Since it was behind a paywall, you most likely missed it
But here are recaps someone did from Omega & Tony Khan with Meltzer
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Dave and Garrett sit down with Kenny Omega at the MGM Grand, Thursday night after the AEW announcement.
It is now official that Kenny has signed with AEW. He says there was not much left for him to do in New Japan. He would have liked to win the Tokyo Sports MVP award, but he will always be back in Japan, not necessarily for wrestling but for his personal life.
He wanted a new platform, a new stage, to reach new people, whether it was WWE or AEW. One of the options was to still stay full time with New Japan, and be a lender talent for AEW. He wanted to see how Harold Meij, the new President was going to handle the company. But he felt NJPW was not the best of the three options, creatively, financially, and the time invested. WWE made a very generous and professional offer, but there would be no risk involved. In AEW he can be totally unleashed and have carte blanche with all of his best friends in the business. There are no limitations for him.
Along with the Young Bucks and Cody, he has also been named Executive Vice President of AEW. He wants AEW to have a true women's division. He wants to bring in new exciting talent that has never been seen before in America.
He has signed a four year deal with AEW, the largest contract he has ever signed. It leaves him open for outside projects and a ton of crossover potential, such as the upcoming documentary, which airs 3/27 on TSN in Canada. It is specifically written in his contract that he can go back to NJPW anytime, if he wants it and they want him. The door is open at AEW for everybody from all promotions to work with them. AEW is aligned with AAA right now, but Kenny would love to work with guys from CMLL also. There is no evil entity, there is no war with anyone.
Omega talked about negotiating with WWE, AEW and New Japan. He mentioned that negotiating with WWE was more pleasant than people had previously told him.
“The most surprising thing to me was just how accommodating and how cool it was to discuss, you know, future with WWE” he told them. “I didn’t think they’d ever be in the running. I was like ‘yeah, I’ll hear you guys out’ but I didn’t think it’d be good because everyone was telling me, well, what to expect.”
“I have nothing but great things to say about them,” he added, “but in the end, AEW was the best thing for me and, you know, it’s the most exciting choice I’ve made in my career.”
“I have it specifically written in my contract that I can go anytime I want and appear for New Japan Pro Wrestling.” he stated.
Kenny discusses his rivalry with Hiroshi Tanahashi and their recent match at the Tokyo Dome. He loved the match and considers it a career highlight for him.
Kota Ibushi is running a wrestling school in Japan right now. The door is open for him to come to AEW in the near future. He said probably not at All In but later in the year.
AEW is expected to have weekly television in the U.S. It will be different, there is so much star potential. for people like Nyla Rose who are not known here at all. They are scouting for original people with original takes on pro wrestling. There will be more announcements very soon. Cima is coming and the OWE guys from China are learning every day.
Kenny is still extremely passionate and active with gaming. Pro wrestling and gaming have both become more acceptable in society.
There was a time when Kenny considered getting into MMA. He was a big fan of Pride after seeing Gracie- Sakuraba. He did some competition grappling in 2006 and 2007. But he had a match with AJ Styles in Winnipeg that made him choose pro wrestling. He started working US indies and got into Jersey All Pro. He started there and wrestled Danny Demanto, Jay Lethal, he had a 3 way with Teddy Hart and Xavier. And then in March 2008, he turned heel and won the title from Low Ki.
He always enjoyed watching Noah, Dragon Gate DDT and K-Dojo and wanted to get into Japan. He got in touch with Taka Michinoku and did 2 matches for K-Dojo. He wrestled one tour for DDT in August 2008. By 2009-2010 he was practically a resident of Japan. He was working for DDT, All Japan and NJPW in 2011.
There is an expectation, a standard, that people want to see "Big Match Kenny Omega" now, but he doesn't look for the rewards of a highly acclaimed match. Some people loved the three way match he had against Cody and Kota last year, but people also didn’t like it. He always wants to try new things rather than sticking with a formula. Dave talks about how much people were looking forward to the singles match at Budokan with Kota Ibushi at the G-1 last year (8/11/18). He noted that was meant to be a great match, but to build for their big match and not be their big match. He wanted the big match at the Tokyo Dome or Madison Square Garden and at some point it will still happen.
Kenny would like to see Golden Lovers vs Lucha Brothers, or Ibushi vs. Jericho in AEW. It's all very exciting with a lot of positive future outcomes.
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Dave and Garrett sit down with Tony Khan at the MGM Grand, Thursday night after the AEW announcement.
Tony Khan, age 36, is the President and CEO of All Elite Wrestling, who co-founded it with his father, Shahid Khan.
Tony says he has always wanted to do something like this, he has thought about it for years to create a new wrestling company, a second major national promotion, with top stars and great production values. AEW has been very well received so far.
Dave and Tony both believe that Double or Nothing on May 25th will sell out immediately. It will be good for the wrestlers, the wrestling fans, and the business. This is a golden age of workrate, but more people need to be interested and be compelled to watch the product that treats the wrestlers and the fans with respect.
Growing up, Tony was a fan of all kinds of wrestling, WWF, WCW, ECW, Mid-South, Continental, Memphis, Smoky Mountain, NJPW, AJPW, Michinoku Pro, all the different territories. Now more than ever, there is so much talent out there to incorporate people from all over the world on a big stage.
Two huge conflicts came out of tonight's event. Jericho as a strong heel against Kenny Omega, and the attack by Penta & Fenix on the Bucks. Tony has a good relationship with Dorian Roldan and AAA that put this together. We also saw Cima's OWE set up a friendly challenge to Chris Daniels and SCU.
Tony is very excited about building the tag team division and the women's division in AEW with stars from all over the world. The executive board is made up of active wrestlers who are very passionate and knowledgeable of the current business, they will be handling the day-to-day operations. Tony and his father own the Fulham F.C. in England, and the Jacksonville Jaguars, they operate TruMedia Networks, and several other businesses and talent management companies.
He believes that you can use analytical studies of pro wrestling to improve the business. Chris Harrington has done a number of studies and there are also Dave's studies of gates and revenue streams. They have been scouting for talent, searching for "diamonds in the rough", who may be unknown but get huge reactions on indy shows.
The lineup for May 25th has a lot of big matches and there are more to come. You can't sign every talent in the world, you have to be discerning and have a plan to develop stars with everyone on the roster. They have a great group of people with worldly experience.
Right now their focus will be on the United States, but there will be international shows in the future. They will work with anyone, communication is open, no matter what kind of old rivalries there are (AAA & CMLL).
Wrestling should have a sports mentality, championships and wins and losses are important. There are different business models for the future, things they should and should not do. There are a lot of factors such as roster size, production team, making deals with networks involved in getting this done. Keith Mitchell who produced World Class and WCW has a team that will be putting this together. A television deal will be announced soon.
Cody, The Young Bucks, and Kenny have a great group of friends and different resources from all over the world, much like Tony Khan's own relationships. After WCW and ECW folded, wrestling fans splintered and started watching other shows and other companies, such as ROH, New Japan, different styles of wrestling. There is a whole new base of fans and a whole new base of stars. There is a great demand, higher than ever, for what they are doing.
From his childhood, Tony was a fan of Hulk Hogan. He watched all the 80s and 90s PPVs that he could get from video stores. He's been hooked since he was 7 years old. He learned insider terms from the RSPW board on the early days of the internet. He was already into it before the boom period. Memphis and Mid-South still hold up today, Bruno and Zbyszko interviews. Magnum TA & Mr. Wrestling had the mentor being jealous and turning on the young protégé was a great story involving the Midnight Express. Ric Flair and Macho Man were super compelling to him. He's a big fan of Lawler and Dundee, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock. UFC and Pride always had a great presentation and had a strong connection to their fans, there is a lot that can be learned.
Tony expected the All In show to go really well. He watched and observed, but was not surprised. His first experience with New Japan was at the Long Beach shows two years ago. He was there with his close friend, Alex Marvez, who now works for AEW. This is a business about making money, this is going to be a profitable venture for everyone involved. They made the investments and they took the risks. The demand is there and people want to see it.
There are great plans and more announcements as to how this will be presented. This will be awesome wrestling with awesome production values, with the best talent and the best matches on the national stage.
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