Tony Khan explains the logic behind announcing his HUGE announcements

AEW President Tony Khan took questions on a call with the media today ahead of this Saturday’s (Nov. 18) Full Gear pay-per-view.

At one point, Tony was asked about the thought process behind making his frequent HUGE announcements, including how he decides when to do it and to what extent to hype them up. This follows his dud announcement from a couple weeks ago regarding the pre-sale date for All In 2024, as well as his current tease of a major signing at Full Gear. In contrast, there was no hype at all leading up to his recent announcement of the Continental Classic tournament.

Tony said he thinks about these decisions all the time, and it’s ultimately about creating engagement:

“It’s something I weigh all the time because we have to announce matches, and announce moments, and announce huge things and signings. And sometimes you just try to do what feels right, and create engagement. And that’s something we’ve been able to do, whether it be on television or through social media.

I think certainly we created a lot of awareness about [All In 2024] by putting a lot of fanfare around the announcement and then putting it on television and getting a lot of eyes on it and conversation about it. And I think now there’s a lot of awareness about the December 1st on-sale. And I think we’ve been able to use the TV and social media at times to get people excited.

And then there’s times where I like to keep people on their toes. And it was fun to have something this past week on Collision that people are blown away by, and that’s the Continental Classic, which people are really excited for.”

Khan continued his answer by talking about the mystery signing at Full Gear.

“I think that’s gonna be someone that will be a great addition to AEW, and it’s gonna be a big deal. As for how to announce the announcements, or when to announce things, it’s something that definitely there’s lots of different ways to slice and dice it, and there’s tons of different ways to approach that. But really, just trying to create excitement around our big promotions, events, wrestlers, and get good buzz around the company. And I think we’ve been able to do that.”

Moving on, Bryan Danielson is one of 12 wrestlers who will compete in the Continental Classic tournament. Khan said we’ll learn more information about that tournament in the media scrum following Full Gear. However, he did mention that Bryan has one more issue to resolve before he can get back on the road with AEW:

“We’re waiting for Bryan to get final clearance to fly. He was able to come to Collision in Oakland this past weekend because it was a drive that he was able to make. But he’s not able to fly, he can ride in a car.”

Did you learn anything new from Khan’s explanation about announcing his HUGE announcements? Let us know what you think of his answer in the comments below, Cagesiders.