Tony Khan On Why AEW Uses So Much Licensed Music, Despite High Costs

Tony Khan has proved he has willing to utilize licensed music to enhance the entrances for many AEW wrestlers, with the latest example being "Walk" by Pantera for RVD's debut. He admitted to "Battleground Podcast" that he did have a backup for him, but it wouldn't have been the same.

"That's why I wanted to pay the extra and go the extra mile to get 'Walk' by Pantera," he admitted. "Pantera was great and worked with us and we worked out a reasonable deal. I compare music licenses and wrestling to trades in pro sports. It's like, you can do your best, but every trade is its own transaction, it has to be between, at least two willing parties."

Not every deal that Khan has been able to strike has been a reasonable price as he made it clear that value is in the eye of the beholder. He was previously open about 'The Final Countdown' costing a lot of money, proving not everything is simple.

"Sometimes people ask for money that I don't think is reasonable, other times we have gotten deals that I thought were very fair," he said.

Fortunately, Khan confirmed that he paid for all of the licensed music in perpetuity, meaning he can showcase them forever. This is something he believes will be an exciting addition to AEW's eventual streaming library, which he is optimistic of taking place on MAX in the future.

"Every great moment where we've licensed music, we still have that music, I paid for the rights in perpetuity," he said. "I've had a lot of other opportunities to license music and work with a lot of great artists. We've done all kinds of great stuff, and hopefully, someday all of that will be available for people to watch in perpetuity on the library forever.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Battleground Podcast" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.