AEW President and CEO Tony Khan recently gave his thoughts on working with Warner Bros. Discovery Management in a sit-down interview with TV Insider’s Scott Fishman. Khan also discussed an upcoming integration with another IP (intellectual property) that’s part of the Warner Bros. Discovery family that’s currently in the works.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On working with WBD Management: “For such a hands-on, strong, and respected management team to have identified AEW multiple times in their presentation is something that is important. Privately and in business, I’m seeing it like that on a daily basis. Since the Shark Week integration was such a great success, we’re working on another huge partnership that I’m very excited about in terms of creativity and a hugely prestigious IP that we’re being trusted to partner with. I believe it’s because we have shown we can do a good job with integrations and be easy and fun and collaborative and have a good audience that makes us good partners. We recently also collaborated on a panel with AEW representation at Comic-Con through the Warner Bros. Discovery PR and media team. They were so helpful. That was a huge success. Now I’m excited about another integration that hasn’t been announced yet. I’m very pumped about it. It’s going to be very soon. The IP is very prestigious in the world of television. The partnership represents another really good sign that Warner Bros. Discovery likes what AEW is doing.”
On engagement since the WBD partnership started: “I’m very excited about the reception we’ve gotten from the management of Warner Bros. Discovery, which has been the most engagement we’ve had, and being involved in the company’s biggest initiatives. It was in a meeting with several of the top executives in the new Warner Bros. Discovery family several months ago when they mentioned the idea of getting AEW involved with Shark Week in co-promotion. I suggested Fyter Fest and Shark Week would go together perfectly. It was an incredibly successful promotion for everyone involved. Management from Warner Bros. Discovery reached out to say they were very pleased all-around with that partnership. That integration was one of two slides in the recent main presentation that involved AEW as company highlights, which is so great for us because we have this hands-on management with Warner Bros. Discovery. They are putting their stamp on the new company, and we’re part of their plans.”
On AEW’s backstage atmosphere: “I think the atmosphere has been extremely positive. We’ve had a great reception to Madison Rayne as a new women’s coach and the promotion of several hard-working, well-liked people that have been doing those jobs and stepped up. I think things are only going to be better as we go on in the year because a lot of the great stars in AEW we’ve all missed, they’re going to be returning. I think that’s great for everybody, because we built a great team and environment. We really bonded as a group to do the show through the lockdown at Daily’s Place for over a year. Now we’re back on the road for over one year and I think that has built a really strong traveling family. There is a lot of excitement as we head into a big time of year. Quake By the Lake is going to start us down a path toward All Out and Grand Slam. We have a really good thing going.”
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