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00:00By focusing on the wrestling and really making that the thing I care about the most, the thing I look at the most, making the shows good, the rivalry strong, and putting on great pay-per-view events is something we've always really succeeded at.
00:15And our TV shows, I think, have been more consistently excellent in the past couple of years than ever before.
00:30What's up, you guys? Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast.
00:37Today, I am joined by my co-host, the president of All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan.
00:42I told you, last time you were here, because you've been on here for so many times, you're now a co-host.
00:46I appreciate it. It's great to be on with you again. I always love being on the Battleground with you.
00:53And thanks for having me on today. It's going to be a great AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite tonight.
00:58I'm very excited, and it's always great to be on your show.
01:02And it's always great to have you. And, of course, AEW Dynamite tonight.
01:05I mean, you look at the photo right there behind you. That's obviously a dream match a lot of people want to talk about.
01:11Kenny Omega versus Andre El Idolo.
01:15What's it like now being able to have Andrade back on TV and being able to put him in matches like this with Kenny tonight?
01:22This is a huge match with massive stakes. I'm so excited for tonight's show.
01:26It is so great to have Andrade El Idolo back in AEW.
01:31I think Andrade is better than ever right now.
01:33And it's so great to have Kenny Omega in top form when Kenny Omega is firing on all cylinders.
01:40AEW's at its best.
01:41And it's great to have Kenny at his best, Andrade at his best.
01:45And it's going to be an awesome Dynamite.
01:47There's a lot of really great things happening in AEW right now.
01:51So it's a great time for me to come back to the battleground with a huge Wednesday Night Dynamite plan for tonight.
01:58Yeah.
01:58And you talk about the best.
02:00And we all know that AEW is where the best wrestle.
02:02And one of the big signings that you recently got, Tommaso Ciampa, which shocked everybody coming to AEW.
02:09And literally, second night there, wins the TNT title so quickly.
02:14Walk us through it.
02:15How did it all come together?
02:16Kind of behind the scenes, pull the curtains back in.
02:18Why put the title on him so quickly?
02:21I thought it was a very exciting thing.
02:23It was an awesome collision this past Saturday.
02:26After a really great Dynamite last Wednesday, I thought we followed up with a really tremendous live collision.
02:32It was our last collision in the Dallas residency.
02:35We were in Arlington around the Dallas Metroplex.
02:38And we'd had these great events.
02:40And because Dallas had been hit hard with the weather and the fans were unable to come out,
02:47a lot of events got canceled.
02:49And for us, we ended up moving the collision show two Saturdays ago.
02:53So I wanted to give the fans something really, really special.
02:57And when Ciampa became available, I thought that was such an exciting development.
03:02He's such a great wrestler.
03:03He has great history in Ring of Honor.
03:05And he's never been in AEW.
03:06And talk about somebody who is a fantastic wrestler.
03:11AEW is where the best wrestle.
03:13So when the top free agents become available, I've always wanted to sign them.
03:17Whether it's somebody who's never wrestled in AEW before, like Tommaso Ciampa,
03:21the new TNT champion after this fantastic match he had versus Mark Briscoe for the TNT title.
03:28I thought that was just outstanding.
03:30And whether it's a new free agent, somebody that's never been here like Ciampa,
03:36or somebody coming back like Andrade El Idolo making his return to AEW,
03:41and somebody that's wrestling, I believe, again, better than ever,
03:45going into their match against one of the best wrestlers ever, in my opinion, Kenny Omega.
03:50And I cannot wait for this Dynamite tonight.
03:54It's going to be a fantastic show.
03:56We're coming off this great collision, like you mentioned.
03:58We have a new TNT champion.
04:00And tonight on TBS, and you can stream it on HBO Max,
04:04this is the kind of wrestling show I've always wanted to put on TBS,
04:09to have such a stacked lineup of big matches like we have tonight.
04:13And certainly, when you talk about huge matches,
04:16I'm so excited for Kenny Omega versus Andrade El Idolo,
04:20and a lot more to talk about, a lot more to look forward to on Dynamite tonight.
04:25And I always love being on the show with you, Tim.
04:27Thanks for having me on.
04:28You've always been somebody that's given AEW great coverage
04:31and give us a chance to talk about why all elite wrestling is where the best wrestle.
04:36And even coming to the show with your son and sitting ringside as a fan
04:40and making a fan out of your son, I always love being on your show.
04:45So thanks for having me on to talk about AEW tonight.
04:48Absolutely.
04:48And we always love having you on here.
04:50And it's always great getting to talk with you.
04:52And, you know, we've talked about this.
04:55And everybody from the roster that's been on, they have hammered at home.
04:59AEW is where the best wrestle.
05:00And one of the best wrestlers, I would say, of all time,
05:03you and I both could probably agree, is Sting.
05:06Something really cool recently that I saw on social media
05:09is Sting's son, Steve Borden, using Sting's old WCW theme song
05:15that Turbocharged, how did that come about?
05:18And who made that call?
05:20I wanted to use that song.
05:22It was my idea.
05:23It's a song that was in a library.
05:24And we made a deal to get a certain number of plays.
05:28We haven't used it on air yet.
05:29But we have a deal to use Turbocharged,
05:33which is a track that was available through a music library.
05:36And I love licensing great music.
05:38And that's one of my favorite songs from my childhood.
05:41I think about it all the time.
05:42And I thought it would be really cool for Steven to come out to it.
05:45And Steven still has never been on AEW TV,
05:48but he's somebody we're developing.
05:50And I have so much respect for Steven.
05:53He's a rising young wrestler.
05:55He played college football at Kentucky.
05:57I followed his football career.
05:59And now I'm proud to say we're working on developing him
06:02as a pro wrestler for AEW.
06:04Again, AEW, we have the greatest wrestlers in the world.
06:08And one of the all-time greats,
06:10somebody who was undefeated in AEW, is Sting.
06:14And absolutely, Steven, and developing him for the future
06:17is a huge priority to me and everyone in AEW.
06:20Yeah, absolutely, for sure.
06:21And you talk about developing that young talent.
06:24And of course, there was talks about Edge or Adam Copeland
06:29and FTR kind of opening up a school in the Carolinas
06:32and some other stuff.
06:33How does one develop an up-and-coming wrestler
06:38if you don't have kind of like a home base,
06:40like a training facility?
06:41Well, we have training facilities,
06:43and we've had Steven stay for extended periods.
06:47There's great trainers in AEW.
06:49First of all, that Adam Copeland and FTR school,
06:52I've always been really excited about the idea of that.
06:55It's a really personal set of differences that's happened
07:01with FTR and Adam Copeland.
07:03When you bring somebody's family into it,
07:05when you attack someone's family, that changes things.
07:08And there's a lot of animosity between FTR and Adam Copeland.
07:14So that really makes it untenable for them to go do this school,
07:17which I was so excited about.
07:19I think that would be another great place in Asheville, North Carolina,
07:22where we have these great wrestlers if they could ever get back on the same page.
07:26Right now, I don't know if that'll ever be possible,
07:30but certainly you had these great wrestlers there in that base.
07:33In the New York area, Pat Buck is a great trainer.
07:37In Atlanta, QT Marshall trains.
07:39Dustin Rhodes is training wrestlers in Texas.
07:42We have some of the best trainers developing wrestlers in the different areas.
07:47So absolutely, the wrestlers have gone there and benefited.
07:50Steven's done a lot of training and development work with us in Texas,
07:53but also in Georgia in the Nightmare Factory and working with QT.
07:58He's wrestled against QT.
08:00And for me, absolutely, I think that having a base is important,
08:05but that's also why it's important to wrestle in front of crowds and different crowds.
08:09So we've had Steven wrestling dark matches right now
08:13and working on building him for the future
08:16because he's somebody I think has tremendous star potential,
08:19certainly the great genetics,
08:21but somebody I followed as an athlete,
08:22again, going back to when he was a college football player,
08:25he played tight end at Kentucky.
08:28He was very good in the blocking.
08:30They didn't give him chances in the pass game as much
08:32because they didn't throw the ball back then to the tight end as much.
08:36But there's some great people there at University of Kentucky
08:39at the program at the time.
08:41There's been some great people since,
08:42including Liam Cohen, head coach of the Jaguars.
08:45And Steven certainly was a great football prospect.
08:49And that's actually when I first met him with scouting football
08:53and have stayed in touch with him over the years.
08:55And he's a tremendous athlete.
08:58And I'm really glad that he wants to get in the ring and wrestle.
09:02So something I'm excited about for the future of AEW.
09:05Yeah, absolutely.
09:06I think we're all excited,
09:07especially with that lineage of who his dad is.
09:09Obviously, it's going to be fun to watch him
09:12come into who Steve Borden is
09:15and jump out of his dad's shadow for sure.
09:18Now, when you look at the roster for AEW,
09:21it's stacked from top to bottom,
09:23both men and women's division.
09:25And, you know, as the guy that holds the pencil
09:28to try to figure out who gets what TV time,
09:31I know that you have said before,
09:33and everybody's asked about it,
09:34about Britt Baker's return at some point soon,
09:37just trying to kind of get her into the fold
09:39with a lot of storylines that are going on right now.
09:42Any update on potentially when we could see her back?
09:46Or...
09:46You asked.
09:47I really like Britt a lot.
09:49And I think there's so many exciting things
09:51happening in the women's division.
09:52So Britt's somebody I really like and respect a lot.
09:56And definitely think as we've evolved
09:59with more tag teams and singles wrestling opportunities
10:03now across multiple shows.
10:05Now that we have four hours of TV
10:07with Dynamite and Collision,
10:08I think there's going to be more and more opportunities.
10:10You're seeing I'm signing a lot more young wrestlers
10:13and Britt's still somebody very highly regarded
10:16and respected here in AEW.
10:18So I would expect to see Britt back in AEW.
10:21I just don't want to say when.
10:23Well, we'll just have to tune in to AEW every week.
10:27Dynamite, Collision, everywhere else in between.
10:29Because you never know when she's going to pop up.
10:31Because, I mean, Tony's not going to tell us,
10:33hey, Britt's going to be there tonight.
10:34You just have to watch the programming.
10:36It's going to be a good thing for everybody
10:38when Britt returns.
10:39And I think it's going to be very, very good
10:42in terms of for AEW right now,
10:45when you look at how the roster has evolved,
10:47there's more and more fresh matches.
10:49There's a lot more people to wrestle
10:51and fresh rivalries, chance to revisit old rivalries.
10:54But certainly the women's division,
10:56I think we've grown so much
10:58and added new stars in the past year alone.
11:01So many great young wrestlers that have come into AEW.
11:05So I think there's going to be more fresh matchups
11:07and rivalries.
11:08And Britt's somebody I would absolutely love
11:10to have back in AEW soon.
11:11Oh, man.
11:12It'll be an exciting time for sure.
11:14Can't wait to hear that pop on TV when it happens.
11:16You know, the Fight Forever game,
11:19that was a big cultural win for AEW.
11:22Putting a wrestling video game out there.
11:25Is there any talks?
11:26Because I knew that there was some rumblings online.
11:28Is there talks for maybe another AEW video game?
11:31Or is it kind of more focusing on the real wrestling
11:34and not the video game wrestling?
11:37Well, at some point, I would like to have more games.
11:40And we have released games on different platforms,
11:43mobile games.
11:44And I think that absolutely,
11:47there's going to be more and more opportunities.
11:49Really, to your point,
11:51I try to focus as much as possible on the wrestling.
11:54It's a wrestling show.
11:56We put on wrestling shows, live events,
11:58and TV every week, including tonight,
12:018 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central,
12:04where you're located, Tim.
12:05It'll be on tonight, hours from now.
12:08And every Wednesday night and Saturday night,
12:11we always try to put on the very best show.
12:13And I think we're off to a great start in 26.
12:16And by focusing on the wrestling
12:18and really making that the thing I care about the most,
12:22the thing I look at the most,
12:23making the shows good,
12:25the rivalry strong,
12:26and putting on great pay-per-view events
12:28is something we've always really succeeded at.
12:31And our TV shows, I think,
12:33have been more consistently excellent
12:35in the past couple of years than ever before.
12:38Now that we have this really great thing
12:40with Wednesday night TBS
12:42and Saturday night TNT
12:44and all the shows being available on HBO Max,
12:48we've really settled in this past year.
12:51And the accolades that have poured in for 2025 here
12:54in the beginning of 26,
12:57it's amazing.
12:58It's such an incredible thing.
13:00And to have a huge outlet like Sports Illustrated
13:04choose AEW as the best pro wrestling promotion
13:07in the world,
13:08and to have the top outlets like ESPN,
13:12Sports Illustrated, and Yahoo
13:13all picking AEW events
13:16as their favorite event of the year.
13:19But then you've got,
13:20for just as an example,
13:22ESPN said they thought the best wrestling show
13:24all year was AEW Revolution.
13:26We've had Sports Illustrated
13:30and numerous outlets saying
13:32that they thought the best event all year
13:34was Double or Nothing.
13:36And then we've had
13:38the New York Post, Yahoo, Fightful,
13:40so many wrestling sources
13:42saying AEW All-In Texas
13:44was the best wrestling event of the year.
13:46So for me,
13:47I think that really
13:49the kind of coverage
13:51and the kind of success
13:53we had in 2025
13:55being so positive,
13:56I think that in 2026,
13:59we set a really high standard
14:01for ourselves.
14:02And so far,
14:03I think we're off to a great start.
14:05Revolution's going to be an awesome show,
14:07March 15th on pay-per-view.
14:08We're heading to Grand Slam Australia
14:11coming up in a few weeks.
14:13And tonight,
14:15we've got this massive, massive show.
14:17It's a stacked lineup.
14:18In addition to the Kenny Omega,
14:20Andrade Alidolo match,
14:22we talked about.
14:23I'm very excited to have MJF
14:26in an Eliminator match
14:27against Brody King tonight.
14:30That's going to be tremendous
14:31and a lot more to look forward to
14:33on this show as well.
14:35I have to say, Tim,
14:37coming in,
14:39since I saw you very recently,
14:41just in the past couple months
14:43in person at the show,
14:45and that was, I believe,
14:47Thanksgiving Eve,
14:48boy, there's been a lot
14:50of amazing stuff since then.
14:52It wasn't that long ago
14:53that I saw you around the holidays.
14:56And think about all the great things
14:57that have happened.
14:58Jon Moxley was victorious
15:00in what I think
15:01might have been
15:02the greatest wrestling tournament
15:03I've ever seen in my life.
15:05The Continental Classic in 2025.
15:08We've got this fascinating
15:10world championship scene.
15:12MJF tonight
15:13in the Eliminator match
15:14with Brody King.
15:15everybody's chasing
15:16this opportunity
15:17to go to Revolution
15:18and fight
15:20whoever the champion is.
15:22MJF possibly
15:23could be Brody King
15:24getting a title shot
15:26after tonight as well.
15:27So many things
15:28happening in AEW
15:29and big-time rivalries,
15:32big-time matches.
15:33And I have to say, Tim,
15:36you've been here ringside
15:38literally at times
15:40and certainly
15:41figuratively.
15:43I think I've probably
15:44been on your show
15:45more times than any other guest
15:46over the years.
15:48And I really appreciate that.
15:50I think that you've
15:51always been so kind
15:52to me in AEW
15:53and however we can
15:55repay the kindness to you,
15:56I'm really grateful
15:56for the chances
15:58you give me to talk about
15:59our shows,
16:00including the one
16:00tonight on TBS.
16:02Absolutely.
16:03And it's always,
16:04like I said,
16:04always an honor
16:05and a privilege
16:05to have you on the show.
16:06I mean,
16:07you've taken very good care
16:09of us every time
16:10AEW's been in here
16:11and you're always good
16:13and Liam's always asking
16:14about what's Tony doing
16:17and he tells me,
16:18hey, can you email him?
16:20I have an idea for a match
16:22and I'm like,
16:22sure.
16:23My nine-year-old
16:24wants to email Tony
16:26a match idea
16:27so I'll tell him
16:27that he's been practicing
16:28with his wrestling figures.
16:30But again,
16:31we thank you
16:32for everything
16:33that you do for us
16:34and, you know,
16:36with all this new content,
16:39Dynamite,
16:39Collision,
16:40Pay-Per-Views,
16:41everything,
16:43how do you balance
16:44giving, you know,
16:45legends their due
16:47while making space
16:48for fresh stars?
16:50I think every week
16:51we're trying to
16:52constantly give opportunities
16:54to the very best wrestlers,
16:56which is the AEW roster.
16:59So there's a lot
17:00of great people here
17:02and absolutely every week
17:04I'm trying to put on
17:05a great show
17:06but also build matches
17:08for the future
17:08and keep a lot of wrestlers
17:10in the mix.
17:11I think over the past year
17:13you've seen so many
17:14great matches on AEW TV
17:16featuring so many
17:17different women and men
17:18and in 2026
17:20you can expect that
17:21to continue.
17:22We have a really deep roster
17:23and we're building
17:24exciting rivalries,
17:26some new teams being formed
17:28and that is also
17:30one of the reasons
17:31I'm really excited
17:32about the women's
17:33tag team division now
17:34giving us more opportunities
17:36to feature more women
17:38in more exciting matches
17:39and also we already have
17:41the best tag team wrestling
17:42in the world.
17:43We have for years
17:44great teams that have
17:46been around
17:46like the Young Bucks
17:47and FTR,
17:48new teams like Brodito,
17:50one of the best teams
17:51of the year
17:52and absolutely now
17:54with some of the top
17:55women's tag teams as well.
17:57So singles and tag teams,
17:59AEW is where the best wrestle
18:00and I'm excited
18:03about giving more
18:04and more young wrestlers
18:05these opportunities.
18:06So I've tried to add
18:07a lot of great young wrestlers
18:08to the roster
18:08in the past year
18:10and particularly
18:11in recent months
18:12and we're giving
18:13them opportunities
18:14but also giving
18:15great chances
18:16to the veteran stars
18:17including some of them
18:18that have been in AEW
18:19from the very beginning.
18:20Right, absolutely.
18:21And of course,
18:22you said you've got
18:23multiple times
18:24a week that you could
18:25watch wrestling
18:26when it comes to AEW.
18:27You got Wednesday Night Dynamite
18:28which you can watch tonight
18:298-7 Central,
18:30TBS, HBO Max.
18:32You got Collision on Saturdays.
18:34You've got ROH
18:35during the week as well.
18:37Is there any update
18:38that you could give us
18:39about possibly
18:40an ROH TV deal?
18:41Is that still kind of
18:43in the works
18:43or is that
18:44anything you want to say?
18:46I definitely
18:47am still evaluating
18:49the best opportunities
18:50for AEW
18:50and ROH
18:51strategically
18:52and trying to put on
18:53exciting events.
18:54ROH has had
18:55so many great matches.
18:56Even recently,
18:57I'm excited about
18:58the upcoming
18:59Global Wars
19:00ROH Metroplex show.
19:03We filmed some great stuff
19:04for ROH
19:04that's going to be airing
19:05in the weeks to come.
19:07We have top champions there
19:08and I'm really proud
19:10of what we did.
19:11I think 2025
19:11was my favorite year
19:13start to finish
19:14of all the ROH.
19:15The first year,
19:16we had three
19:17excellent pay-per-views
19:18with some of the best
19:19wrestling matches
19:20I think ever
19:21including to me
19:22the FTR
19:23versus the Briscoes
19:24trilogy
19:24probably the greatest
19:25tag team wrestling
19:26trilogy ever
19:27and one of the greatest
19:28wrestling trilogies
19:29I think ever
19:29and what a great
19:33privilege it was
19:34to work with
19:35the late great
19:35Jay Briscoe
19:36as well as
19:37Mark Briscoe
19:38and of course
19:39FTR
19:40the AEW World Tag Team Champions
19:41and doing these
19:43ROH shows
19:44I think this year
19:46we put on
19:47great pay-per-views
19:48and also had
19:48great TV events.
19:50We had Global Wars Mexico
19:51and huge matches
19:53all over the world
19:53so we did some
19:55really exciting things
19:56and the people
19:56who watched ROH
19:57I really believe
19:58would tell you
19:58that a lot of
19:59the best wrestling
20:00in the world
20:01this past year
20:01and best events
20:02came in ROH
20:03so I can't say
20:05exactly when
20:06and how
20:07we'll be showing
20:08the TV to more people
20:09but there's a great
20:10platform right now
20:12with WatchROH.com
20:13that does well for us
20:14and that's why
20:16I've stuck with that
20:17for now
20:17until I figure out
20:18the best solution
20:19that works for everyone
20:21including AEW
20:22and I think
20:23there's a lot
20:23of exciting opportunities
20:24for AEW
20:25and ROH
20:26coming up.
20:27Absolutely
20:28and of course
20:28again tonight
20:29AEW Dynamite
20:30Stack Card
20:31you've got
20:32Kenny Omega
20:32Andrade
20:33Alilo
20:34you've got
20:34MJF
20:35and Brody King
20:36and you know
20:37at the end of the day
20:38we're all wrestling fans
20:40I know you're a wrestling fan
20:41and recently
20:42we saw the retirement
20:43of one AJ Styles
20:45who has a lot of history
20:46with a lot of the roster
20:47that you have there
20:48with them
20:49what does somebody
20:51like AJ Styles
20:51mean to wrestling
20:53in general?
20:54Oh I'm a huge fan
20:55of AJ Styles
20:56I think he's incredible
20:58he's had great matches
21:00all over the world
21:01we were just talking
21:02about ROH
21:03he did some incredible
21:04things in ROH
21:05that are a part
21:06of our library
21:06and also with our partners
21:08at New Japan Pro Wrestling
21:09he was involved
21:10in some of the
21:11all-time greatest matches
21:12his match with Minoru Suzuki
21:14is one of my
21:14all-time favorites
21:15and he's had great matches
21:17with multiple companies
21:18all over the world
21:19he's never been
21:20in AEW before
21:21but he certainly
21:22with a lot of the
21:23promotions we work with
21:24and of course
21:26in ROH
21:26he has a great history
21:27and for me
21:28he's one of my
21:29all-time favorites
21:30just personally
21:30in my opinion
21:31I think he's one
21:32of the greatest
21:32wrestlers ever
21:33so I have only
21:34the highest praise
21:35for AJ Styles
21:36thanks for asking
21:37absolutely
21:38well Tony
21:39I don't want to
21:39take up too much
21:40of your time
21:40because you got
21:40to get ready
21:41for AEW Dynamite
21:42tonight
21:42with that stacked lineup
21:43before we let you go
21:45anything you want
21:45to say to the fans
21:47right now
21:47that are watching
21:48or listening to this
21:48right now
21:49I really appreciate you
21:50thank you to everybody
21:51who supports AEW
21:52we've got a great
21:54great show
21:55coming up tonight
21:56thank you again
21:57Tim gave a great plug
21:58it's at 8 p.m. Eastern
21:59or 7 p.m. Central
22:01in your time zone
22:02Tim
22:02tonight
22:03it's on TBS
22:05you can stream it
22:05on HBO Max
22:06just to reiterate
22:07the things he said
22:08and promote the show
22:09but outside of the
22:11promotion of the show
22:12I'm very grateful
22:13to you Tim
22:14and to everybody
22:14at the Battleground
22:15and to all the listeners
22:17that you've had me on
22:19so many times
22:20your loyal listeners
22:21all over the country
22:22have really been
22:23great supporters
22:24of AEW
22:25and I really appreciate
22:26all these opportunities
22:27and I hope to see you
22:29again very soon
22:30here on the show
22:30but also in person
22:32at the AEW events
22:33absolutely
22:34well Tony
22:35it's an honor
22:36and privilege
22:36to have you on the show
22:37looking forward
22:38to watching AEW Dynamite
22:39tonight
22:39again
22:408, 7 Central
22:41TBS
22:41HBO Max
22:42and of course
22:43Collision every Saturday night
22:44Tony
22:44again
22:45it's great to have you on
22:46and I look forward
22:47to talking to you again sir
22:48you too
22:49thanks again Tim
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