During a recent interview with Wade Keller of the Pro Wrestling Torch, AEW President Tony Khan noted that most of his company’s roster is vaccinated. He also mentioned that the company is hoping to travel Canada or Europe in the future and talent who aren’t vaccinated may have trouble getting across the border.

“I have got, most of the roster in AEW is vaccinated,” Khan said. 

“There have been some places we went where everybody had to be vaccinated. I think when the company starts doing international travel, we’ll see that for say, Canada, for England, places like that, it’ll be very difficult for wrestlers to travel without it,” he continued. 

AEW has not mandated that talent be vaccinated, however. He noted that their situation is similar to the NFL’s.

“I’ve not required it, same with the NFL, same with other wrestling leagues, but it will be a big challenge if you’re not for a lot of circumstances,” he said.  “A great example was the Jericho cruise where all the wrestlers on the Jericho cruise had to be vaccinated.”

According to various reports, vaccination status may have played a role in WWE’s most recent string of roster cuts.

“It was probably a half-dozen or more that did not get vaxxed that were cut,” Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio. “And it was very much part of the reason.”

Tony Khan has reacted to the latest wave of WWE roster cuts and whether or not some names stand out to him.

WWE recently had another string of roster cuts. On the same day the company announced $256 million in revenue this past quarter alone, 18 wrestlers were released. The reported reason was due to “budget cuts.” Among the names released were Keith Lee, Nia Jax, Karrion Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux, Ember Moon, and Franky Monet.

Tony Khan Discusses WWE Roster Cuts

Tony Khan, the AEW boss, spoke to Wade Keller on a new Focus on AEW episode and he talked about the impact that WWE’s latest wave of releases is having.

“Yeah, every time they cut like 20 people let’s just say, it’s terrible because every time somebody loses a job it is affecting them, it’s affecting people around them. Some of these people for all I know they might’ve wanted to leave, but in general, I think most of these people probably did not. So, it’s terrible when anybody loses their work and I feel for them. So, each and everyone counts.

“I’m gonna take a ballpark number and I’m not trying to make light of everything because everyone counts. And I know this is probably not the exact amount of people but every time they let, let’s say as a ballpark, 20 people go, I think there’s in general been one, two, three people in there or so that I am interested in and snatch up because they keep doing these mass layoffs. They let, let’s say 20 people go or more or less, and each time I find a few people and the company gets a little stronger and stronger in my opinion.”

Khan then admitted that there are some names who he’d be interested in doing business with.

“I do see a few in this wave. I don’t wanna say who or when I would be interested in them but there’s a few very interesting people they just let go.”

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Tony Khan is opening up about the creative influence of AEW’s Executive Vice Presidents.

Khan recently spoke with Wade Keller of PWTorch earlier this week to promote next weekend’s Full Gear pay-per-view.

During the discussion, Khan addressed the rumors that Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks are less-involved than they used to be. Khan said that he has taken over much more of the writing of the shows, but that the EVPs all contribute their ideas as much as they ever did.

What has changed, however, is that they no longer book the show as a committee.

“They are still very involved in a lot of aspects of the business and a lot of those things have been enhanced,” said Khan.

He spoke about Kenny Omega leading a team to create the AEW console video game and Cody and the Young Bucks being leaders in the locker room.

“I’ve probably gotten a little bit more hands on with the stuff that I do than when we started but that makes perfect sense because I had never worked in a wrestling company,” Khan said.

Drawbacks of a booking committee

Khan continued to say that in the early days, the show was being booked with him and the EVPs all in a room together. Now, most of the show is booked by him at home.

“I was like the head of a committee and I think there are a lot of drawbacks of trying to book a wrestling show with a committee,” he continued.

“Around the start of 2020, the end of 2019, moved more to me writing the show and I think it helped and the show has been better for it.”

“They are still contributing all their ideas, that has never changed,” Khan continued to say of the EVPs.

• Tony Khan talks in-depth about his approach to longterm booking

Visit PWTorch.com to check out the full interview with Tony Khan in their paywalled VIP section.

AEW President Tony Khan recently spoke to Wade Keller of PWTorch. During the discussion, Khan spoke in-depth about his approach to long-term booking.

Keller asked Khan about if he knows who will come out of Full Gear as the AEW World Champion, and if he knows how long the next champion’s reign will be.

“Yes I do, but you never know,” said Khan. “Things have changed. A lot of the plans I had when Jon Moxley beat Chris Jericho, we did do a lot of the things I wanted to do but a lot of the things were not possible because the pandemic hit.”

“I do have plans, you never know how they are going to change. I do have a lot of plans. Kenny is on one of the great runs and I’m not so sure we’re ready to see it end but on the other hand, Hangman is ready and there are a lot of fans behind him.”

“Whatever the result it, it’s not the end for either man,” Khan continued.

1 out of 3 times …

Keller then asked Khan what percentage of the time does he stick with what he has planned and how often do things stray from what he originally had in mind.

“It’s probably 2 out of 3 times,” Khan said. “1 out of 3 times something changes, it’s not what you expected, somebody gets sick, and then you put a replacement in and then that starts going well and you move in another direction. So, I would say it’s probably about 2 out of 3 times if I draw stuff up and map stuff up.”

Khan continued to talk about the supposed “leaked card” for AEW Full Gear. A picture of his notebook from the sidelines of a Jaguars game appeared to show the planned lineup for the event but Khan said those were just ideas and not his final ideas for the show.

“People thought I accidentally leaked the PPV card. They saw my doodle notebook on the sideline but that was just me playing around with different stuff, ideas, I was not even close to done with it,” Khan said.

Tony Khan recently spoke with Wade Keller of PWTorch to promote next weekend’s Full Gear pay-per-view. During the discussion, TK commented on recent additions to the AEW roster.

“It’s so unrecognizable compared to the company that we started with,” Khan said about the current roster. “It’s pretty unthinkable looking around and seeing CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, Ruby Soho, Thunder Rosa, all these awesome people that weren’t with us when we started.”

He continued touting more of AEW’s talent signings. “Malakai Black, Andrade El Idolo, new faces, and even the people that came in last year. Sting and FTR, Matt Hardy, and so many people have joined us along the way from when we started.”

CM Punk’s impact on AEW business

Khan also spoke about the impact that bringing in CM Punk has had on AEW’s ratings, merchandise sales, PPV buys, and more.

“Our numbers are so much better than they were going into the last few months and there’s been an unquestionable lift since CM Punk came in,” Khan said. “For some reason, I see some people trying to discredit Punk all the time, that he hasn’t been a huge lift to our business and he has been. And he’s only scratching the surface. I have intentionally in working with him tried to hold back a lot of his biggest marquee things, biggest marquee matches and stories.”

“We’ve been getting Punk reintegrated, building him a winning streak, and I think it’s worked great. Again, when you look at the rating we did for our first Wednesday back, that was a really strong number last week and he was such a huge part of it,” Khan continued.

“He’s just lifted our business so much,” Khan continued. He also noted that All Out, with Punk’s debut match against Darby Allin, did the most PPV buys in company history.

TV execs thrilled with CM Punk

“I was on with TNT yesterday, they’re so excited about the direction we’re going and the future of the business and there’s so many possibilities they see for the AEW franchise and he’s one of the big stars they want to build around,” Khan continued.

“The TNT executives also had a great call with Punk and talked to him and they want him to know he’s a really valued member of the TNT Warner Media family, the TBS family.”

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