By Sean McDevitt
FightingIllini.com
GET AEW TICKETS - Dec. 4 at State Farm Center
You can tell a lot about professional wrestling fans by who they consider the biggest names. For some, it would be Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Randy "Macho Man" Savage. Newer fans might suggest Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, John Cena, or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Older fans might think Lou Thesz and Gorgeous George.
If University of Illinois alum Tony Khan and his brand new All Elite Wrestling have anything to say about it, wrestling fans will be shouting Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and Riho as the new stars of professional wrestling.
More than 20 years ago, professional wrestling was dominated by what is referred to as the "Monday Night Wars" with the Vince McMahon-owned World Wrestling Federation (now Entertainment) Monday Night Raw show up against the Ted Turner-backed World Championship Wrestling's Monday Nitro. It generated incredible interest, with fans tuning in to see what would happen next. For many, it was considered a golden age of professional wrestling.
The ratings for both shows were through the roof all through the '90s. On May 10th, 1999, WWE broadcast an episode of Raw that achieved an 8.1 rating, the show's highest ever. Professional wrestling had never been more popular or mainstream. Fast forward a few years, and WWE bought rival WCW for next to nothing and absorbed a third wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Vince McMahon and WWE won the Monday Night War and have not had a serious challenger for years… until now.
"There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be."
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is the brainchild of second-generation wrestler Cody Rhodes, current professional wrestling phenom Kenny Omega, Matt and Nick Jackson who wrestle as the Young Bucks tag team, and founder Tony Khan. All are executives with the new company.
After forming in January and running several Pay Per View shows, AEW debuted their weekly show, AEW Dynamite, October 2nd on the TNT network. The first show was considered a huge success.
"It was great," Khan said. "I was really happy to meet the fans, so happy. And people were really excited about the show, and it shows because a lot of people came and watched it in person and on TV. So it was great."
In their first show, AEW Dynamite topped the WWE's show, NXT, in their first head-to-head matchup. According to Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings, AEW averaged 1.4 million viewers compared to 891,000 for NXT. It was the first time WWE aired a competing show in the same timeslot since 2001, and wrestling fans are calling the AEW-NXT matchup the "Wednesday Night Wars."
On December 4, Tony Khan will bring his nationally televised show to Champaign, and was recently in town to introduce his wrestlers to the CU fanbase. He was excited to talk about the origins of AEW and what it means to come back to his hometown and his alma mater.
"It's so important for me to be here right now," Khan said. "There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be than in the State Farm Center right."
"I really believe in all those companies."
Khan is the Senior Vice President of Football Technology and Analytics for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Vice Chairman and Director of Football Operations of the English Football League Championship team Fulham FC, and the owner and chairman of TruMedia Networks in addition to his responsibilities as founder and president of All Elite Wrestling. With essential duties at four major companies, one might think Khan is stretched thin. He says it merely involves lots of flying, some tech, and little sleep.
"At any given time, I have to be looking at different things constantly, and it involves a lot of flying, and it doesn't involve much sleep. But I really believe in all those companies, and I believe in all those teams, and we work with great people, and that's how it's possible. Plus, technology makes a lot of things possible too, you can be a lot of places at once nowadays."
He graduated from the University of Illinois in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.
"By going to school at the U of I, I was able to stay close to my family while I was also getting a great business education from the College of Business in Finance," Khan said. "The U of I is a great school with a great college of business, and I learned a lot here."
The genesis of AEW started in Champaign. As a young man at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School and all through college, Khan would write episodes of his imaginary wrestling company. A perfect Saturday was watching Illinois football or basketball and then going back home to write a new episode. It was this creative spirit that drew him to create his own wrestling company.
"I started looking a year and a half ago about setting up a wrestling company, when I ran into my friend Kevin Riley, the president of TNT and CBS, at a party in Beverly Hills," Khan said. "We talked about it, and the ball started rolling. But the idea of doing a show that became AEW Dynamite was born right here in Champaign."
"AEW is for everybody."
With the demise of competition, wrestling viewership has declined. WWE still dominates across the board, but Khan thinks what AEW offers is something different.
"We're bringing a focus on wrestling," said Khan. "We're bringing an emphasis on wrestling matches and action taking place in or around the ring. We'll do great interviews too, but in these segments, we can do it all in the arena and around the ring. We can do some stuff backstage; we just don't spend half the show backstage. We want to offer people a show that doesn't insult their intelligence, and really, it's a fun show to watch. It's a fast-paced show to watch and has the best wrestling action, but also has the best wrestling personalities. I want everyone to know that AEW is for everybody."
Khan can't wait to bring AEW to the State Farm Center on December 4th.
"If I could pick one place in the world to do one show, this would be it," Khan said. "State Farm Center is my favorite place. I couldn't pick a better place to do our tenth show than right here in Champaign."
