AEW President Tony Khan has been open about his company and its future, and his own relationship with Skydance CEO David Ellison, following the merger of Warner Bros. Discovery, AEW's media partner in the US, with Paramount. During the AEW Full Gear media call, Khan took further questions surrounding the merger and what's next for AEW.He said the "lifeblood" of AEW, on the business side, is keeping a strong relationship with its partner, as the company's primary revenue is its domestic media rights deal. He once again stated he believes the change at the top is very positive for AEW."I have had several very good meetings with David Ellison," Khan said. "I have met with him four times, and in those four meetings, we've had great conversations about the future of AEW. Now, we do have a good amount of time still remaining on our contract and I think we've done very, very well and I know that he feels we've performed very well, which is very exciting to hear from the owner of the new company."AEW's deal is set to continue until at least the beginning of 2028, but there is an option year that could extend it through 2029. Khan said that Ellison has a "very high opinion" of AEW, and put over the CEO's idea of bundling HBO Max and Paramount+ into one streaming service."I think that creates great opportunities for AEW to grow our viewership," he said, responding to veteran wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. "When you asked me about the most important business goal for AEW is and I think international growth is very, very important, however I would still say the lifeblood for the business engine of AEW is the domestic [media rights] and that's where having this great relationship and continuing this great relationship is very, very important."
Khan also spoke about the successes of his company over the last year. He said that not only have ratings been strong, but viewership for both "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Collision" on TBS and TNT, as well as HBO Max, have "gone up significantly." He said pay-per-view buys are also up, even compared to last year, which he said was also a great year for the company."It's all very good timing for AEW to have these great business milestones that we're looking towards, and absolutely we'll be looking toward a contract renewal," Khan said. "We're not really in the process of doing that as a negotiation right now, because we still have a lot of time left."The AEW president said that he's not the person who is going to "chase people around" to ask about contracts, especially with the amount of time on AEW's current deal. He told media members he just wants to deliver and do a good job, which is what he previously told Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav when negotiating with him."'You'll always get my very best. I'm not chasing you for money,'" Khan said he told Zaslav during their talks. "'I'm not doing it for the money. We do need the money to make this a strong company and to grow the business, and it's because I love wrestling.' I am a big wrestling fan and I do believe it was very much appreciated and we were rewarded with a great media rights contract with several hundred million dollars over several years."Khan was adamant he isn't "chasing down dollars" in his conversations with Ellison and those at Skydance. He explained he's trying to talk mostly about what AEW has done, and Ellison is "very well aware" of the company's strong performance and growth.
