Tony Khan Compares Booking AEW Continental Classic To Conducting Science Experiment
Tony Khan is best known as a wrestling promoter, but the AEW executive tried on a new hat recently: mad scientist. According to Khan, dividing AEW programming between the sports-based Continental Classic tournament and the usual storyline-driven aspects has been something of an experiment.
"When you do an experiment, there's an experiment group and a control group, and for me the control was everything we've been doing," Khan explained on a media call prior to the December 30 Worlds End PPV. With his control established, Khan was then able to turn the AEW Continental Classic into the experiment group.
"The nature of [the Continental Classic] is a very sports-based presentation and it has some changes from the [G1 Climax], for example," he said.
Khan felt that his new three-point system for wins (as opposed to the G1's two points) forced wrestlers to not hope for a time-limit draw and incentivized decisive finishes in the tournament. He also felt the lack of seconds or outside interference was a departure not only from the G1 but AEW's presentation in general.
"When I look at the tournament itself, it's the most fun I've ever had working on something," Khan gushed. "It's been so tremendous and such a highlight of the holidays. For me, it really put a smile on my face on Christmas to go back and watch some of it with my family."
The AEW CEO feels that the tournament represents the best of what AEW is presenting at the moment, and is tremendously proud of the results.
"The experiment was increasing the allocation of this very meat-and-potatoes, sports-based, old-school pro wrestling at its finest, in my opinion," Khan continued. "The experiment I think has been very successful, and it has yielded really interesting results." Khan points=ed to the recent increase in the ratings for "AEW Collision," which he believes is directly tied to the success of the Continental Classic.
The inaugural tournament was won at Worlds End by Eddie Kingston, who defeated Jon Moxley to become the first-ever AEW Continental Champion, as well as the ROH World Champion and NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion — a modern triple crown.