Tony Khan recently spoke about the major shifts AEW has experienced in 2025, emphasizing how strategic changes have significantly impacted the promotion’s growth, visibility, and relationship with its audience. He began by highlighting the year’s most transformative development, saying, “What’s really changed for us this year; It’s been a true game-changer and sport-changer for AEW; it’s changed the whole marketplace for us in terms of AEW’s wrestling landscape.”
Central to this transformation has been the launch of AEW programming on the streaming platform Max. Khan explained how this move has broadened AEW’s reach and diversified its audience: “It’s Max, the streaming service. Having AEW on Max has helped us reach new viewers, a new audience, a younger audience, all kinds of people who have never seen AEW before, maybe even some cord-cutters that have gotten away from cable, coming back into AEW.” Rather than drawing viewers away from traditional platforms, this strategy has surprisingly boosted AEW’s presence across all platforms: “We’re still seeing record viewership on TSN, TBS, and TNT. The audience all went up from Q4 to Q1, even though we started streaming, more people are watching on cable, which is the complete opposite of what every analyst would’ve expected.”
Khan emphasized that the dual growth in both streaming and cable has revitalized AEW in meaningful ways: “We’ve grown our cable numbers as we expanded into the streaming universe, and that move to streaming has injected a lifeblood into AEW that’s been a really positive thing for the wrestlers, the staff, and the fans in 2025.”
At the heart of AEW’s momentum, according to Khan, is the commitment to consistent quality and fan-focused programming. “The most important thing we’re doing is great shows every week. Every Wednesday and Saturday, the shows have really delivered, and our fans have been behind the company.” He praised AEW’s dedicated fanbase, noting, “Our fans love wrestling, they’re vocal, and we listen.” This relationship with fans is one Khan deeply values, especially their feedback: “I love hearing when they enjoy it and I want to lean into things they like.”
To maintain this connection and keep the product fresh, Khan stresses the need for variety and innovation in programming: “It can’t be the same show every week. It has to be different things, but trying to produce shows that our fans like is something we want to do and we have been doing a great job of in 2025.”
Source: Toronto Sun