Tony Khan has explained what changed for AEW in 2025.
Fans had complained about inconsistencies in the product the company was putting out in the past couple of years, and the decline in business had supported these claims. Things changed this year, however, as a promotion saw an improvement in both storylines and presentation despite a number of top stars dealing with injuries.
During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Tony Khan explained how this was achieved. The AEW President claimed that he had gotten 'too collaborative' with his creative process and had become more relaxed in his approach, just like the very early days of the company. Things improved when he once again chose to implement the lessons he had learned at the time, taking the reins of creative in his own hands:
I think I had gotten too collaborative, and it was kind of the same mistake I made at the beginning, and it really helped in the end of 2024, going into 2025, I just said, 'Okay, I'm gonna put the outline for everything together myself. I'm gonna eliminate the meetings between shows, and I will put everything together myself between shows. And then I'll come in with the outline of what I want, rather than have a lot of collaborative meetings where everybody chimes in what they think we should be doing.'
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Khan explained that he reduced the number of voices involved in the decision-making process. Instead of having upwards of 10 people contributing ideas, he decided to change the company's focus to where he wants to take the promotion. He has once again started using the process he developed in 2020 and 2021, where Tony is putting together the outline of the shows by himself.
Though the wrestling executive later noted that he wouldn't say collaboration is a bad thing. He just believes in having a more direct line of dialogue with talents instead of delegating it to other people. This doesn't mean he has completely shut out the flow of outside ideas, but Tony Khan still believes that the changes he made was ultimately the right call for AEW.