Tony Khan Details How Private Aviation Got AEW Stars To Phoenix In Time For Full Gear

As the United States takes a breather following the nationwide ground stop at all U.S. airports on Friday, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan was one of several promoters that was concerned over his talent and their travel safety over the weekend. Luckily, for his promotion, its annual fall pay-per-view event, Full Gear, turned out to be another successful event in the books. But to get there, Khan had to pull some strings, which included securing several private planes to come to the aid of his stars. During the Full Gear post-show media scrum, Khan described his preparedness on getting his talents there safely to Phoenix, Arizona.

"For anybody who didn't hear, I announced earlier today, [that] we utilized private aviation," Khan began. "Yesterday, all flights were shut down, private and public. And that meant that we're playing by the same rules as everyone, and nobody from AEW was flying yesterday. But I did start lining things up if and when the travel block did get changed, which happened last night, and at that point, we thought about it, and I'm really glad we did. It turned out — the commercial flights — a lot of the wrestlers on the pay-per-view did end up getting cancelled and had I not sent the private planes, a lot of people on this pay-per-view would not have made it here tonight. That was great. Some people would have been able to make it with their commercial flights, but sending the three private planes worked really, really well."

Many of the talents scheduled to appear were already in town ahead of Saturday night's show. However, there were two who were unable to make it in time for Full Gear, including Maya World (who was scheduled to take part in a triple threat match for the TBS Championship during the "Tailgate Brawl" pre-show) and backstage interviewer and pre-show panelist, Renee Paquette.

Nevertheless, the show went like clockwork, with three new champions crowned: The New Level & Swerve Strickland (World Trios Championship), Wrathlander (Harley Cameron and Kris Statlander — Women's World Tag Team Championship), and Ilja Dragunov (National Championship).

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "AEW" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.