to work, and there
may be something to it, but the timing or the
scheduling or something about it doesn't work. A lot of
times the wrestlers come up with great ideas, but I
have to choose what we do and don't do, and
(19:15):
within the constraints of doing two hour TV shows, there's
only so many things you can do. So I think
we've been really great about pacing the TV shows and
putting on great TV shows every Wednesday on TBS and
every Saturday on T and T, and now with everything
being on HBO Max and I really love trying to
find things, trying to find ways to work with and
(19:36):
collaborate with the wrestlers and the staff and the great
people in aw And I also come up with a
lot of ideas myself and trying to find a way
to take my own ideas and the ideas of other
people and make it all work.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
And it seems like the whole collabing and everybody working
together has paid off, because you're racking up on tons
of year end awards and looking forward to seeing more
awards happening at the end.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And even though I am a Tennessee Titans fan, I'm
cheering on the Jaguars to all this year because I
made somebody from the AFC South to win and not
the Texans.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You may be a Tennessee Titans fan, but your son
is a big jab warry, that is true.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
He is wearing his Trevor Lawrence jersey all over the place.
But again, Tony Kahan is our co host on the
show today, not special guests. Before we let you go,
is there anything you want to say to the fans
watching or listening to this right now?
Speaker 3 (20:27):
God bless you all. I really appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Thank you for taking the time to listen to Battleground
with me on it, and thank you for supporting Tim
and Eli and Liam and the old Battleground family, and
thanks for supporting aw All Elite Wrestling. We have great shows.
We do shows every Wednesday night on TBS, every Saturday
night on TNT. We were just voted the best wrestling
promotion in the world by Sports Illustrated. We've won numerous
(20:54):
awards this year from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Yahoo, all these
great publications, and the most important thing of all, we
have great support from fans. If you haven't seen the show,
or if you haven't seen it in a while, come
check out tonight.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
It's on tonight.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
It's on seven pm Central Time for you guys in Nashville,
but eight pm Eastern eight pm for a lot of
the country that listens to your show.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Now that you're a big national star.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And try and do at least Yeah, but it would
be a great show tonight, and I really appreciate you
having me on again to talk about it. I think
I've turned into like the Steve Martin of your show,
which is good.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
So I really appreciate you having me on again.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Thank you, guys, and hopefully you guys enjoy the show tonight,
AW Wednesday night, Nyeamite tonight on TBS.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
We're streaming on HBO Max.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
But we just really appreciate you guys always having AW
guests on, and me in particular being here so often.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Thank you
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