The AEW Revolution media call took place today and Tony Khan started us off by talking about his excitement for the PPV. The show is going to be headlined by MJF defending the AEW Championship against Bryan Danielson in a 60-minute ironman match.
“Bryan Danielson for the World Championship is something that we had started to develop late last year and had been building up for months as a huge world championship program. And I’m every bit as excited for that,” said Khan in the media call.
Due to the length of this title match, Khan said the show will have to be formatted differently than in the past. “We’ve never allocated this much time to any one match. I think there’s been a couple of times I’ve allocated a good amount of time to a match, but never this. What you have to do for a 60-minute ironman match. So in terms of formatting the pay-per-view, it is a bit different. It’s less matches than we’ve done on some of our pay-per-views, but I think it will be a great event.”
“It is the ultimate test of a pro wrestler’s stamina, strength conditioning and creativity. I think these are two wrestlers that have all of the physical and all of the mental tools to put together an incredible 60-minute ironman match.”
When it comes to the AEW Women’s Championship triple threat with Jamie Hayter defending against Saraya and Ruby Soho. Khan described this match as a battle of three different generations of the AEW women’s division.
Ricky Starks will be facing Chris Jericho at Revolution, as Starks has been getting quite the push recently and Khan said he has all the potential in the world to be a star.
As for the entire show, there has been a general concern if AEW pay-per-views run too long, but Khan said he feels as though he has balanced things well to create a well-timed event.
“I think this is a good number in terms of letting the matches breathe, but this also is a little unique with eight matches in that it ensures that the appropriate amount of time for what will be a historic main event.”
As for non-Revolution things, Khan was asked if Warner Bros. Discovery had picked up the next year option on the TV deal, however, Khan could not provide an answer.
“I am responsible for the jobs and livelihoods of a lot of people and their families. And in this case, I am not supposed to answer your questions about the contract that we have or the media rights contract. We have a great partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, and I just don’t want to circumvent or violate those covenants, if that makes sense.”
Khan is also working out a way to create profitability through house shows. AEW is having its first house show, House Rules, on March 18 and they are figuring out a way to continue offering house shows. He said a lot of talent wants to be a part of these shows, but it is well-known house shows do not provide much profit.
There have also been new thoughts going into the show structures leading up to the Revolution show. “It has been a mixture of trying to feature all of the prominent stories, most or many of which are featured in this pay-per-view Revolution on Sunday and in doing so, trying to slot things in the show in a way that would do a favorable TV rating and take in what has happened in prior weeks, trying to learn from that and do a better job the following week.”
He said last week’s Dynamite was AEW’s biggest number in the 18 to 49 demographics in all of 2023.
Khan also acknowledged that today is the one-year anniversary since he announced his purchase of Ring of Honor (ROH) on AEW Dynamite. Tonight will be the first show of the brand-new era of ROH.
He said that from here on out he is hoping to keep AEW and ROH separate and not have the ROH titles come into AEW shows anymore.
TOP PHOTO: Tony Khan at the post-show press conference at Full Gear in November 2022. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
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