Why Tony Khan Doesn’t Want To Make AEW A Public Company
Tony Khan has a good reason why he doesn’t want AEW to become a publicly traded company.
It was in January 2019 when Tony Khan announced the launch of AEW. He was joined by Executive Vice Presidents like Cody Rhodes, Nick Jackson, and Matt Jackson while Kenny Omega would join a few months later. Some of the big names signed by AEW for their launch were WWE legends like Chris Jericho and Hall of Famer Jim Ross.
While AEW has had a lot of ups and downs in their six years, they are in a good spot considering they signed a massive TV deal in October 2024 with Warner Bros. Discovery that will pay them about $555 million over three years. That’s an average of $185 million a year with a fourth-year option. The deal also means that AEW’s shows that air on TBS & TNT are also streaming on the Max streaming service as well.
As AEW started 2025, they have been running smaller arenas with less than 3,000 fans for most episodes of Dynamite and Collision because their attendance numbers went down in the second half of 2024. Despite that, Tony Khan remains optimistic about his company.
In an interview with CNBC Sport, Tony Khan spoke about how this is AEW’s biggest year ever thanks to the massive TV/streaming deal with WBD.
“This is our biggest year ever. Our revenue is so much bigger now with our new contract. It’s much bigger, multiple times bigger than ever before on revenue because of our new deal. Which is, I think it’s well known, it’s a much bigger deal now with AEW Dynamite and Collision simulcast and streaming every Wednesday and Saturday on TBS and TNT.
Now with Max added in, we’re creating also as one of the top sports streaming shows. And it’s a path to the future. And as the cable industry has changed, AEW has been a proven, consistent winner year in, year out. We do great on TBS and TNT. And now we’re a top show for Max.
And it’s great to be associated with a company that, frankly, for us, has given us all these great opportunities. And I think we’ve delivered.”
Tony Khan Considers AEW A Family Business
The biggest pro wrestling company in the world is WWE and they have been publicly traded for over 25 years. After selling the company to Endeavor, WWE became part of TKO Group with the UFC and now TKO Group is a publicly traded company.
When Tony Khan was asked if he wanted AEW to be publicly traded, Tony said no and made it clear that AEW is a family business. Khan is 42 years old and does not have any children, but he wants to pass the business down to his future family one day.
“I don’t want to. I think we have a great family business. I want to build — I’m still a relatively young executive, and someday, I’d like to have a family, and hopefully they can work in the business. It’s a family business.”
Tony Khan and AEW will present Grand Slam Australia next Saturday, February 15th with several huge matches including Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli facing Adam Copeland & Jay White in a Brisbane Brawl that should be a chaotic match. Khan has called it AEW’s biggest TV card of the year.