Tony Khan says it’s ‘too early to comment’ on potential Netflix-WBD acquisition
ROH & AEW starts spoke to the media following ROH Final Battle.
Red Velvet, Ricochet, Athena, Shane Taylor Promotions, Bandido, and Tony Khan took questions following Friday’s event on Honor Club. Here are the highlights:
Red Velvet
- Regarding her surprise win, Velvet said she was going to beat Mercedes Mone and she did, accepting that she would be the underdog going into the match despite being a former champion. The loss shook her, but everything happens for a reason.
- She said that Mone is someone he looked up to growing up, so going up against someone like her is “such a blessing.”
Ricochet
- Tony Khan announced a AEW National title match featuring Ricochet for tomorrow’s Collision. Ricochet didn’t like the idea of that.
- When asked about more members to add to his crew, Ricochet said it was about quality, not quantity.
Athena
- Tony Khan pushed hard that with her victory at Final Battle, Athena will now reach the three-year mark as the ROH Women’s Champion.
- A lot of the segment was designated for Athena to scold Billie Starkz for failing to win the Women’s Pure Championship.
- She said she would love the opportunity to wrestle in New Japan, as there’s so much talent in Stardom.
Shane Taylor Promotions
- When asked about his heroes, Moriarty named Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuiness, and Katsuyori Shibata. He said he made his wrestling debut on December 5, and all these years later, he’s now faced all of them.
- This turned into an angle where Shane Taylor started to argue with Moriarty, pushing that tonight was too close for comfort and winning is an expectation, not a surprise. He told Moriarty to follow the game plan.
- Moriarty said that to see Nigel McGuiness come out with the original ROH Pure title and handing it to him after the match was such a great moment.
Bandido
- Bandido said he consideres himself a winner because he’s had a great year.
- Tony Khan said the originally planned ROH World title match between Rush and Bandido will happen when Rush returns to action.
- Bandido says he’s putting effort into learning English and hopes people can understand him now.
Tony Khan
- First question was about possible AEW events at the Arnold Classic, which will be held at the same arena next year. Khan said it was a great idea and will re-evaluate.
- Would love to have Persephone back, she was great and an incredible challenger.
- Khan was asked if there were plans for more ROH big events for next year, mentioning previous events like Glory by Honor and the anniversary shows. Khan pivoted to talking about bringing in more Global Wars events this year and mentioned the upcoming Boxing Day Brawl event on ROH television.
- Someone asked for his reaction to Netflix potentially acquiring Warner Bros. Khan said that it was “too early to comment on anything that’s pending” and stressed his great relationship with Warner Bros., continually saying there was still a lot of time on their deals with TBS, TNT, and HBO Max. He called David Zazlav a friend of AEW. He’s excited about the future.
- He also said that in regards to all of the publicly known bidders for WBD (Netflix, Paramount, and Comcast) he’s had great relationships all of them via his NFL dealings. He said there’s over two years to go in their deals with WBD.
- About a potential all-women’s pay-per-view, Tony Khan was open to the idea, mentioning how many new women’s championships he’s introduced.
- Khan called Zayda Steel a professional and would love to have her back.