Tony Khan on Chris Jericho’s AEW Return, The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega’s Contributions as AEW EVPs, His $6.9 Billion Bid for WWE in 2023, Why He’s Changed His Approach In Not Taking Shots At WWE, & His Meeting with Shane McMahon in 2024

A recent episode of the Coach & Bro podcast with Vince Russo and Jonathan Coachman featured AEW CEO Tony Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about Chris Jericho’s recent return to AEW and if Jericho was close to going back to WWE.

“I can’t say with any certainty…I do know that Chris had a choice and he wanted to be in AEW. He would be the best person to ask, but I’ve been in constant communication with Chris, and he definitely told me he wanted to be in AEW and very specifically in Winnipeg on that date. We’ve had that circled for a long time, going back to last year. It was a choice that Chris made that he’d rather be in AEW than wrestling anywhere else, and I think that’s awesome. He has always been consistent that he loves AEW and wants to be here and I’m glad he chose to AEW. It was a choice he made because he was a free agent.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about the contributions of the Young Bucks’ Matt & Nick Jackson and Kenny Omega as EVPs of AEW.

“It’s different in those cases. In Kenny and the Young Bucks case, they’ve had those titles from the very beginning and they’ve been very involved in different aspects of the company: creating some of our pay-per-view events from the very beginning. We’ve worked together to really put the Elite in All Elite Wrestling. A lot the ideas we had from the very beginning to launch this company came off the back of the work they had done before AEW started. They are very involved today in different aspects. Kenny Omega has been involved in different digital projects for us and the wrestling side. The Young Bucks are a huge part of the wrestling show.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about his involvement in the bidding process for WWE in 2023 and his offer of $6.9 billion for the company at the time.

“I was very interested in the process and if there was going to be a sale, I at least wanted to have a chance to be involved. If it had gone for any less than that, I would have really kicked myself.

While respecting the confidentiality of that, I would say that I don’t have any complaints about that process from my side that I would want to talk about right now. I do think there was some stuff to that and while respecting the confidentiality of the whole thing, I would also say that, at the time, just reiterating, if it had gone for any less, I would have beat myself up. Why wouldn’t you put in a bid? I thought that was a very reasonable number.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about why he has changed his philosophy and approach in not taking shot at WWE compared to the early years of running AEW.

“I changed my approach. At the beginning of AEW, there really was a collective rebel spirit. Now, I think AEW is very established and people know AEW has a quality product and a lot of fans. I do want to grow that fanbase, but the way I would do something now might be different than how I would have done it six or seven years ago. I also think it’s possible that Vince Russo, Vince McMahon, and DX could succeed by zigging at one point where I might succeed by zagging at another point. There are different ways to get to success and I’ve got my ideas and my way, but I can learn from different people. I might not incorporate every aspect of it, but I do want to hear your thoughts and ideas. I think the AEW fans would agree that I’ve refined my own media strategy, and people have seen me trying to take the high road. Some of it is the fact that I believe in taking the high road when possible. I feel like by taking the high road, that’s rubbed people the right way. I’m not saying I’m trying to kill people with kindness, but being nice to people has gotten me a long way, and I’ve been trying to do it more in recent years.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about his meeting with Shane McMahon in 2024.

“I had one really pleasant conversation with Shane. Shane reached out to me and said, ‘I’d love to get together. Where are you going to be?’ I was going to be in Dallas. ‘I can meet you here.’ We had a nice conversation. We talked for a few hours in the airport. I thought it was really strange that a photo came out from it. I thought it was pretty unusual. It could just be somebody who worked at the airport, but I know I had nothing to do with it. It’s very unusual. I talk to people all the time from all different media places. Shane is a very recognizable face in sports and the world of wrestling. That could be what it is. Somebody recognized we were in a room and wanted to take a photo. I’m in a lot of rooms with a lot of people and I’ve only had that happen to me one time. I thought that was pretty unusual. You can see in the photo, I’m very surprised. I noticed he wasn’t as surprised in the photo.

I’ve only had the one really nice talk with him. I also thought it was quite impressive that in one conversation, it somehow got out that I talked to him. It was a pleasant chat and he seemed like a really interesting guy. I don’t think the role of being an on-screen person in a wrestling show seemed like the thing he was particularly interested in, but he had a lot of interesting things and experiences that are totally different than mine. I don’t think he went into it thinking, ‘I want to be a character on this guy’s show.'”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5