Tony Khan Names Former Champion As One Of AEW’s Best Signings Ever
Tony Khan believes one of the most experienced wrestlers he hired years ago is one of the best talents signed in AEW history.
There is a feeling of nostalgia in All Elite Wrestling this weekend because it’s the fifth anniversary of the company’s first show, AEW Double Or Nothing 2019. Since then, the AEW roster built by Owner Tony Khan has been full of wrestlers who didn’t have television experience and many people who used to work for WWE as well.
One of those ex-WWE names is the former TNT Champion Christian Cage, who AEW hired in March 2021 just after Cage had wrestled in the Royal Rumble in January 2021. Cage made a big comeback that night after not wrestling for several years. Instead of bringing him back to WWE for more, Cage chose to leave the company and Tony Khan signed him to the AEW roster instead.
Since joining AEW, Cage has had plenty of success first as a veteran babyface who was aligned with Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy and then becoming one of the most vicious heels in the company with Killswitch (Luchasaurus) by his side. Christian has used the hatred of the fans to become one of the best wrestlers in the company who will challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Title at Double or Nothing.
At the AEW Double Or Nothing media call, Tony Khan praised Christian Cage by calling him an MVP of AEW television.
“I think Swerve Strickland is a great, great champion for AEW. He has really done very well for us since winning the championship. He’s been involved in some major segments, had a great first defense of the title against Claudio Castagnoli on a really important episode of TV.”
“Then we’ve got Christian Cage, who has been, in my opinion, an MVP of AEW television over the past year. What Christian Cage has done for the company is unbelievable.”
“I absolutely believed that was what we were gonna get when we signed him, and I think it’s been proven right. I think Christian Cage is one of the best signings we’ve ever made in AEW. All the hype around his signing was very justified because he’s one of the greatest wrestlers in the world, and he’s done the best work of his career in AEW.”
Tony Khan Changes The Date Of AEW All Out
There was a unique situation on the AEW calendar in 2023 when the All In PPV took place on August 27th in London, England and then one week later on September 3rd, they did the All Out PPV in Chicago. Recently, AEW announced a change to the 2024 schedule where All In will take place on August 25th and then All Out will be on September 11th rather than September 4th on Labour Day weekend.
During a recent interview, Tony Khan explained moving All Out back one week.
“It was really a great two-week period last year of back-to-back weekends with All In and All Out. There was a lot of feedback of, ‘Hey, what about more time between the shows?’ and they’re both holiday weekends and I think there’s a utility to both the weekends.
Labor Day weekend has been really kind around Chicago to AEW. I wanted to continue putting AEW on in September and I wanted to give the fans in Chicago a great show and I was thinking how can I give them an even better show. Coming off the stadium show, it’s hard to come in and do anything the week after that but last year we did it and the show was fantastic and a lot of people thought All Out was the best event of the entire year.”