AEW: Tony Khan on Decision to Address Crowd Over CM Punk Firing, Kris Statlander on Jade Cargill Match, More News

Tony Khan Comments on His Decision to Publicly Address the Crowd Over CM Punk’s Firing

Insider held a recent interview with AEW CEO Tony Khan. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts on his decision to publicly address the live crowd over CM Punk’s firing in AEW.

“Chicago is home to my family. I grew up in Champaign. I’ve been going to the United Center since it was first built when I was 11. My family was at the show, countless friends, everyone I grew up with. It meant a lot to go out and speak to the fans and be able to put on a great show.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about his decision to make the announcement on the stage ramp instead of inside the ring.

“[Long pause.] You can’t see everybody’s face from the center of the ring. You have to choose one side of the crowd to face when you’re in the ring. And I wanted to be able to see everybody. I felt like, I’m not a wrestler and I don’t need to be in the ring, and for this moment, I thought I would just sit down and talk to everybody. That’s why I brought out a chair.

And when I was done and walked backstage, the first person I saw was Ricky Steamboat and he said, ‘That was great, you turned the crowd. You turned them around. That’s so hard to do, and you did it.’ I felt I at least owed that much to the wrestlers and the fans, to go out there and talk to everybody.”

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Kris Statlander Comments on Recent TBS Title Match with Jade Cargill

A recent episode of the Under The Ring podcast featured Kris Statlander as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Statlander’s thoughts about her recent TBS Championship match against Jade Cargill.

“I’m glad the match finally happened. It’s something that I’ve been wanting for a while. There has been a lot of discourse about me not being a true champion, that it wasn’t a true open challenge that Mark put out. I feel there is a lot to prove, and we’re going to prove in this match. It’s not just about me, it’s about her also. It’s a special thing. It’s a very special match. It’s something we both wanted and a lot of people wanted to see. Going into it, we both had something to prove and it helps raise the stakes a little more. If you missed it, you should watch it.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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AEW News & Notes

Warner Bros Discovery recently announced that they will be launching a new live sports tier for their MAX streaming service on October 5th. It was also announced that this new upcoming tier is called Bleacher Report Sports Add-On and will cost an additional $10 per month for subscribers. In regards to AEW, the Sports Business Journal reported that their sources stated that AEW will not be part of this new tier at least on launch.

AEW Games recently announced that the upcoming HOOKHasuen DLC pack for their AEW Fight Forever game will be released on September 28th. This upcoming DLC features HOOK and Danhausen becoming playable wrestlers for the game’s roster.

In a recent interview with the Superstar Crossover podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts on Toni Storm’s new character and his belief that she is doing some of the best character work in all of wrestling. Khan stated “You mention the Women’s World Title match (at Dynamite Grand Slam) and I agree with you. I think Toni Storm is doing some of the best work in all of pro wrestling right now. She’s a former Women’s World Champion, two times. She’s had a great partnership with Saraya… We’ve seen, it’s been very compelling and I agree with you, highly entertaining in recent weeks the way Toni Storm’s been losing her mind and personally, I really enjoy working with Toni Storm. I think she’s a great talent and I think we are onto something really special with Toni Storm right now and she could become a three-time Women’s World Champion and end that storybook tale of Saraya this Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium on TBS.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In the same interview, Tony Khan also gave his thoughts about the recent rumors and reports of Jade Cargill going to WWE. Khan stated “Well, Jade had a great match on Friday night on AEW Rampage and it was a great match against Kris Statlander. Kris Statlander retained the TBS Championship on Rampage on Friday night and I thought that was a great match. Definitely one of the best matches I’ve seen either of them have and I thought really great main event for the show. As far as Jade goes, I can’t really comment on that except to say that Jade has been a great wrestler for AEW and certainly always welcome in AEW. [Jade] could always be somebody we would always love to work with here in AEW.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Claudio Castagnoli gave his thoughts about his upcoming match against Eddie Kingston for the ROH World and NJPW Strong Openweight Championships at tonight’s AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 2023 event. Castagnoli stated “The chance to be a New Japan champion very much excites me. I wanted to go to New Japan after I left WWE, and I did–but I’d like to go again, and what better way than as Strong Openweight champion? It opens a whole new set of possibilities. And I am very proud to be the Ring of Honor champion. I learned a long time ago that you don’t need a belt to hold yourself like a champion. But when you do have one, you must hold yourself to a higher level. Tokyo Dome and Arena Mexico, those are two legendary venues that have eluded me throughout my career. I need to wrestle at both of those places, and I’d love to start with the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom. I’m looking forward to taking this title away from Eddie–and wrestling at the Tokyo Dome is something else I’m looking forward to doing.“

In a recent interview with TVInsider, Sammy Guevara gave his thoughts about AEW CEO Tony Khan addressing the live crowd in Chicago over CM Punk’s firing from the company. Guevara stated “Tony, I feel, doesn’t get enough credit he deserves. He, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes. They all changed everyone’s life and wrestling. Without them, especially Tony, there would be no AEW. There would be a bunch of people doing something completely different. I don’t know anything regarding the behind-the-scenes decisions he makes, but he is such a caring guy. What I will say is that he has a lot of balls. I have a lot of respect for him. He went out in front of the Chicago crowd to address them personally after he made the decision to let Punk go. He didn’t have to go in front of everyone. He could have just played the video. But he went out in front of thousands of people. He is getting booed. He understood how they felt. He is an upfront guy. I watched him make the announcement thinking, ‘Wow, he doesn’t have to do this.” I get it from a wrestling fan’s perspective. You went to the show expecting to see someone, and now this guy is telling you he isn’t going to be there. It’s almost like killing the messenger. But when you think about it, this man did not need to go out there. He could have easily also had someone else do it. Mad respect. I told him that too. I told him he had a lot of balls for him to do that. He said, ‘It had to be done, and I had to be the one to do it.’ He wasn’t going to get the heat on any of the boys or anyone that night. He wanted to take the heat, which I thought was commendable.“

In a recent interview with the Superstar Crossover podcast, Chris Jericho gave his thoughts about the idea of Edge, real name Adam Copeland, joining AEW in the future. Jericho stated “Well I mean, who’s to say for sure (what Edge’s impact on the AEW locker room would be)? But, if you look at Chris Jericho for example, where I was in WWE, there really wasn’t much more that I could do there. You’re there for many years and you’ve wrestled everybody and it’s great. But, it’s always good to shock people and to show up with a new kind of mission. So I think somebody like Edge, there’s a lot of guys over there like this, they’ve kind of done everything they can do there and for him to come to AEW, he’d be a whole fresh, new coat of pain. Whole new roster of matches that he could have. Obviously a new name which would then, knowing him, knowing me, what I would do is a whole new look, a whole new mindset. So, you know, I mean, that’s the best thing about having AEW and us being as successful as we are is that there’s now a viable alternative. I don’t wanna say ‘competitor’ because it’s not that but you can now go to either company. That’s what was so great about WCW in the 90s was that you could switch and jump… So I think it’s exciting and whether he comes or not or anybody that comes from there to here or comes from here to there, I mean look at Cody (Rhodes), when he left AEW to go to WWE, it was a whole new world for him so, I think that that’s one of the most exciting things when you can have the guys going back and forth. It really does make it more exciting for the fans and it makes it better for the business.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)