Tony Khan hosted the media on Thursday to talk about AEW Revolution, scouting new talent, the rise of Daniel Garcia, and the retirement of Sting.
Khan was extremely excited when talking about the card, with it being the “most special event in the history of AEW” for him personally. It features nine matches on the card, including Sting’s final match, which is a tag match with Darby Allin versus The Young Bucks for the World Tag Team Titles.
Overall, there are a total of six (!) championship matches on the night, with the main event being a triple threat match between champion Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland, and “Hangman” Adam Page.
The owner of AEW believes Revolution is “top to bottom our best built pay-per-view. Really, for weeks the focus has been on these matches and stories and I think it’s been one of our best builds to a pay-per-view.”
He even hinted that due to the success that AEW has had with its pay-per-view events last year, it may be looking to add one or two more to the calendar.
Revolution will be taking place in North Carolina, and former NWA Women’s champion and current free agent Kamille was born and raised in North Carolina — leading to speculation she may be part of the show somehow. Khan acknowledged that Kamille is a “great free agent in wrestling” and to “never say never” as Kamille was someone that AEW has been scouting and someone Khan said he had a lot of respect for and enjoyed her matches. “She would certainly be a great fit in AEW anytime and certainly she is somebody we would definitely keep under consideration here.”
The creative team at AEW came up, as writer Jen Pepperman was hired by AEW after she left WWE. Khan praised her as “somebody who has got a really great wrestling mind” and said that “it’s really nice to have somebody like Jen who has experience in pro wrestling but also a lot of experience in television.”
Daniel Garcia at AEW Dynamite on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
Another topic of discussion was Daniel Garcia and his emergence as a title contender. Khan said that he loves working with Garcia, and that he has “done an incredible, incredible job of building himself up and evolving since he arrived in AEW.” Khan also praised Garcia for the great passion that he has for pro wrestling, as well as his smarts. Khan also labelled Garcia as a very likeable, hard worker who has a very bright future ahead of him, saying the “sky’s the limit” for Garcia, as he continues to get better year after year with the company. Khan was also impressed with the connection that Garcia has with the crowd. “When you look how young he is, and look how he built himself up, built his body, built a character, developed his mannerisms… the crowd really cares about him.”
The big talking point for this weekend’s card is the retirement of legend Sting. The choice of the Greensboro Coliseum was not an accident, as Sting first truly broke onto the scene in 1988 in his match against Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions I at the Greensboro Coliseum, and Khan wanted to pay tribute to that. The idea is to let it all end where it all began for Sting.
It is also no secret that Khan loves Sting from watching him as a kid, as he has mentioned many times before. Sting’s last match is something very personal to Khan and he wanted to make sure that he got the finale for someone he calls “one of the all-time greatest wrestlers” just right.
“He’s an incredible pro wrestler and an incredible man, and giving him the send off that he deserves, this past few years has been really important to me. And now, having a match on the weekend with high stakes, a personal rivalry, a great story, its going to be a tremendous show and it’s got certainly something that no one will ever forget and that is Sting’s final wrestling match.”
AEW Revolution takes place on Sunday, March 3.
TOP PHOTO: Tony Khan at AEW at Centre Bell in Montreal, Quebec, on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. Photo by Minas Panagiotakis, www.photography514.com
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