Tony Khan had a very challenging year in 2022 but he’s certainly faced adversity as a wrestling promoter before.
During an interview with Will Washington, Phil Lindsey and Righteous Reg of the Grapsody podcast, Tony Khan was asked if 2022 was his most challenging year as a booker and promoter. Khan compared it to 2020 and noted that 2022 was certainly challenging in its own way, but AEW overcame injuries and other obstacles to end the year on a strong note.
“It’s different from 2020, which was very challenging. It’s been challenging in different ways, but I think it’s been really a great year for us. As we go into New Year’s Smash, the ratings for AEW Dynamite were up almost 10% in total viewers for the year, which is pretty amazing for any TV show in this day and age. We’re not just up 10% in total viewers. We’re up in the key demo, and in the 18-34 demo, we’re up 26% year-over-year. There are not a lot of television shows up 26% in the 18-34 demo, so that’s really good growth. Now, it’s been challenging to get there…and there’s really been a lot of great periods for AEW, and I think overall, all five AEW pay-per-views were really strong shows. I think Double or Nothing and All Out both had some of the best wrestling matches of the entire year, and really Revolution, Forbidden Door, and Full Gear, top to bottom, were some of the strongest shows ever done. [We] not only did five great AEW PPVs, but also some of our best TV we’ve had all year.
“We’ve had really strong ratings going into Q4, and this Q4 has been really strong. Some people would point out you’ve grown year-over-year, but the first part of last year, you didn’t have competition. Well, that was really only the first few months of last year. April 14 is when the competition ended, so it was really only about three-and-a-half months. So the year-over-year growth, I think is very impressive. The other thing about it you have to remember is this quarter has been really strong growth. We’re up in total viewers, up in that 18-34 demo that’s been so good for us this year. So last year, Q4, we were hot as hell, so to have [grown] over that, that’s pretty amazing, and I’m really proud of that, that we’ve been able to grow over what was a huge Q4 last year.”
Khan noted that AEW had plenty of challenging periods this year, specifically in May when the roster lost multiple top stars.
“The toughest week was probably, there was a hell of a week when around Double or Nothing, within four days, you had Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, and CM Punk all get injured, MJF walked out, and not long after that, we had the incident where Jeff Hardy unfortunately had to get some help, and Samoa Joe had scheduled time off to film a show, and that was always planned. You’re missing all those stars in a short period, it was pretty amazing how strong we came through in the summer. Then coming out of All Out, we had some of the strongest ratings of the entire year, probably our strongest ratings period was September-October, and going into this Q4 that’s been really good for us. So it has been a really good year. We have grown our ratings, and it’s pretty amazing because last year was a great year, and even with all the obstacles in our way, I think we came back strong.
“One thing that was really good for us, after Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley had done really well for AEW in some of the summer months, when a lot of the stars were out, we got Bryan Danielson back around the 150th episode of Dynamite for House of the Dragon. Since then, there have been so many great episodes. That was one of the best shows. What a great show that was. Coming through that, we had the Quake by the Lake show, and we had a number of great shoes. Of course, coming out of All Out, we had the Grand Slam tournament of champions, our three-year anniversary show in DC, our debut internationally in Toronto was a great show, and a string of shows recently that has been tremendous, I think, in December, coming off Full Gear, which was one of the best shows we’re ever done. Great Winter is Coming, and now it sets up for New Year’s Smash.”
Tony Khan also credited the AEW roster for stepping up during challenging periods.
“Overall I think it’s been a challenging year, but I’m really happy that I’m now able to look back, and it’s been a very successful year. So it reminds me of 2020. I would say the most challenging year in a lot of ways was really 2020, having to put on shows through the pandemic, some of the uncertainty, keep the company strong, and I think come out of 2020 stronger than we went into it, which is pretty incredible, given the environment in which we were producing the weekly TV every week.”
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