AEW: Tony Khan on Grand Slam Australia was Always Planned as TV Event, Three-way Trios Match Set for 2/8 Collision Show, Christopher Daniels on Still Wanting to be On-Screen Performer in AEW

Feb 5, 2025

Tony Khan Comments on Grand Slam Australia was Always Planned as TV Event

TV Insider held a recent interview with AEW CEO Tony Khan. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about how TNT saw the opportunity in scheduling AEW’s Grand Slam Australia show to take place after NBA All-Star Saturday and how the show was always planned to be a television event.

“This will be one of the biggest TV events of the year. This will arguably be the biggest TV card of the year.
Having this be a TV event has always been the plan. That’s something that the network wanted. It’s something the network brought to us recently as an opportunity to follow NBA All-Star Saturday. We saw it as a huge opportunity. It was a great vote of confidence for our partners at Warner Brothers Discovery. It will be one of the biggest nights of the year on TNT. It’s a great opportunity given the lead-in.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about AEW’s viewership numbers on MAX for their shows.

“We don’t have all the numbers for the Max launch, but we’ve been told that AEW is one of the top sports leagues for Max for viewership. That’s really exciting. It bodes well for the partnership for many years to come.”

Three-way Trios Match Announced for Feb. 8th AEW Collision Show

AEW announced one new match for the card of this week’s AEW Collision show on February 8th at the Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.

This new match announced was a Three-way Trios match of Undisputed Kingdom (Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong, & Adam Cole) vs. Daniel Garcia & 2.0 (“Cool Hand Ang” Angelo Parker & “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor & The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean)).

Current card for Feb. 8th AEW Collision show:

Three-way Trios match – Undisputed Kingdom (Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong, & Adam Cole) vs. Daniel Garcia & 2.0 (“Cool Hand Ang” Angelo Parker & “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor & The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean))
Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe
Penelope Ford vs. Thunder Rosa

Christopher Daniels Comments on Him Still Wanting to be On-Screen Performer in AEW

As noted before, Christopher Daniels retired from his in-ring wrestling career following his Texas Death Match against Hangman Adam Page at the January 18th AEW Collision Maximum Carnage show.

A recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast featured Daniels as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Daniels thoughts about him still wanting to be an on-screen performer in AEW for his post-in-ring wrestling career.

“Well, to be honest, selfishly, I’d love to be a performer in the sense of if I could be your GM or if I could be the voice of Tony Khan, which is what I sort of pitched being originally with the EVP, I’m happy to do that. I still feel like I can cut a good promo, I could get a point across — that’s not hard for me I don’t think. It’s just a matter of, okay, I want to be a supporting player in these people’s stories. I felt like a really good use of me in the last year was I did a bunch a stuff with RJ dealing with Mariah and Anna Jay or there was a period of time with MJF and Daniel Garcia. I’m thrilled if I can be a supporting player for the stories that need to happen, because not everybody needs to be the center of attention. If I need to be the voice of the authority, the voice of the management, I think that’s a good position for me. Having the experience I have, hopefully people are like, yeah, okay, when he talks, he’s got a frame of reference, let’s listen to him. I’d love to do that.
I also recognize that being able to work with the guys as their coach and as their producer in segments, I feel like Tony appreciates my work there. He appreciates my rapport with the guys I work with and knows that if he gives me a direction, I can articulate that to the guys and if the guys have an idea, I can articulate that to Tony. Getting that on the television, telling the guys in the truck, okay, well they want to see this face, they want to emphasize this moment, they want to emphasize this maneuver. Whatever it is, I feel like with my frame of reference, it’s easy for me to tell that story because I speak that language.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com