AEW: Tony Khan Announces New AEW x NFL Merchandise Collaboration, Luther on His In-Ring Future & Being Supporting Actor in “Timeless” Toni Storm’s Story, Tommaso Ciampa on AEW Being where He Wanted To Be For His Wrestling Career

Tony Khan Announces New AEW x NFL Merchandise Collaboration

Compas On The Beat held a recent interview with AEW CEO Tony Khan at the Super Bowl Radio Row event in San Francisco, California. One of the topics discussed included Khan officially announcing that AEW has partnered with the NFL for a new merchandise collaboration.

This new collaboration will be featuring the release of new lucha libre masks featuring AEW and NFL logos and branding for all 32 NFL teams.

Khan stated that these new lucha masks will be avaliable for sale at AEW’s ShopAEW online store starting on the first night of this year’s NFL Draft on April 23rd.

“It’s really exciting to be able to talk about a partnership that I’ve always dreamed of. I’ve always wanted the NFL and AEW to work together. This is a Jacksonville Jaguars lucha libre mask. But I’m so excited about it because they will be putting this up and these will be available for all 32 NFL teams.

So starting the first night of the NFL Draft, Thursday, April 23, we will have these masks available on ShopAEW.com for all 32 NFL teams. Now, finally, I’ve always wanted this. It’s a dream I’ve been working on for years, a partnership between the NFL and AEW. So whoever your NFL team is, whatever football team you’re a fan of, you’ll be able to get an All Elite Wrestling NFL mask for your team.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

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Luther Comments on His In-Ring Future & Being Supporting Actor in “Timeless” Toni Storm’s Story

A recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast featured Luther as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Luther’s thoughts about the future of his in-ring wrestling career and his abscense from the ring since August of 2023.

“When I first started doing the managing, I still wanted to wrestle. Now I’ve been doing it and that’s just become my thing now. That’s me. So, I don’t really see myself wrestling. I do want to have a match somewhere at one point, maybe a last match. I don’t know where or what or a couple of last matches at some of the places I came up wrestling in, just one last time in each place. That kind of stuff could be just dreamy or wishful thinking. If Toni needs someone to back her up, I’m always gonna be there. I’ll throw some hands if she needs me to.”

Luther also gave his thoughts about being a supporting actor for Toni Storm’s “Timeless” story in AEW.

“I’m a supporting actor, my job is to be noticed but not take over if that makes sense. I try to do that and I think I pull it off pretty good. In the moments where I’m supposed to go front and center stage, that’s my one minute to do whatever I have to do. This whole story is [for Toni Storm], I’m just driving the car I guess, or the passenger. Since I’m her everything guy, I guess I’m the chauffeur.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2

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Tommaso Ciampa Comments on AEW Being where He Wanted To Be For His Wrestling Career

Bleacher Report held a recent interview with AEW TNT Champion Tommaso Ciampa. One of the topics discussed included Ciampa’s thoughts about how he knew AEW was where he wanted to go after he entered free agency this past January.

“AEW was head and shoulders where I wanted to be. I take everything pretty seriously when it comes to doing it by the book. And with my contract coming up the way it was, I was like, ‘Well, I can’t really have a conversation right now, so let me just wait this out.’

I did put the statement out a week early because I wanted to, one, see what the response was online and in the industry, and two, I wanted people to go, ‘Oh, so that weird report that came out a month ago, there’s some truth to that.’ So that was definitely on purpose. When my wife and I had the conversation about what’s next, and obviously we’re done here with WWE and we’re going to move on and bet on ourselves and figure out this next chapter. A big conversation was AEW and how do I get there.”

Ciampa also gave his thoughts about how he and his wife had booked a family vacation to Blue Hill Ranch in Texas for the week his WWE contract was up and how he knew AEW was in Texas that week and he would be able to drive to the show if he he signed with the company in time.

“We started to look at where they are after my contract is up and we saw Texas. Long story short, my wife for five years now has been eyeing up Blue Hill Ranch in Texas. It’s like this giraffe safari where you get to have all these awesome animal experiences. And we just never had the time to come out there.

So I was like, ‘Why don’t we just book a family vacation, and if things happen to work out and we can shock the world and show up two days later, we’re a two-hour drive away. And if it doesn’t work out, we still have this awesome family vacation.’

And sure enough, it worked out fast. Tuesday I had a couple of quick conversations with QT Marshall and RD Evans, who used to work with me in ROH. We always had great chemistry and he’s a writer now. This thing worked out extremely fast. Faster than I would have ever guessed. I met Tony [Khan] for the first time Wednesday. His passion is contagious. His love for his roster, his fanbase, for AEW is just beaming off him. So we had a very quick conversation and it just felt really right.”