Tony Khan Praises WCW As AEW Makes History
Tony Khan is looking back at WCW’s legacy in pro wrestling while celebrating an accomplishment for AEW.
The 289th episode of AEW Dynamite from Boston is called “Spring Breakthru” and it’s also a celebration for the company that Tony Khan has run since it launched in January 2019. Dynamite has run on TNT and TBS since it launched in October 2019.
It’s an episode of Dynamite that is being celebrated because AEW has surpassed WCW’s record for most prime time episodes of any professional wrestling program on Turner Sports channels. WCW had 288 episodes of its flagship show “WCW Monday Nitro” before it was purchased by WWE in March 2001.
As a 42-year-old who grew up loving pro wrestling, Tony Khan watched WCW regularly along with WWE, ECW, and other pro wrestling promotions.
While speaking to The Takedown on SI, Tony Khan spoke about his WCW fandom and the respect he has for their run on Turner networks like TNT and TBS.
“I’m a big fan of WCW. I grew up watching their shows. And Nitro was a huge part of my childhood. And long before ‘Nitro,’ I watched WCW, and I wish I could say I watched it long after, but that was kind of the end of the run. And I certainly learned a lot watching those shows.
I think it’s where some of the most exciting, high flying, athletic wrestlers of all time broke in, and broke in on TV and became mainstream TV stars across America. And those are some of the biggest wrestlers of all time now.
And I think it really helped usher in a faster pace, more exciting style of wrestling. And I do think that, over the years of ‘Nitro,’ some of the most exciting moments and memories of pro wrestling happened on the show. So I have a ton of positive memories of ‘WCW Nitro’ from growing up.”
Tony Khan Feels AEW Dynamite Spring BreakThru Is A Celebration Of Pro Wrestling
In Tony Khan’s opinion, AEW’s success with Dynamite is an important milestone, and it also celebrates the TNT/TBS wrestling legacy.
“I really, really, absolutely had so much respect for everything it took to put ‘Nitro’ on the air and keep ‘Nitro’ on the air for all those years. And that’s why I think this is a really important milestone. It’s amazing what ‘Nitro’ achieved, and to be on TNT for 288 weeks, I know how hard that is, first hand. It’s really hard.
And it’s a celebration of everything…really all the wrestling, looking back, over 50 years on TBS specifically, and 30 years of wrestling on TNT. And now AEW’s become a huge part of this conversation, and this is a huge milestone for TBS and AEW on Wednesday.”
During the same interview, Tony Khan admitted that he’s open to feedback on AEW shows from many different people because he knows what it’s like to be a fan of a product and have strong opinions, so he pays attention to others as well.