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Since we have gotten a lot of questions about who books what within All Elite Wrestling, AEW President Tony Khan has been the driving force behind the creative direction for many of the top AEW Dynamite storylines. The Jon Moxley-Inner Circle recruitment angle was a Khan idea (it was his father's car that Chris Jericho offered) with Jericho working side by side with Khan to help put together small details. That angle felt very much like a WCW Nitro storyline and Khan spent a lot of time studying what made Nitro work while planning to launch AEW.
Chris Jericho is extremely engaged in every story and segment he is involved in (which obviously shows) and has been a big locker room leader in terms of pulling younger talents over to help guide and teach them and give them advice.
Khan has also been specifically working on building Jungle Boy and Scorpio Sky, among others, as long-term prospects. Sky was handpicked from the start as a future player, to the point that Chris Jericho's throwaway line in his promo backstage at All Out after winning the AEW title as he passed SCU that Scorpio Sky would never get a title shot was meant to foreshadow everything that would come down the line with Sky getting a shot on Dynamite last year.
The EVPs (Kenny Omega, Young Bucks, Cody) are given a lot of freedom for their matches and segments - as they are in a position of strong trust - and there is a back and forth creative flow with Khan, but Khan is in the Vince McMahon role of having the final say
Khan is very hands on with all the Dynamite segments every week. At last night's taping, Khan was intimately involved in laying out the Jericho-Moxley segment that closed Dynamite, the ongoing Kenny Omega & Adam Page storyline as well as their tag bout with Private Party, The Best Friends vs. Jurassic Express six man tag team bout and The Rhodes Brothers vs. The Lucha Brothers. The Omega-Page storyline creative has been a Khan idea. Khan is not as involved in AEW Dark behind the scenes.
The Memphis Legends segment will appear on AEW Dark this Tuesday, possibly in a video package. Tony Khan was the one who pushed for the segment to be included on the taping as he was a huge fan of the old Memphis territory and was said to have been especially excited to have Lanny Poffo in attendance as he was a massive Randy Savage fan growing up. We are told that Bill Dundee was planned for the segment at one point and depending on who you speak to, some claim he was booked and then canceled. We are told it was also Khan's call to put Dave Brown live on Dynamite tonight, which was a pretty cool thing for old school Memphis fans and as noted earlier, was the first time Brown had ever called a nationally broadcast wrestling bout.
Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn's son, will be signing here shortly. He worked the Dark taping in Southaven, MS.
The belief among those we've spoken to is that Colt Cabana will be back once he completes commitments elsewhere.
There has been a big show of support backstage among those who work for the company towards BJ Whitmer given his recent personal issues. Whitmer announced last week that he was divorcing his wife.
There was zero talk backstage about a potential New Japan relationship last night beyond happiness over the exposure Chris Jericho's bout with Hiroshi Tanahashi gave the promotion. While Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, like Chris Jericho, have the right to work for NJPW, that offer to return has never come. The NJPW side was extremely unhappy about Omega's exit from the company and that burnt bridge has yet to repair itself.
That was Dr. Luther of FMW fame in the early 1990s debuting last night as a member of the Nightmare Collective.
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