Tony Khan On What Toni Storm Told Him Regarding AEW Debut

AEW President Tony Khan recently spoke to Rasslin' where he gave his thoughts on FTR. The current Ring Of Honor and AAA Tag Team Champions have been on a roll as of late. Tony believes that's because they're two of the best wrestlers in the world right now.

"Well, I think it's because they're two of the best pro wrestlers on the planet. They had some great matches here just in the past year, they've had some classics," he said. "I think their match at Grand Slam with Sting and Darby was excellent, and it had been building up to them having a match with The Young Bucks. 18 months ago they wrestled The Young Bucks at Full Gear, 2020, and so much had changed in a year-and-a-half in the world of wrestling.

"I think it was unimaginable that the Ring Of Honor Tag Team Championship would be defended along with the AAA Tag Team Championship on Dynamite. And that really, FTR would have changed their tune a bit. They've really started to rely on their wrestling ability, and not on cheating and Tully Blanchard."

Tony Khan also discussed some of the matches that FTR have had this year. He believes Dax Harwood's encounter with CM Punk opened up a lot of eyes. Meanwhile, Khan is of the opinion that they have had several match of the year contests recently.

"I think FTR, it had been coming," he said on their recent rise. "In addition to that great match at Grand Slam with Sting and Darby, they had an amazing match on TV recently with CM Punk and Jon Moxley I think they reached a point where they said, 'we don't need Tully, we don't need the cheating, we are just great wrestlers.' They've gone on and put on clinic after clinic. Dax put on that singles match against CM Punk that really opened a lot of eyes.

"Then as a team, they have been on fire. Just in the past several days, they had that match against the Gunn Club on Dynamite, picked up a big win going into Ring Of Honor Supercard. Then had one of the match of the year contenders, I think, against The Briscoes, and then followed it up with another match of the year contender on Dynamite against The Young Bucks."

Toni Storm recently got people talking as well, with the former WWE Superstar debuting in AEW. Tony Khan revealed that has gone really well for the company, as he broke down the minute-by-minute ratings of her debut.

"Also, Toni Storm coming in did really well for us," he claimed. "It's funny, sometimes people look at the quarter hours, and if you don't have the minute-by-minute data, which really I don't think is publicly available, people wouldn't know this. But every once in a while you'll get a quarter that has two breaks, and that quarter it's not fair to judge the quarter unless you've seen the minute by minute.

"Toni Storm and The Bunny did great. That was a great rating, over a million people were watching. And in the demo, it was over 500,00, it did great. It was up there with the big segments on the show, it did really well. There's a ton of interest in her. The first two people to qualify for the Owen were Jamie Hayter and Toni Storm, and we saw them come face to face last night. There was a lot of buzz on that. And there was a lot of people pressuring me to make the match in the tournament. Maybe that was by design, I like to lean into it."

Toni Storm was visibly emotional when she competed on Dynamite against The Bunny. However, Tony Khan revealed some backstage details about her return to wrestling, claiming she was relieved.

"She said, this has brought back her love of wrestling already. The way she reacted when she came through the curtain after the match. I don't know if I have ever seen somebody more relieved to have wrestled a match than Toni Storm. After taking the 90 days off she came back in great shape," he said. "She looks great, she is a great person, I love having her in AEW."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Rasslin' with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.