AEW Worlds End 2025 Media Scrum: Andrade El Idolo AEW Return Update, Potential of Continental Classic Moving to Different Time of Year, Future Women’s Continental Classic, WBD Sale & AEW’s Future, Darby Allin Injury, MSG Wanting to Host 1st Dynamite Show, & More

AEW CEO Tony Khan held a media scrum today to promote this Saturday’s AEW Worlds End 2025 event at the NOW Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

Some of the notable highlights included:

• On the topic of Andrade El Idolo’s appearance on Monday’s NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome show and if this indicated an upcoming return for him to AEW, Khan stated “stay tuned to AEW.“
• On the topic of potentially moving the Continental Classic to a different time of the year, Khan stated “It’s really nice to have awesome programming around the holidays and if you want to have a glass half full perspective on some of the benefits when it could be a challenging time to bring viewers in, it gives an attraction to the shows and provides something strong. I love that there is awesome AEW wrestling that there is a draw for people. There is a great tradition of pro wrestling around the holidays. I would love for people to want to watch AEW, potentially with their family and friends on the holidays. That is always a goal. To make these must-see episodes when there can be an incentive to watch. Try to make it a positive.“
• On the topic of a potential Women’s Continental Classic tournament in the future, Khan stated “I really like the formula we have here. There is a lot of things we could potentially try as far as the scheduling of the tournament. In this case, I do like having the Continental Classic around the holiday season. I think it provides engaging and interesting wrestling content to follow around a beautiful time of year. I always associate the holidays with pro wrestling. I think it adds something really special this time of year.“
• On the topic of AEW’s metrics in 2025, Khan stated he is proud of the U.K. audience rising ahead of their return to Wembley Stadium this past August and receiving complimentary feedback from HBO Max since AEW Dynamite and Collision shows began simulcasting and adding the pay-per-views events to the service.
• On the topic of Warner Bros Discovery’s current sale process and where AEW stands with WBD, Khan stated “I think we have a lot of certainty and are very excited. 2025 is the most exciting year yet for AEW and our partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery was reimagined this year and will continue for years to come. We’re locked in with TNT, TBS, and HBO Max for over two more years. The future is bright for us for years to come. The person who is making the calls and always been a believer in AEW and continues to be is [President and CEO] David Zaslav. I just got a very nice holiday gift from him in fact that I will be utilizing in some fun ways in the weeks to come. The man who first asked me to launch AEW Collision and bring more wrestling back to TNT along with the great Dynamite on TBS, which is our flagship show. It’s the longest running primetime professional wrestling show in the history of TBS and TNT. Turner, in my opinion, has the richest collective history of professional wrestling with a tradition that goes back on TBS to 1971.“
• Khan also gave his thoughts about his belief that no mater who wins the WBD sweepstakes, the new owners will want David Zaslav running the ship. Khan stated “Mr. Zaslav had the idea to launch AEW on HBO Max to make the pay-per-views available to its massive audience and add new fans to AEW and HBO Max. Subscribers have the extra incentive with Dynamite and Collision and the library. That deal is continuing for years to come.
• I know the job Mr. Zaslav has done running Warner Bros. this year that people are going to want Mr. Zaslav as a studio boss in any regime. He has been one of the most successful studio heads in the history of Hollywood. The numbers don’t lie. David Zaslav is putting out hit after hit. I’m very proud he has made the big investment in AEW. There is a lot of excitement around the future of Warner Bros. It’s certainly one of the most exciting stories on Wall Street. There are a lot of exciting things happening around Warner Bros. that I’m proud AEW will be associated with Warner Bros.”
• On the topic of how Darby Allin’s injury affected the booking for this year’s Continental Classic tournament, Khan stated “This year, with Darby being in the tournament, he’s a very prominent person and I was very thrilled to have Darby Allin in and my thought was he’s gonna be a huge part of this Gold League, and immediately, in the first night of the Continental Classic, became a situation where I had to make changes with Darby’s injury and this was, to be honest, more challenging because I had to tear it apart and put it back together… As far as the scheduling and how this affects the tournament, I think it was a bigger shift with Darby. I’ll tell you that I did make more scheduling changes and this affected the flow of the tournament, even more than the injury before (with Juice Robinson having to be pulled from the tournament).“
• On the topic of the original plans for Madison Square Garden hosting the first episode of AEW Dynamite and those plans falling through, Khan stated “I got a call from somebody who no longer works there, who I have a very good relationship, who actually works in a building and a building we frequent. He called and said, ‘I would love to have AEW here and we’d love to be the home of the first Dynamite.’ It would have been early 2019, and we hadn’t announced or scheduled the first show yet, but there was excitement and hype around it. I was offered to go there and we were really interested in it. Once we started to have more calls, they called me back and said, ‘We were really excited about it, but after doing more research, it probably won’t be more viable for us. We thought it was a great idea.’ I have respect for the person who called me. He said, ‘it’s not me.’ He was very apologetic and nice about it. I told him it’s nothing personal against him and I understood why his bosses felt that way. We’ve gone on to be very successful in other places in New York. I’m always open to brainstorming and thinking about different ideas with them, but the person here is a fan of AEW, and I don’t think he was trying to do anything hurtful or switch things around for us. It was probably a well-intentioned thing. He’s gone on to work other places and he probably has a good relationship with AEW. I don’t think it was anything nefarious.”
• On the topic of MJF’s recent return to AEW from his filming commitments, Khan stated “As we’ve been in this holiday season, there has been so much excitement and unpredictability around the AEW World Championship. Last week at the Holiday Bash event in Manchester, the picture looked very exciting. We’ve got the AEW World Champion, the first-ever double champion in AEW history, the World Trios and AEW World Champion now for the second time, Samoa Joe. In my mind, one of the all-time great wrestlers. He had a tremendous defense of the championship at Winter Is Coming Dynamite in a match I always wanted to see and delivered with Eddie Kingston. Now Samoa Joe has to face two men he knows very well in the ring and also know the AEW World Champion… It looked to be a rematch from Revolution 2024 where we set all the records in Greensboro. Then we did see what was unexpected for many fans in the return of MJF, Maxwell Jacob Freedman who had been clinging to this opportunity that he earned in AEW All In Texas for a contract to challenge for the championship. I made it clear to properly advertise and prepare for these shows and deliver world championship matches at the highest level. There needs to be and has been given proper notice. So I did know for this to be finalized. MJF is back and has got his own rivalries. There was the one who took the championship from him at Worlds End two years earlier and holds the championship now, Samoa Joe. MJF wisely returned to a contract signing segment for AEW Holiday Bash this past week when there was no physicality allowed or competitors. It’s going to be a fantastic pay-per-view. I’m excited for Worlds End this weekend and thrilled about that four-way for the world championship as part of this big Christmas week. He plotted to take the AEW World Championship after Joe was instrumental in helping him win this championship. Page is also a two-time champion. One of Samoa Joe’s greatest rivals and who has been through hell with Hangman Page and fought beside him as well. Swerve Strickland is in there too.”
• On the topic of his approach to free agents for potential new talent signings for AEW, Khan stated that he is happy with who he signed this year including Thekla, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, and Kevin Knight. Khan also stated that he wanted to add more complimentary pieces for the AEW roster but didn’t attempt to take “big swings” like he had done in the past for this year.

AEW Worlds End 2025 media scrum full audio: F4WOnline.com

Source: PostWrestling.com, F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5