Tony Khan Opens Up About Booking Around Losing Jon Moxley To Rehab

Tony Khan is going to be forced to make some changes to the long-term booking direction of AEW. With Jon Moxley taking a leave of absence to go to an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation center, the top of the card has a glaring empty spot. You can’t replace somebody like Mox.

Khan will have no choice but to try. He’s already been forced to make last minute changes to tonight’s Dynamite. The show was scheduled to feature an AEW World Title Eliminator tournament match between Moxley and Orange Cassidy. Obviously, that match won’t take place, and AEW has to find a replacement. The AEW President talked about the scenario on today’s Wrestling Observer Live.

“It’s very different, in some ways it’s more difficult. We’ve never had anyone got someone with such a bad case of COVID that we were afraid that they were going to make it. We’ve done a really good job keeping a bubble, I think. In general people have come back and they’ve been okay.”

Khan said that booking around COVID cases was a lot easier, because they generally knew that wrestlers would recover in a few days and return to work after a two-week quarantine. With Moxley’s situation, there is no such clear-cut guidance.

“This is different because it’s an ongoing situation. It’s one day at a time. It’s not like someone is going to kick COVID-19 in 5 days, three to five days and come back two weeks later. It’s a very different situation, because Jon’s on the forefront of everybody’s mind right now.”

AEW seems like they have no choice but to play it by ear. Moxley is a fixture in the promotion’s main event scene. He was set for a huge match with Bryan Danielson at the Full Gear PPV. Now, a major part of the company’s creative direction will be forced to change. This might be Tony Khan’s greatest challenge yet as a booker.

Do you think Tony Khan will be able to adapt his booking to life without Jon Moxley, at least for a while? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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