The briefing started off with a couple questions about the FTW Championship and the plans that Tony and AEW have for it. Tony Khan’s answer was surprising to me, he mentioned explicitly that the FTW Championship was different than the other Championship Titles. He has plans for a different type of match or system for that championship down the road.
The next question was about the Buy-In portion of the All Out card. Tony Khan made it a point that he loves wrestling and the wrestling economy. He says that there’s more from the Big Swole and Britt Baker feud than just this match.
Another question was about the relationship between AEW and the NWA. Tony spoke about how special Thunder Rosa was on her appearance last night on Dynamite and how he’s excited about her match with Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s Championship at All Out. He went on to say that he doesn’t believe there are going to be any more appearances on the horizon from NWA wrestlers.
The latest big question was about Brock Lesnar’s free agent status. Tony had a simple answer, he couldn’t talk about that at this moment. But he went on to gush about Lesnar’s talents. This is pretty telling from a “no-answer” from Tony Khan.
Further Questions About All-In
Tony Khan is extraordinarily excited about All Out. He says that the show is going to have the best wrestling that you’ve seen since the pandemic started. He talked about how Revolution was one of the biggest highs for All Elite Wrestling. Tony Khan thought that “Double Or Nothing kicked the crap out of Wrestlemania“. He talked about how AEW set up testing hardcore, and they had a bubble for their talent. In some sly shots at WWE, he went on about how Double Or Nothing was safe and the wrestlers were safe. He compared the live events that they’re doing to Drive-In Movies. You can’t get the full experience of a movie or a wrestling show, but AEW is offering safety and around 15% of the arena.
Tony Khan Speaks About Safety
Tony answered a question about safety and the testing protocols for the company. In April, they shut down live shows for a bit, so they could figure out all the different safety protocols. He lauded Daly’s Place for having a great staff and the wrestlers/crew being team players. He mentioned about having watched The Tonight Show and grabbing the idea for having crew in the crowd from them.
The AEW Women’s Division Gets Some Hired Guns
Tony Khan answered a question about Thunder Rosa and Serena’s match last night on Dynamite. He waxed on about the talent of Serena and Thunder Rosa. Tony spoke about how they got the “semi-final” portion of the show and that they knocked it out of the park. He’s excited to see what Serena and Thunder Rosa can do in AEW.
Long-Term Booking Is The Name Of The Game For Tony Khan And AEW
FTR joining All Elite Wrestling was a shock. Tony Khan and AEW have long-term plans for all of their wrestlers and storylines. So their addition to the roster threw a wrench into the plans. At Revolution, Kenny Omega/Hangman Page and the Young Bucks set the standard for tag-team wrestling. So now FTR are going up against the AEW Tag Team champions.
The pandemic has changed plans because AEW doesn’t have access to all of it’s roster, Tony made mention of about 30% of the roster being available. So it’s necessitated the addition of free agent and wrestlers being borrowed from other companies like NWA. He also said that it’s much better to add people through free agency and not because of a pandemic.
In the pandemic, people have stepped up because of availability issues. The “COVID push” as Tony put it, is a very real thing.
All Out Is A Mix Of Pure Wrestling And Cinema
Tony Khan went over the various matches on the card. The card is going to have a blend of stipulation matches, cinematic matches like the one with Britt Baker and Big Swole, and the main event between Jon Moxley and MJF. The wrestlers are performing for the first time in front of live fans so that’s going to inject an energy into the crowd. The card top to bottom is pretty stacked for Saturday.
Some of the final questions were about a second All Elite Wrestling show on TNT. Tony made sure to mention that it won’t be AEW Dark as the second show or third hour on TNT. The new AEW show will be launched in the next year according to Tony Khan. So you’re going to have AEW Dark, Dynamite, and a third unnanounced hour-long show.
In my opinion, the card for All Out is the most stacked one we’ve seen top to bottom this year. Any of the matches that are going to be on the undercard could be co-main events for other shows. So you have to check out All Out on Saturday. You can order it on B/R Live or from your Pay-Per-View provider. It starts 4:00pm pacific/7:00pm eastern.
