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AEW’s Tony Khan Comments on Criticism of the Ending to Deathmatch at Revolution, Signing Christian Cage

Here are some media conference call highlights from AEW’s Owner/General Manager/Booker Tony Khan following the Revolution pay-per-view on Sunday night.

This is how Tony explained the disappointing ending to the show where AEW was promoting some big explosion after Jon Moxley’s Death Match with Kenny Omega, which ended with a very weak explosion that led to a lot of fans complaining online. When it looked like Moxley would be in the ring as explosives went off, Eddie Kingston went into the ring to cover his friend. That led to the disappointing “explosion” that has been mocked by fans.

“I think we’re all lucky that the bomb going off at the end didn’t really hurt anybody…Kenny’s big master plan — he built a dud. Who would have thought when he drew the big plan with crayons that maybe the bomb might not fail to take both guys out.”

“But at the end, I don’t know what people really wanted unless you wanted us to actually explode the guys at the end, there’s only so much you can do. So without actually blowing the ring and blowing both guys up, I think the basic explanation is Kenny’s ring was set to explode and his plan as a heel who built this thing with a hammer and nails as we saw, the final bomb just didn’t go off.” (Wrestling Observer)

Here’s what Moxley had to say about it while mocking Omega’s explosive making skills.

https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1368796933989539840

Tony Khan also discussed AEW signing 47-year-old former WWE World Champion and TNA World Champion Christian Cage to a multi-year deal. Christian’s last match was at WWE’s Royal Rumble in January and prior to that it was about seven years earlier due to concussion problems. Here’s what Khan had to say about the signing:

“He’s been a friend of mine for a long time. I met Christian Cage seven years ago, he’s a great person. I’ve always really liked him as a person, but long before then I was a huge, huge fan of him as a wrestling. I think he’s one of the great wrestlers the past couple decades. He’s had great matches in different companies. He’s a great singles wrestler, a great tag champion. I think he adds a lot here. He’s one of the best minds in wrestling, and he’s in great physical condition.”

“We saw him very recently compete on pay-per-view, and there was a lot of interest in it. It generated a lot of interest. He was interested in wrestling on a regular basis, and he gave me a call. He said, ‘I’d really like to come wrestle in AEW.’ And I said, ‘I’d really like to have you come wrestle in AEW for me, that sounds awesome.’ It all came together great.”

“It came up in the last few weeks. Paul [Wight] and I had been talking and were trying to put together a deal while I was trying to launch Elevation, and that took a little bit more time to come together as we were putting that deal together, and that one I kept a secret a little bit longer. This one came together pretty quickly. Christian Cage had just recently returned to the ring and looked incredibly impressive, and I was not aware that he did not have a contract and was going to be interested in wrestling for us.”

“He’s a friend of mine, and I didn’t know he would be [interested in] coming here. Never in a million years would I have imagined it. Now I’m kind of kicking myself he wasn’t here when I saw him come back [at the Royal Rumble]. He got a great reaction. I can’t say it enough. I have so much respect for him. All the wrestlers here, this locker room has so much respect for Christian Cage as one of the great minds, the great wrestlers. So many people here consider him one of their heroes, and it’s great that the younger generation is going to get to wrestle against somebody who is known for being one of the best minds, not a selfish person at all, who’s looking to share their knowledge with all these young wrestlers.” (WrestlingInc)

Tony Khan also explained AEW expanding their content this year and that’s why a guy like Christian Cage is a big asset for them.

“We have so many wrestlers in their 20s, and we’re expanding our content this year. We’re doing more shows with the Dark extension now, and Elevation launching in a week on the 15th, but also launching another hour on TNT. So we’re expanding the roster, and having someone awesome and a great headliner like Christian Cage is amazing, and also against some of our main-eventers, there’s some of them he has great history with, and other main-eventers on this card that he can have great dream matches with that people thought they were never going to see. And I know there’s great interest in him because I know there has been great interest in him in just the past several weeks.”

Christian Cage will make his first appearance on AEW Dynamite this Wednesday.