Tony Khan Explains How He Gives More Freedom In AEW Compared To Other Companies

AEW took the world by storm back in 2019 as it was the first pro wrestling company in a very long time that made waves in the pro wrestling world as a form of competition for WWE. It was certainly a risky endeavor as well because there was always the chance it was going to end up being a huge failure.

Nowadays in WWE that is not the case as most Superstars are always handed a script that they have to remember and speak as part of their promos. A large section of the WWE Universe is not a fan of scripted promos as they feel it highly restricts the characters of WWE Superstars.

One of the biggest differences between WWE and AEW is that AEW offers a lot more freedom to their talents in order to express their characters, as opposed to WWE’s heavily scripted promos.

While speaking on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, AEW President Tony Khan explained how AEW gives more freedom to their stars, especially in their promos, compared to other pro wrestling companies.

”I think we’ve found a really good balance. I have a lot of trust in them and they have a lot of trust in me. What it entails is, I put together formats, matches, and stories and where their ideas are going to go, stories are going to go, who’s going to wrestle who, and one really important element of this is how much time they are going to get. Also, I have to be very concerned about commercial breaks and where they go. In terms of who goes when, who gets to wrestle who, and when it happens, there’s a lot to that. But in terms of what you’re going to wear, what your presentation is going to be, what you’re going to say exactly [that’s on talent].

Sure, you need to say I’m wrestling person x at this venue next week on this show this night on TNT or I’m wrestling person ABC at Full Gear on Saturday on pay per view. These are important things and as long as you get those things across and do it in a way that makes sense, I’m okay not handing somebody a paper script and telling them ‘You’re going to say this, this and this in this order and every word of it you can’t change a word of it.’ That doesn’t make any sense to me and it would come across very fake which is why I think the promos in AEW are very authentic and it feels very real.”

AEW will continue to present their product in such a way that sets them apart from the competition. It remains to be seen what Tony Khan has in store for the company in the coming months.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes.

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