AEW President Tony Khan was on a call with the media today ahead of this Saturday’s (Sept. 20) All Out pay-per-view in Toronto.
One newsworthy tidbit that Khan revealed early in the call is that the opening bout of All Out will be the tag team match pitting Adam Copeland & Christian Cage against FTR. Khan referred to it as a “dream match…in many ways.”
In addition to teasing a huge AEW event in spring 2027 opposite WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia, Khan also commented on today’s wrestling fans who feel
squeezed out by high ticket prices. Tony said it’s always been important in AEW to “maintain affordable ticket pricing for the fans, and particularly to bring families and young fans to the show, and make it accessible for fans of all backgrounds, and of all ages.”
Moving on, the part of the call I found to be most interesting is Khan’s response to last week’s report by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp about Wardlow’s injury changing plans for him to challenge AEW World Champion Hangman Page at All Out. Khan harshly shot down the part of the report about Wardlow challenging for the belt on Saturday.
“I give Sean credit for retracting it very quickly. Whoever told Sean this really should get out of the wrestling business. Get out and stay out of the wrestling business, because they have no business being in the wrestling business giving wrong information, and discrediting the company, saying that there was a plan for Wardlow to be the world title challenger at this pay-per-view. That is wildly inaccurate, and was never, ever the plan.
The plan has been, and has always been, for the TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher to step up and challenge the AEW World Champion Hangman Page at AEW All Out. And I thought it was ludicrous when I saw somebody report that AEW All Out there was ever any talk of Wardlow wrestling for the world title. And there had been big plans for Wardlow, that is true. Wardlow was gonna be very involved in the television in the run-up to All Out, but he was never gonna be the challenger…
The fact that anybody can just go say something and then it’s taken as fact, when only one person knows, and it’s me. And there’s only one person out there, and I never told him that. So, the fact that there’s somebody out there that claims to know who is gonna be challenging, and then these things get reported as fact. And this happens all across sports. I see it happen in other sports too. It’s not like it’s just in wrestling, but it is really bad when that stuff happens. So whoever the source is for that, just please get out of the wrestling business and stay out.”
Khan acknowledged that Wardlow is indeed injured. But he wasn’t done ranting about the “crazy” and “terrible” fake report, especially when you should only trust his word on certain matters.
“I was really excited about his return. And I was so devastated when Wardlow was injured. And that is true, Wardlow is out injured, and that part of the report was true. But then the way people source things, and the way people report things, I think it’s terrible. And what’s crazy is then when the retraction comes, and I do give Sean a lot of credit for retracting the report, but whoever sourced it, and frankly, taking the word of somebody who’s not me, when only one person actually knows what’s gonna happen there, it’s crazy. And I also think it’s crazy and terrible that Wardlow got hurt. And most of all, I feel terrible for him that he is out injured.
…He would have been in a top, prominent spot coming out of All Out. He was not going to be challenging Hangman Page. I thought that was crazy…Thanks for asking about that. And I’m very sorry that Wardlow is injured, but we are very excited for his return.”
What’s your reaction to Tony Khan’s comments on Wardlow’s injury and his denial of last week’s story about the original plans for All Out? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
