#Tony Kahn on ‘Fight for the Fallen’ charities, AEW’s ratings, Mike Tyson goal

(Edited for clarity and length)

Q: Why did you choose these two charities to help with coronavirus relief response and what kind of engagement have you seen in terms of donations and the T-shirt?

A: We chose these originally in March because at the beginning of the coronavirus we were looking to identify charities where we could make a big impact in our community right away. So rather than wait for “Fight for the Fallen,” we got out in front of it and (my family and I) made a million-dollar donation in March to these two charities because they both made a major direct impact on fighting the spread of the virus and also the effect of the virus and the closing of shelters that have made life a lot more challenging for everybody here.

I know the T-shirt had been the No. 1 selling T-shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees and is doing well and we got some good traffic in (on donations).

Q: “Fight for the Fallen” started last year as a show to raise money for victims of gun violence. Can you see the charity for the event possibly shifting every year?

A: I never expected something would happen like COVID-19 where it would be such an apparent issue right in front of all of our faces that it would overtake and become the most pressing charitable need. It’s very possible that there’s something else that comes up next year that we’re really struggling with that that could be the charitable component next year, but I also think it could also be COVID if we haven’t made a huge dent in the fight over the next year.

Q: How concerning is the current coronavirus spike in Florida when you own a wrestling company that works there and having a football team coming back there in the near future?

A: I think we are dealing with the same issues as a lot of the other pro sports that are building bubbles in Florida. I think logistically you don’t like to see it, so as a person that lives in Florida it’s concerning. I have not really left my own little bubble here and that is the key thing. I think that once we get everyone into the bubble, similar to other pro sports we do all the testing onsite and we’ve got a very clean and secure space and then try to keep everybody in here so that what’s going on outside the bubble doesn’t affect us

Q: Do you think we will see fans back at events this year? The Jaguars announced a 25 percent capacity plan, so it feels like you are at least planning for it?

A: I think it’s too early to say. I don’t want to get out in front of ourselves. I think there’s potential when you’ve seen what other countries have done, but we probably have a long way to go ourselves before we can do that. I think all sports are struggling with the same questions in America right now.

The Jaguars are making a choice for their stadium, whereas, they are planning in a few months and we’re kind of going week to week here (at AEW) and I think that’s a general kind of plan for the Jags. We haven’t for the Jags released a seating plan, what that 25 percent would look like and I think there are still a lot of questions to be answered before we get into playing football games. Fulham, on the other hand, we’re playing with no fans in England and piping in crowd noise, which the broadcast people have enjoyed.

But for us at AEW, one thing is I really like having the wrestlers and extras and production people around the ringside area because they’ve all been tested. So you still have the feel of energy and lively fans around the ringside area, but then it lets you keep that energy without the risk of having people so close to the ring where the wrestlers are exposed to people yelling and screaming at them who haven’t been tested for corona.

We all kind of live and work in the bubble together. For each taping we come in, we test everybody and I think until we can test fans, it will be hard to put fans in the ringside area because the difference between Jags and wrestling is that typically the ring-side wrestling seats are more accessible to the wrestlers than any NFL seat would put you on the field. There’s a big gap. If you don’t want people up on the sideline, you can use the first couple rows as a buffer zone. There are a lot of options for 25-percent capacity at an NFL stadium. For seating at a wrestling show, we will have to look at what people are doing.

Q: How important is this match for the TNT title against Cody for Sonny Kiss, who hasn’t had a lot of TV time on Dynamite?

A: It’s an important match for Sonny. The TNT open challenge is intended for people both inside and outside the company, to be an opportunity to showcase for people who have not necessarily had that chance. We’ve already seen the open challenge earn somebody (Ricky Starks) a contract, which is very cool. Just because Sonny’s already earning a paycheck doesn’t mean Sonny couldn’t become a bigger, more visible star. I think Sonny over the last several months has really developed.

Q: You said after Double or Nothing that Brian Cage was someone you really wanted to work with. Why were you so intrigued by him? How excited are you to finally get him to this main event match against AEW champion Jon Moxley?

A: Two years ago at this time, Brian Cage I would say outside the group that was then members of the Bullet Club — you could call it expanded Elite — outside of that core group of guys, I’d say Brian Cage was one of my Mount Rushmore people I really wanted to sign in AEW two years ago when I was first putting together this plan.

I like Brian’s combination of physicality, obviously looks like a beastly pro wrestler and he’s a huge, huge dominant powerful person, but also great athlete. Brian’s got a move-set like, he’s something out of a video game you don’t really see in real life very often, if ever. Somebody that looks like Brian and has the athleticism and can do not only a variety of power moves in the ring but is also something of a high-flyer. Which is pretty amazing to see for a guy his size.

Brian really has a lot of charisma personally. I also think Taz adds a lot to the presentation because Taz is one of the great promos of all-time. I think there is a real synergy between them. They look great together.

Q: What did Orange Cassidy prove to you and the wrestling world with how well his match against Chris Jericho went last week?

A: He proved a lot to the wrestling world that he can be a main event star and that he belonged with Chris. I was not surprised by it at all. It very much met my expectations. I really believe in Orange Cassidy.

Q: You recently on Twitter took the time to note the success of Fyter Fest for winning the 18-49 demo after some overall losses to NXT. What number or numbers do you ultimately gauge your success on, the day after numbers or when you add in DVR, etc.?

A: Within 48 hours I speak to all the top executives at TNT every week after the show and we generally are gauging it based on the 18-49 performance and it’s been like that since before we started. That’s what we’ve been told is the really important thing to focus on. But there are other growth factors. Obviously you want to see overall viewership, but it’s really important to build young viewers under the age of 18. I didn’t address this in the tweets, but we had done really great growth with the 12-18 audience who are the superfans of the future that someday when we are back to big events live with selling tickets, I think those people will grow up and become big fans for us, too. But right now we have a really loyal fan base. It’s not ideal that they can’t be with us live every week because they are a huge part of the show. What we do have going for us is this great audience in the demo.

Three out of the last four weeks we’ve been one of the top eight shows on cable in the 18-49 overnight (on Wednesdays) and those are generally what I’m judged on. When we talk about performance week to week, that’s it. So when I see people saying that the overall rating, who won and lost, I’m not sure they understand how the game is actually scored, which is what I was explaining, how if nothing else how we internally gauge success and it’s not me that picked these numbers. Although I can imagine people do think that I’m conveniently picking numbers, but this is what I’ve been told is the important thing along.

I had never brought it up before because we have always done very well in it. So when I see people trying to paint Fyter Fest as if it wasn’t successful. I’m like, this is very successful. Back-to-back weeks we were one of the top seven shows on cable (in the demo), putting out numbers the network and I were very happy with and would love to maintain.

Q: Why did you feel the treatment, counseling and suspension for Jimmy Havoc after the #SpeakingOut allegations against him and suspending and counseling for Sammy Guevara after his offensive comments about Sasha Banks surfaced was the best course of action in those situations?

A: I suspended them both. Very different situations. I just needed to address both. We are addressing both. I think Jimmy really needed the counseling. If and when he were to wrestle again, the most important thing for himself and everybody here is that he sought treatment and counseling. When he asked for that help, we’re gonna help him.

With Sammy, I think the right thing to do was to suspend him. The comments he made were horrible. I can’t defend them. I can’t even comment on them because they’re unspeakably bad. He has also done a different kind of counseling and he’s in a different kind of counseling and it’s a different kind of coaching. Everybody here, male and female pretty much up and down the roster we talked to felt like Sammy had no history of this kind of behavior. Really people were shocked Sammy had said that.

Certainly, it’s an old clip. I think the video was four years old. I had never seen that video and it’s something I would have addressed with him before Sammy started here. I never had an opportunity to address it because I didn’t know it existed and neither did anybody else or if they did nobody told us. For both of them, we really needed to address the situation before talking about what to do in the future afterward.

I didn’t want to rush into making a decision on either person, so it felt like until I had all the facts suspending was the right thing to do. Then I could make whatever the right decision is. I knew the right decision wasn’t for those guys to just come to TV and not address this stuff.

Q: Chris Jericho has said he thinks Mike Tyson can have some form of a wrestling match. Where do you stand on that and is that the ultimate dream, to get some sort of match out of Mike?

A: I like Mike a lot. Mike did a great job on Double of Nothing and I think there was a great amount of publicity and the show did very well. I have to attribute something to Mike’s presence there. I really think the world of Mike and I’d love to have Mike back if we could ever work it out. There’s a lot of great matches out there in the future, but if we could ever put Mike and Chris together and do Tyson vs. Jericho, I think it would be great.

Q: What’s PAC’s status and is there any timetable for his return?

A: I really miss PAC a lot. Right now the border is not a great situation. As I understand it, if he were to go back to England, if he were to come here and he was able to get in, do a quarantine after travel then he would also, when he tried to go home, he’d be in a two-week quarantine before he could do anything. So it just doesn’t seem like a sustainable situation right now because PAC lives in England, so until travel is sustainable and he could do what he used to do, which is come here and stay and do a few shows and then go back to England and really commute across the Atlantic, it’s very challenging right now. Until it becomes safe to travel back and forth for PAC to make those trips internationally, until the border is really ready, I don’t think we can rush him back even though we’d love to have him.