Tony Khan ROH media call: CM Punk, AEW releases, WBD TV rights update
On the most newsworthy week of the wrestling year, AEW & Ring of Honor head Tony Khan had a lot of questions to answer on a Thursday media call designed to promote Friday’s Supercard of Honor — the audio of which can be heard below.
At the jump, Khan was asked about CM Punk’s critical comments of Khan’s leadership and of his AEW experience as a whole, but declined to answer. It was the only related question he got in the near-hourlong call.
Khan was also asked about Tuesday’s AEW releases given he had previously stated a difference with his companies were that he would honor deals until the end.
Khan said you have to make tough calls sometimes and that he plans to be very aggressive with going after top talent in an continued expansion effort. In order to do so, he said he needs “a war chest and to keep an eye on the budget.”
He then revealed that after thinking about the situation, Anthony Henry will return when he has healed up from a broken jaw. However, he also revealed that The Boys (Brandon & Brent Tate) were cut due to missing repeated shows — something that was known in the locker room.
Here’s some other notes:
- When asked about when the exclusive domestic TV rights negotiating window with Warner Bros Discovery is up, Khan declined to provide the date saying it was soon but that he didn’t want to get anyone in trouble by answering.
- Khan said some AEW/ROH talents are on tiered deals and some are on per appearance deals.
- A few more matches for the Zero Hour for Supercard of Honor have yet to be announced.
- He said it’s been “a lot easier” to work with Stardom now that Rossy Ogawa is gone, and is very happy about the changes Bushiroad made.
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