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Mike Johnson: The interesting thing about is that larger companies laid off a bunch of people. WWE has released talents, and furloughed people, and AEW still is a much smaller company in comparison to WWE, which has been around for decades. What's that process been like? You mentioned the relationship with Warner Media. What's it been like-
Tony Khan: I haven't been doing it. I've been baring the brunt, the financial responsibility, so there's been a lot of people that for, not just a few weeks, I mean, for several months now, have not been able to actively participate in the company, and I have kept all those people on. We haven't let anybody go through the pandemic, because I know it's a very challenging time to go out and get work. I made this statement early in the pandemic that we haven't let anybody go. We still haven't let anybody go. I can't do that forever. Eventually, this company will have to sever ties with people, but so far we haven't let anybody go and there's a lot of people overseas right now that have not been able to get over here. And, at some point, I had to look at how sustainable that is with travel, but to date we've kept everybody on. There are a couple people that have nothing to do with the pandemic, but due to their own conduct I suspended without pay while I try to decide what I'm going to do with them, but everybody else here we've kept on and paid through this whole thing, which hasn't been easy, but I think it was the right thing to do. We had great revenue streams that would have made it a lot easier from the live events. Obviously, we do huge gates and we had tons of big six-figure gates coming up every single week, and it's millions, and millions, and millions of dollars in gate receipts that are gone and we'll never get now. People always say, "You can go and you can do those arenas later," and it's like, "Yeah, but we would have done that anyway. We do every Wednesday." We've lost months and months of revenue that we won't get back, and that's okay. I mean, there's people with bigger problems in the world than this, and if we were a tiny company that was hamstrung and didn't have financial resources, then we wouldn't be able to sustain it. A company that didn't have our resources would've almost certainly laid off a lot of people and let people go, but it wasn't the right thing for us to do at the time. And, so far, through the last several months, it hasn't been the right thing to do. Like I said, I think there will come a day when I'm going to have to reevaluate the roster, because I think, at some point, there's people who aren't actively participating I probably need to look at that. But, right now, I don't think it's anybody's fault that they haven't been able to be here.
Mike Johnson: This Wednesday, Fight for the Fallen is going to air on TNT. The main event is Jon Moxley taking on Brian Cage, who has now been christened the FTW Champion. Obviously this was originally scheduled for FyterFest, but circumstances beyond your control led to the match being moved to tonight, Wednesday night.
Tony Khan: Yeah. We were always going to do Fight for the Fallen. I mean, Fight for the Fallen, today's the one year anniversary and it's going to be, I guess, a year and two days later, but this is the same week. I always wanted to do Fight for the Fallen and raise money for COVID. The card got shaken up a little bit and things have changed a little bit, but Jon Moxley and Brian Cage were originally going to be part of the two-day FyterFest that we had the last two weeks. It worked out, I think. We were able to have a great FyterFest over the past couple weeks. The issue between Jon and Brian is, I think, hotter than ever, so it worked out very well. Fight for the Fallen is a huge show for us. And I'm glad that we can do something to give back. That's the idea of Fight for the Fallen is giving back. So, putting such a huge match on the card, I think it's going to work out great, because, hopefully, it'll drive a lot of awareness. I mean, obviously, I want to always do a good rating for the show, but also I think the first and foremost thing about Fight for the Fallen is if we can raise a lot of money for charity, which I think we can. Every little bit helps, so please if anybody out there would be willing to make a donation. Last year we gave proceeds from the Live Gate and we gave, I think, it was $125,000 to the Mayor's Victim Assistance Fund of the victims of violent crimes locally here in Northeast Florida. This year, while that's still a very pressing issue, this year it was something new that had attacked us, which is Coronavirus. So to deal with the response this year, Fight for the Fallen we're doing things to benefit Florida's First Coast Relief Fund and also Feeding Northeast Florida. You can donate to these causes on our website, aewfightforthefallen.com. We also established a T-shirt that's sells at PWTees at prowrestlingtees.com, and it's the top selling shirt at Pro Wrestling Tees by far the last few days, which is awesome, because all the profits are going to charity. And I think Pro Wrestling Tees, their end of it too, they're going to donate to charity, which is awesome. So all the profits from both AEW and Pro Wrestling Tees will be going to these good causes and it's a cool shirt, and it represents a great card. Brian Cage and Jon Moxley is a huge match. Taz really threw some gasoline under the issue, bringing the FTW title back. And that is another fun layer of the story.
Mike Johnson: I don't think anybody expected the FTW title to pop up on Dynamite last week as part of FyterFest. Where did that idea come from? Obviously, Taz has had possession of that belt forever, but when did that idea start to come into the discussion, in terms of the creative build for the Moxley-Cage main event?
Tony Khan: Well, it was a few weeks ago. Taz told me he had it. And immediately, that's when the idea struck me to do this. Then I asked him to bring it down and get it down here. And Taz's son, Tyler, who is a great kid, traveled down with it and came down and got tested, and joined us in the bubble. Tyler brought it and then we had it. Taz presenting it to Brian was a really important part of the presentation. I think Taz and Brian, it was good that it wasn't the first thing they did together, because they really had become associated. Brian was always supposed to debut in that casino ladder match, as soon as we got his diagnosis that he was going to be out until May. This thing had been planned for a long time for Brian to make the big intro, and make the big splash, and challenge Moxley. Brian and Taz, they've established a rapport on television. When Taz told me he still had the belt, it was a perfect thing to add to the story I thought. And so, a couple weeks ago, when it came up, I really jumped on it. Once I found out he had it, and we were able to use it, I wanted to make it a part of the story. I wouldn't have done it without his blessing. I mean, he's the one who told me he had it. So once he said he still had possession of it, and I checked, and we're cleared to use it, then, at that point, I was like, "This is, to me, almost like a no brainer. It adds so much to the story, to the presentation of Brian. It's so much credibility, the FTW title." I grew up watching ECW, as you know, and that belt meant a lot. Even though it's not a recognized championship, when it was defended, or when you saw it, it felt like it was part of the presentation of Taz as one of the top wrestlers in the sport. And I think it can be the same thing for Brian Cage. So I was really excited about it, as soon as Taz told me he still had that belt, and then when I realized that we could use it. It was a few weeks ago.
Mike Johnson: The match on the card on Wednesday that I'm personally excited for is Cody against Sonny Kiss. I feel like in a company where everybody gets to exploit and showcase their athletic gifts to a crazy degree, if there's somebody who was underrated or maybe hadn't gotten the spotlight of some of the other members of the roster, in my mind, it was Sonny Kiss. For me, this is the biggest match she's ever had in her career, and I've seen her since she first started wrestling in the New York City area years ago. What are your thoughts on Sonny against Cody this Wednesday, because I think there's going to be a lot of people who are inspired by that match, and a lot of people who are going to feel that they are represented by that match. Beyond that, athletically, those two can really go, and I think it can be something truly special. Even with Lucha Brothers against FTR on the card, which sounds amazing, the TNT title bout is the match that I look at and I go, "I can't wait to see what they're going to do when the bell rings." I wanted to ask you about the background of making that decision to put that match on Fight for the Fallen.
Tony Khan: It shows how far Sonny's come, because a year ago on Fight for the Fallen, Sonny was on the opening of the buy-in with the Librarian, Peter Avalon, and now to be wrestling Cody for the TNT championship, Sonny's come a long way in a year, as a character, but also as a worker. Sonny's gotten much better. Sonny's wrestling is drastically better than it was a year ago in my opinion. I think Sonny being the tag team with Joey Janela has been really good for both of them. And that is a product of the pandemic. When we were doing shows down here and putting people in the crowd, I was trying different things, and it was a different roster early in the pandemic than it was before the pandemic. And I think we're seeing that with other places now. I watched New Japan's Dominion over the weekend, and it was a very different set of people and stories than it was before they shutdown. A lot changed and it was clearly they pivoted a lot of their contests, and if they didn't, then they were just going to jump into a lot of abrupt stuff. I think they must have changed a lot of what they were thinking. I think it's affected what everybody was going to do. For me, going back to it... Over the past year, I mean, Sonny has come so far in the past year, as a wrestler, and the presentation. And I think the team with Joey has been a huge boost to both of them. It's been a vehicle for both of them to be on Dynamite a little bit more. They had a great match with Brodie Lee and Colt Cabana. Sonny got involved in Joey's match with Brodie Lee. And now Joey can be there to support Sonny in this TNT title match. It's been good for them to get their ring time to get ready for this. They've had a great success on Dark, and it was really something that they got down here for the pandemic and I asked them to start doing tag matches on Dark, because it was a good chance to showcase both of them. They were primarily, early in the pandemic, being showcased on Dynamite more so as the audience people. But because they were here, and they were a big part of the roster that we had available to us, I wanted to find something for them that they could sink their teeth into, and that was that tag team. They've come a long way as a team and as individuals. I think it's helped them both a lot. And so, for Sonny, I think it's really cool that over the past year that Sonny's earned this chance, and a very logical challenger for Cody. Cody and I sit together and put together the list of people to come in for these, and we talk them all through. This is one that there's some he nominated, and I got very excited about. A good example of that would be Ricky Starks, where Cody brought the name in and was like, "Here's a few guys. What do you think of these?" And that was the one I really liked was Ricky Starks. This is one where I listed a couple people and Cody was like, "Yes," and he really liked that one. That's a great idea with Sonny. For me, I think it's going to be a really great match on the show, great card, and that's one of the best stories on the show certainly is how far Sonny has come.
Interview continues on Page 3!
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