AEW Double or Nothing 2024 Media Scrum: Residency Deal with Arlington, Tony Khan on Limiting On-Screen Appearances, Darby Allin Replacing Eddie Kingston in Team AEW, All Out 2024 Date Change Reason

AEW CEO Tony Khan held a media scrum on Thursday to promote this Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing 2024 event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Some of the notable highlights included:

• On the topic of Mark Henry’s expiring contract, Khan praised Henry as a media character for the company and stated that they will need to look at his contract.
• On the topic of AEW’s recent residency deal with the city of Arlington, Khan stated “It’s interesting. The city of Arlington gave us a great opportunity there and favorable terms. It’s a great market for pro wrestling and a great venue. For us, that was a unique situation. If there are more opportunities in great markets with great venues and cities that want to bring AEW in, anytime that’s all lined up, I definitely think there would be a lot of interest on our part in working with that kind of situation. It’s something to keep an eye on for our shows. I do think it’s a unique opportunity for the Collision path to All In and an opportunity to differentiate between the two hour packages of Collision and Dynamite. Having some of the most passionate, loudest, most loyal wrestling fans on the entire planet in the Dallas-Metroplex area and the great fans in Arlington makes a lot of sense for us and can help us build up those shows at such an important time of the year for us. I definitely think if those goes really well, and we’re expecting it to go really well, it could be a model for other future series like this.“
• On the topic of the upcoming TBS Championship match at Double or Nothing 2024, Khan praised Willow Nightingale and Mercedes Mone and stated that their match on Sunday will be a big part of the duo’s current rivalry.
• On the topic of his on-screen appearance as part of The Elite’s current takeover storyline, Khan stated “I really tried to limit the amount of appearances I have personally made over the past five years. It would be fair to say that less than one-tenth of 1% of television time has been spent on me over the last five years. That’s how it should be. Occasionally, if a match had to be made or a major announcement, I would come out and do those things. I am planning to visit the fans this weekend and I love being at the events before and after with the live crowd, signing autographs and taking photos whenever I can. It’s really important to me that the focus of the show is on the wrestlers and the wrestling. Even when there is a story like the struggle for control of the company. The power in the office. It’s still important to feature it in the context of a wrestling show and with the wrestlers. Even with last night, I was at most two seconds on the show. That’s how it should be. You don’t need to see a ton of me. It should be about the wrestlers, and the reaction Darby got when he got into the arena. Because the Young Bucks banned him from the arena and Kenny Omega has been out with surgery, there was really only one person who could lift that ban. I felt that ban needed to get lifted. It was really important for the fans going into Double or Nothing for the fans to see Darby and for him to save Bryan Danielson on his birthday and for Bryan and Darby to stand tall.“
• On the topic of AEW not holding this year’s Double or Nothing event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Khan stated “I think T-Mobile is a great arena, great venue. I think MGM Grand represents the very beginning of AEW. It’s where we launched and where this whole thing began.“
• On the topic of Eddie Kingston’s recent broken leg injury and the change made to Team AEW, Khan stated “FTR has been a great part of AEW. It’s a really cool Team AEW. It originally included Eddie Kingston, but when Eddie was injured in New Japan Pro-Wrestling — we’re all wishing Eddie the best and we hope he gets well soon. We all love Eddie very much and we want to see him well and back. The team changed and the circumstances changed when Eddie got hurt. An interesting aspect of this Team AEW…it was important to get Darby in the arena and I can’t wait for FTR to rejoin Bryan and Darby on Sunday. It was important Darby backed up Bryan last night and I felt like there was only one person that could get him in there. I think it’s almost important that, at most it was maybe two seconds of me, and the rest was him. It’s important to showcase the wrestlers on the wrestling show.“
• Khan also stated that Darby Allin had requested to replace Eddie Kingston for Team AEW following Kingston’s injury for the Anarchy in the Arena match. Khan also stated that Allin was not going to be given the spot in the match unless he was medically cleared to compete.
• On the topic of the recent decision to push back this year’s All Out event by one week, Khan stated that the reason was due to a more competitive Labor Day market. Khan also stated that this year’s event was also moved from a Sunday to now a Saturday date in order to also avoid competing with the opening week of NFL’s upcoming new season.
• On the topic of AEW’s upcoming new television rights deals, Khan praised Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Khan stated that the addition of Collision has been a positive for AEW and believes that WBD will still have a strong sports offering even if the NBA departs from their lineup.

Full AEW Double or Nothing 2024 media scrum audio: F4WOnline.com

Source: PostWrestling.com, Fightful.com 1, & 2