Tony Khan loved professional wrestling so much growing up, he mapped storylines and wrote scripts for his own imaginary company. He had wrestlers as friends and friends who worked in wrestling. Oh, and he had money, enthusiasm and entrepreneurism, too.
The son of a billionaire, Khan decided being a squared circle fan wasn’t enough — he wanted to shake up the culture and pair his modern spin with an old-school flavor and in 2019, All Elite Wrestling was born.
“If you’ve seen other wrestling and said, ‘This isn’t for me,’ give AEW a chance,” the 38-year-old Khan said. “It’s a lot less likely to insult your intelligence than other shows out there.”
Yes, that’s a direct shot at WWE, the longtime industry leader that essentially stood alone for almost two decades as the preeminent force in American wrestling.
Not anymore.
Like the challenger chasing the champion, AEW has turned from plucky upstart into the talk of the pro wrestling world.
