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So he steps in to fix the problem at hand before it gets out of hand, and he knows Granger's got the right product he needs to get the job done, which is music to his ears. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. I really don't enjoy going first, because then I got to ask the question, "I got to ask this question. I want to start doubling up, and why are you guys doing this?" All right, so I'll try to tie it in this way. What is it like having an A/W double or nothing? A big event like that is Signature Event, which I hope started all. I'm not making it a two-part, I'm making it one-part, but how does it help if it does with just getting more eyes on it, getting TV negotiations going, maybe other interests from different TV entities, streaming, et cetera, how does A/W double or nothing help something like that? If it does, thank you. Absolutely. It's a great question. We have a huge, huge following here in A/W, and it all started with the original double or nothing event. And this is going to be a great show with that great success on pay-per-view this year, and with our pay-per-view ticket sales and our pay-per-view event sales on cable satellite and streaming, expect this to be another great event. Right now, I think we're two-for-two. This year in 2024, I felt like Revolution and Dynasty have been two of our great pay-per-views, and this is an amazing card for double or nothing on Sunday, and having a big event like this puts us in a really, really good position. I think it gets a lot of eyeballs on the product and also a lot of attention from media and all of you, given it great coverage. And I think, you know, it's a really important year for A/W. It's not only our fifth year, but we're also going into renewables for most of our media rights, and it's going to be a major, major year where we'll have a lot to celebrate because we're going to see huge growth in our revenues this year as we renew those deals. Thanks, Jim. Thank you, Jim. Mike McGuire from Vista Radio's McGuire on Wrestling is next, and I'm going to follow Mike with a write-in from Jonathan Hood of Good Karma Wrestling in Chicago. Mike. Hello, Mike. Is Mike there, Jim? I am not hearing from you. Thank you. Yeah, there we go. We got you, Mike. Sorry about that. The pop-ups were coming up in different ways here. Tony, thanks for the time today. Congratulations on five years. Definitely a great accomplishment for you there. It's been an interesting five years for fans watching, and one of the things, of course, when you have a company going as strong as you do and as often as you do, is the plague of injuries, and there's definitely been some big names that have been out for injury for a while now. When you have a case like this where you have some definitely top names that are coming down, are you kind of trying to put things with storylines and with your characters in a holding pattern, or are you looking at this as a chance to try and build new talents? And I know you said there's no two-part questions, but I also just wanted to know, do you need a permit to own a flamethrower? I'm just curious, but anyway, that's all I got. I do think you do, you know, you do, I'm not sure whether you need a permit to fire one off, but I'm glad that Darby had one, and I'm glad he was able to use it, and that was great to see the flamethrower on AEW Dynamite last night. It was a great show, I thought I was really happy with the go home show, and that was one element I really liked about it. So then to go back to what you were asking before, you got me so excited talking about the flamethrower in your non-two-part, two-part question. Going back to what you had led off with, you know, we have had a lot of injuries, it's been great to get Darby back, and we're always pushing forward, and we do 52 weeks a year in pro-req when there's no time off, and it's been a great year so far, like I was saying. I mean, the first two pay-per-views with huge home runs, with revolution and diagnostic, and really looking to keep the hot street going on pay-per-view with double or nothing. And I think for us going into this show, the card looks really strong, it's great going back to Las Vegas, the same place where we began five years ago at the MGM Grand, and we've accomplished so much in five years, and it'll be really great to go back with such a strong card, and despite the fact some of our top stars are injured, that does create opportunity for them to come back and create great moments, and the people that are keeping us strong week-to-week right now, they're going to have great opponents walking through the door as soon as more and more of our injured stars come back, and we've got great matches lined up now, and there's only going to be more and more great matches, but if possible, as we get some of those injured top stars back soon. Thanks for asking. Thank you, Mike. So Tony, I've got to write in from Jonathan Hood from Good Karma Wrestling in Chicago. I'm going to read it in a sec, and I want Dominic D'Angelo from Ed Free Shows to be ready after Tony answers Jonathan, who asks if there are some other cities out there right now that you're looking at to showcase AW for television programming that you haven't been to yet. That's a great question, yes, there are some cities that we've never been to that I've brought up. In the US and in Canada and overseas, I think there's some great cities that would be great homes for AW Dynamite and Collision and Rampage, as well as our Pay-Per-View events. We're doing some different things in terms of, you know, routing and touring, and creating some new opportunities for us to have stuff like the AEW Summer Series on the path to all in in Arlington, Texas. That's a great opportunity for us and working with the local government and the city to plan a series of great events in a great market like that. And then there are other markets that we, you know, have not mined and not been to. And I think there are some excellent places in the US, Canada and overseas where we've not been yet where there's a great opportunity where there's following for AW and a potential for us to draw. It's been great having Co-Shay Irby come in and join us as the COO, putting a great live event team together and that's something we're talking about all the time is new markets where we can bring GW. You know, the shows are in 150 countries around the world now, we've got great penetration, so there's a lot of opportunities internationally as well as domestically to open up new markets. Thanks for the question. Thank you, Jonathan, Dominic D'Angelo from Ad Free Shows is next, Dominic will be followed by Andrew Vadala from the final VEL media. Tony, looking forward to the pay per view this weekend. First year, I'm not able to make a double enough and so pretty bummed about that. You guys did a great build for the show on Dynamite last night, I thought, wanted to follow up. Thank you. Yeah, you're very welcome. You're very welcome. I wanted to follow up with one of the legacy talents that have been in the news lately, Mark Henry, a report came out that his contract was expiring this month supposedly and was curious if you had interest in reciting him or what his status is with the company moving forward. I really like Mark, you know, we have to look at that internally, but I think as far as the contract dates, but I think Mark's a great person and I really personally like him. You know, he's a great media personality as well as being a great wrestler and a great color activist. And I have a ton of respect for Mark and he's been great in AEW and I have brought a lot of respect for him in and out of the ring. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dominick. Andrew Baddala from Final VEL Media is next and I'm going to follow Andrew with a write-in from Kimmy Sokel of the Pop Break. Andrew. What if you could have a career where the opportunities are as fast as I can? 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As one of America's leading accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance. Uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Hey, Drew. In the summer series at the East Sports Stadium in Arlington, Texas, could this be a new norm for AW Collision and other TV to give it a unique feel with the venues, and would you explore more intimate venues with a residency in the near future? Well, it's interesting. The City of Arlington gave us a great opportunity there and favorable terms, and it's a great market for pro wrestling, and it's a great venue for the East Sports Stadium in Arlington. So, I think for us, that was a unique situation. If there are more opportunities in great markets with great venues and cities that really want to bring AWN than any time, that's all lined up. I definitely think there would be a lot of interest on our part in working with that kind of a situation. So, it's something to keep an eye on for our show, as I do think it's a unique opportunity for the Collision to have to all end, and it's an opportunity to differentiate between the two-hour packages of Dynamite and Collision for AWN, and I think that having some of the most passionate, loudest, most loyal wrestling fans on the entire planet around the Dallas Metroplex area and the great fans in Arlington makes a lot of sense for us, and it can really help us build up those shows at such an important time of the year for us, where that's on a Collision episode. It'll be going on the past all in at Wembley Stadium, so I definitely think if this goes really well, and we're expecting it to go really well, it could be a model for other future series like this. Thanks for the great question. Thank you, Drew. Thank you very much, Andrew. Tony, I've got a right in here from Kimmy Sokel from the Pop Break, and Amy Nemedy from WrestleJoy will follow your answer to Kimmy, who asks, "After Serena Deeb's serious metal condition last year, it was unsure if she would be able to return to the ring. Now she's not only a returner, but facing off against Tony Storm. What do you make of her comeback and the match this weekend?" Well, it's a really, really inspirational story to see Serena Deeb return to the ring. She went through challenges outside of the ring that she talked about, and she had some medical obstacles to make her return to get this match with Tony Storm. I think it's amazing what Serena has achieved, and it's going to be a great world championship match when she takes on Timeless Tony Storm this Sunday at Double or Nothing. Serena Deeb has been involved in some of the very best matches, and I expect that this will be another great match. Timeless Tony Storm, the great champion, the very different styles of fighting with Serena and Tony, very different presentations between the two of them, but I have a ton of respect for both wrestlers. I think Tony Storm's a great champion, and Serena Deeb's a great challenger, and absolutely Serena Deeb has been through a lot to get to this point in her career, and she's an inspiration to a lot of people, and I think it's great that she's been able to get back in the ring, and I'm really looking forward to that world championship match on Sunday and March, and I guess it's Double or Nothing. Thank you very much, Kimmy. Amy Nemedy from WrestleJoy is next. Amy will be followed by Bill Prichard from WrestleZone. Amy? Yeah. Hi, Amy. Hi, so first, congratulations on celebrating five years of AEW. I'm really excited about the TBS Championship match at Double or Nothing this year, and I think when we talk about the history of AEW, we also look at making history with this match. So we have Willow Knight and Gayle Mercedes Monet, they have, of course, a lot of history between them with Willow becoming the inaugural New Japan Women's Strong Champion when Mercedes was injured during that match. We've had the rise of Willow Knight and Gayle, we've seen her become TBS Champion. For Mercedes, this will be her first match since last year, and her first AEW match. For someone at, like Mercedes, known as a history maker, making her debut where history was made five years ago with Double or Nothing, can you talk about the stakes for both of these women, as well as their preparation heading into this match? Thank you so much. Yes, great questions. Well, it's been tremendous building up the TBS Championship match between Willow Knight and Gayle, the champion and the challenger, Mercedes Monet, who will be making her debut in AEW on Sunday. Mercedes Monet is one of the biggest stars in all of wrestling. She's been a great champion all over the world, and I think she's very deserving of an opportunity to come into AEW and challenge for this. And Willow Knight and Gayle has been a fighting champion, fighting open challenges recently in Japan, and defending her title in a street fight. She's going to be now taking on what the greatest wrestlers in the world is Sunday at Double or Nothing. And there's a lot of history between Willow and Mercedes as you alluded to. Their previous match was over a year ago, it was actually one year ago this week. So in addition to this week being a five-year anniversary of AEW, it also represents one year since their prior match, and one year since Mercedes stepped into a wrestling ring. And it's one of the biggest names, one of the most charismatic stars, and one of the most recognizable faces in the sport. Coming back to the ring after a major injury and a major upset loss, frankly, when Willow won the New Japan Strong Championship at Mercedes Monet's expense, I don't think anybody was expecting that. I don't know if Mercedes Monet was expecting that. Well, and Willow, for her, that was a big upset. And I think that she may have been the only one that believed that might happen. But in all seriousness, I do think that Willow and I and Yale and Mercedes Monet have the potential to be a great rivalry. This match is an important chapter, and I would not be surprised if they were to step in the ring again someday because there is already, I can see, a lot of chemistry between me too. I believe that this match is really important to both of them. It's a great opportunity for Willow to prove what we've seen over the past year when she won the New Japan Strong Championship, when she won the Owen Hart Foundation Cup. And now the TBS title, time after time, Willow has stacked up these accomplishments. And this past year has been the greatest year of Willow's wrestling career. And it's no coincidence that it started at the expense of Mercedes Monet. It's really been a tale of two wrestlers. One who's been out hacking up championships, wins, and really building up their career. And then you have one of the biggest names in the whole sport who has not been able to step into a ring in a full year. And when they finally do get in the ring and when all that history comes together and pays off, I think it's going to be a great match. I'm really excited about it. And I think it's a great opportunity for both women for Mercedes Monet, the challenger, and Willow Knight. You'd be able to champion. And the winner of the match will be the face of TBS, but the Superstation, the network with 50 years of history, in the pro wrestling business. And it'll be a very fitting prize for the winner of a great match and he's part of this triple main event on the five year anniversary show of AEW. Thank you for asking. Thank you, Amy. Bill Prichard from WrestleZone, you are next Mark Hope from 101.5 FMK Dawn. We'll follow Bill. Bill, you're up. How you doing? Great. Thanks, man. How are you? I'm doing good. This is going back a little bit, but I wanted to ask about your thought process on being a character on TV. I know originally you said you were reluctant to do it. You were known as the matchmaker because that's a necessary element. But now we've seen you in recent weeks and I'm including the stuff with you appearing on the NFL Draft as part of it. But you've been more of a character in this sort of internal power struggle and I just wanted to know who or what sort of made you change your mind about being on TV more, if anything, because it's been effective, it's been well received. But I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on the various appearances you've made in the past couple weeks, including last night driving Darby into the arena with the truck. Sure. Well, I appreciate that. Thanks for saying it's been well received. I'm glad to hear that. And I really tried to limit the amount of appearances that I personally have made over the past five years. I think it would be fair to say that less than one tenth of one percent of the television time has been spent on me over the last five years. And that's how it should be. And occasionally, like you said, if a match needed to be made or a major announcement, I would come out and do those things. I am planning to visit the fans again this weekend. And I love being at the events before and after with the live crowd and visiting with the fans, signing autographs and taking photos and things like that where I can. And it's really important to me that the folks of the show is on the wrestlers and the wrestling. And I think even when there's a story like the struggle for the control of the company, you know, the power in the office, I think it's still important to feature it in the context of the wrestling show and with the wrestlers. So even in a thing last night, you know, I think I was maybe for like at most two seconds on the show. And that's how it should be. I don't need to see autonomy, it should be about the wrestlers and the reaction Darby got when he got into the arena. And because the unbox had banned him from the arena and Kenny Omega has been out with the surgery, then there's really only one person that could let that ban. And I felt like that ban really needed to get lifted. And it was really important going into double or nothing for the fans to see Darby and for him to go in and save Brian Danielson on his birthday and and for Brian and Darby to stand tall. And FTR had been a great part of the AEW as well. I think this is a really cool team AEW. It originally included Eddie Kingston, but when Eddie was injured, he needed to pay him pro wrestling and we're all wishing him the best in hoping Eddie gets well soon. We love Eddie very much and we want to see him well and back. But the team changed and the circumstance changed when Eddie got hurt. And an interesting aspect of this team AEW is I think that you have, and again, you asked about me appearing on the show and I'm trying to put the folks on team AEW and not talk. But I think it was important to get, you know, Darby into the arena. And I can't wait for FTR to rejoin Brian and Darby on Sunday at double or nothing. I think it's really cool that this team AEW represents four really key people in the locker room and also four people that came in really during what I see as almost the three different eras of AEW, you know, that pre-pandemic, really even pre-daily place, before we'd even been to daily place, Darby is truly an original from the original shows before the original fight for the fallen in 2019 and then to Fort Dynamite. And so you have an original in Darby Allen and then, you know, FTR who are daily place pandemic era, classic part of that run. And they were there through pretty much almost the entire daily place pandemic. They did a full year with us and they were with us when we went back on the road and, you know, having Darby from that pre-daily place, pre-pandemic era. FTR from that daily place pandemic era and then Brian Danielson who really exemplifies what it was when we got out back on the road and the possibilities and excitement. And I think his embodied AEW as much as anybody for the last few years, Brian Danielson. And then to have those four together, Darby Allen with Dax and Cash, FTR and Brian Danielson, that's a great team to me. And you know, it was important Darby was there to back up Brian last night and I felt like there was only one person that could get him in there. But again, I think it was also important that, you know, at most, maybe two seconds of that would be me and the rest is him because it's important to showcase the wrestlers on the wrestling show. Thanks for asking. Thank you, Bill. Mark Koch from 101.5 K. Don is next. Mark will be followed by Harry Ruiz from Raider Nation Radio 920 AM. Talk to you again, sir, how are you? I'm doing great, man. How are you? Doing well. Welcome back to Las Vegas, sir. Hey. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Well, I can't say I rolled out the carpet for you, but I think you did that yourself. But of course, professional wrestling is obviously becoming super massive here in Las Vegas and you were ahead of the curve on that. But one question I have been getting a lot from people is the choice to play at the MGM Garden in 17 mobile this year. And I was wondering if you'd be able to address that. What went into the decision to go at the MGM instead of T-Mobile this time around? Well, one thing that really meant a lot to me was looking back at the sentimentality of the five-year anniversary. And when we came out here originally, we ran MGM Grand Garden Arena. We've had some great events there. And we've gone to T-Mobile Arena. We've had some great events there. And I think T-Mobile is a great arena, a great venue. I think MGM Grand represents the very beginning of the AEW. It's where we launched and it's where this whole thing began. So for the feeling of the event and going back to where we all began, I thought it was cool to go back to where it truly all started five years ago. And it's going to be really neat. I think for us to go back there, there'll be a really sentimental memory for a lot of people that were there at the beginning and a lot of people that were not to go back and look at how much the company has changed in five years. Here in America, work is in trouble. We've off-shored our manufacturing, sent away good jobs, and lost so much ability to make things. American Giant is a company that's pushing back against this tide. They make high-quality clothing, sweatshirts, jeans, dresses, jackets, and so much more. Right here in the USA, visit american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order when you use Code Staple20 at checkout. That's 20% off your first order at american-giant.com, promo code Staple20. Every day we rise, challenging ourselves to work for what we believe in. 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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/try. Go to shopify.com/try now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in, shopify.com/try. And you know that's really the driver of the decision mark and I think it'll be a great event and I'm excited to be back in Las Vegas as you said five years ago, we brought double or nothing here to Las Vegas and really I think had set off a series of great great events. The original double or nothing set the record for the fastest sellout in the history of Las Vegas Pro Wrestling. It's really cool and we've got a great thing going here and I love coming to Las Vegas with the wrestlers. I know the wrestlers enjoy it and the fans and it's a great destination. I think we're going to see a lot of fans having a great time this weekend and make new fans out here as well and that's something we all enjoy. Thank you Mark. Harry Ruiz from Raider Nation Radio 9.20am is next followed by Liam Crowley from ComicBook.com. Media call this year you're coming out to Vegas for wrestling this month and then later in the year also for football so welcome back into town. I got a question about your new signings Las Vegas will be the first AEW pay-per-view with all three of your big 2024 signings in action, Okada, Osprey and Mercedes. How satisfied are you with what they've brought to the table and how your shows have produced since their arrivals? Thank you. That's a great question. I'm really excited about that to have Will Osprey wrestling for the international title for Zuzco Kata fighting in the anarchy in the arena and Mercedes Monet challenging for the TBS title all on the same show. It's really exciting and I think that for the company these three have come in at a great time and this is the first time they've ever been on a card together. I think we're going to continue to grow and build and I think we'll be in a much better place as a result of the three of those great three agents arriving here. I have a lot of respect for each of them individually and collectively. I think they add a lot to AEW and it's going to be great to finally have all three of them on the same pay-per-view. Thanks for asking. Thank you very much Harry. Liam Crowley from ComicBook.com is next followed by a write-in question from John Powell of slam wrestling. Liam. Hey Stokes for Double or Nothing this weekend. Darby Allen recently gave an interview where he was talking about him getting cleared for this match. Obviously he's still pretty banged up with his foot and his nose. But I was just curious in the instance where Darby wasn't able to get clearance to compete in this match and the fact that Eddie Kingston is currently out of action with his leg injury. Were there any other names that were circulated to fill that fourth spot for AEW? And considering Darby was the one who reached out to you about filling that match, did any talent from the roster reach out to you about wanting to be that fourth guy and represent the company? Well, the Darby thing was a case of great mind to think alike. I've spent a lot of time with him and we are complete opposite ends of sometimes I think of a very similar brain and arrive at a lot of the same thoughts very differently. I think our thought, our interests and outside of pro wrestling and the way we spend our time is very differently. One thing we have in common is we're both up late at night a lot though and that's what we probably do 90% of our talk and I reached out to him one night and I think like he had so often and vice versa, I think he read my mind. I texted him to ask, I said, "Hey, how are you doing? How's it going with the injury rehab?" And he responded immediately, "I'm doing good. I can fill in and substitute for Eddie Kingston as the partner on team AEW and NRK and he was like, so I didn't do what I was thinking." But before I ask the question you answered it, there were a lot of people that wanted to step up and be a part of team AEW and there were a lot of names I think that would have been great and there are a lot of people that could have stepped into this role and done excellent with it. I think that for AEW, I think looking at where we were last week and for this match and taking everything to account, I think Darby Allen was the perfect choice but I also think there's a lot of people that would have been excellent in the spot if Darby had not been able to get cleared and if he had not gotten cleared, I would not have pushed him in there even if he had wanted to, which I think he would have wanted to even if he had not gotten cleared correctly, I wouldn't have been able to do it but it was really cool how he wanted to step up and before I even got the question out of the answer that I thought that would meet. So thanks for asking, I appreciate it, Lee. Thank you, Liam. Tony, here's a writing question from John Powell and we'll follow John's question with Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy. John's question is a simple one, I think you'll enjoy it. What does double or nothing's anniversary mean to you and to you and to AEW? Well, that is a great question. It means a lot. It's crazy to think back to five years ago and when we finished the event, it was such a great feeling because we knew we were starting something special in wrestling and it was true. We had. It was only the beginning of a great journey and now five years later, I still think the beginning of a great journey but we're five years into it but five years into a mission of unknown length, hopefully infinite but definitely going to be a long time and it's still in a way feels like we're close to the beginning of a long journey but we've come so far and done so many great things. When we had the original double or nothing, I had a dream and I think all of us had a dream in AEW that someday we would run a major stadium event and build it up and we did that and I'm really proud of that and what we were able to accomplish there and I think that we'll continue to do great things and we've set a lot of milestones in pro wrestling for a company that didn't even exist five years ago and week in, week out, putting on great TV when we did the first double or nothing, there was no AEW television yet, there was an agreement to launch Dynamite in October of that year and now we're about four and a half years into Dynamite and it's just been this amazing run but when we started, we were looking forward to doing TV two hours a week on TNT and it's grown so much and now we do five hours a week on TNT and TBS, we're doing more than double the weekly content, we've expanded our partnerships all over the world, the shows are on in over 150 countries now, our first year we did three pay per views in three quarters for the plan to do quarterly projects, we've successfully expanded the calendar now this year where we've got nine events on the calendar after eight last year and you know the eight last year was a massive, massive success and I think it's really, really amazing what we've done over these five years. Thanks for the great question. Thank you very much, John. Hey Chase from Digital Spy is next, Stephanie will be followed by Samantha Shipman from the Daily DDT. Stephanie. Hey Stephanie. Hey, so AEW has made the decision to move all out two week later leaving more time between it and all in and can you tell us how you came to the decision and any lessons you learned from running back to back pay per views last year? Sure, it was really a great two week period last year, you know, back to back weekends with all in and all out, there was a lot of feedback, hey what about more time between the shows and they're both holiday weekends and I think there's utility to both the weekends. We had run on Labor Day for several consecutive years even going back to before AEW all in which was really a show run by the elite and funded by ROH and with those elements, you know, in 2018 Labor Day weekend, I mean, we've gone from 2018 through 2023, there had been a lot of great events there for all out, you know, with the 2020 being the exception in Jacksonville, Labor Day weekend has been really kind around Chicago to AEW, I want to continue putting AEW on in September and I wanted to give the fans in Chicago a great show and I was thinking how can I give them an even better show and I know some of the feedback it said, you know, this is always been a great weekend Labor Day weekend for AEW, coming off the stadium show, it's hard to come in and do anything the week after that but last year we did it and the show was fantastic and a lot of people thought all out was the best event of the entire year. A lot of people also thought all in was the best event of the entire year and a lot of people thought that revolution was the best event of the year and a lot of people thought that Forbidden Door was the best event of the year so we had a really, really strong calendar of paper views I felt like last year, maybe our strongest ever probably and one note people had was, hey, if all out had been a little bit further out we could have built things a little bit more and maybe people wouldn't have been so surprised how great the show was when it turned out to be maybe the best of all of them and I thought that made sense, you know, other people have done major wrestling events within the same week or even the same weekend back-to-back days even and it's a different platform for delivery when you're doing shows on streaming and they're all in a bundle and you get them all versus selling events, allocart, I think that's a different challenge so I think that made a lot of sense. Also when we started doing Labor Day weekend, we were the only ones running on Labor Day weekend for years and then, you know, the competition moved into Labor Day weekend, I believe was last year, international competition and it was like, okay, that's cool and again there was a show scheduled for that weekend this year and it just seemed like the win-win-win where it was like, hey, we have the ability to take this major event at Wembley, continue the tradition of early September wrestling pay-per-view for AEW around Chicago land, go back to another arena where things really kicked off and an important milestone for AEW at that now arena around Hoppin' Estates, Illinois and, you know, all my sons in Schomburg and all my college roommates and neighbors and I think it's, you know, it's been very, very well received, people seem to think it was a good move and I really do like listening to the fan feedback and this is one of those cases where most of it was really positively received with that being NFL opening weekend, it's going to be a busy one for a lot of people including me and I think that it made sense for that and then to put the pay-per-view on Saturday and start the Saturday pay-per-view cycle a little earlier because once NFL season starts our pay-per-views tend to shift mostly from being on Sundays to Saturday. So that's kind of the thought process of the event getting pushed back to six days. Thanks for the great question. Thank you, Stephanie. All right, we're in the stretch around here. Got time for two or three more. Samantha Shipman from the Daily DDT is next. We'll follow Samantha with Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer. Samantha? Hello, can you hear me? Hey, yep, we got you. Good. First of all, congratulations on five years of AEW and Double or Nothing. And so I have a question about what led to your decision to run from what we've heard a triple main event this weekend and what do you think we will see the women main event on their own on a pay-per-view? It's a great question. I think, well, I felt like these are three matches that were uniquely positioned on the shows that all have really important stakes for different reasons. I think Swarff Strickland is a great, great champion for AEW and he has really done very well for us since winning the championship. He's been involved in some major segments, had a great first defense of the title against Claudia Castagnoli on a really important episode of TV. It was very prominently positioned after NBA playoffs on TNT. And then we've got Christian Cage who has been, in my opinion, an MVP of AEW television over the past year. And what Christian Cage has done for the company, it is unbelievable. And I absolutely believe that was what we were going to get when we signed him. And I think it's been proven right that Christian Cage is one of the best signings we've ever made in AEW. And that all the hype around his signing was very justified because he's one of the greatest wrestlers in the world and he's done the best work of his career in AEW. And now he's challenging Swarff Strickland for that AEW World Championship. It's a huge match. It swerves first ever defense of the championship on a pay-per-view. And it may be his only defense of the AEW World Championship on pay-per-view because the man he's wrestling is one of the all-time greats. And I think it's a really interesting match. And the rivalry that they built up on television has been captivating. They had history going back to last year. They were partners at Wembley Stadium. And their partnership was ill-fated. And now they are on a collision course for Double or Nothing. And I'm so excited about Swarff Strickland versus Christian Cage for the World Championship at Double or Nothing. And I think that that rivalry has heated up and just gotten personal. And they're great professional wrestlers, both of them, but it's also become a personal rivalry. Christian Cage loves bringing people's families into these situations and playing those mind games. And Swarff Strickland also a master of the mind game. And I thought it was an amazing segment last night when they went out into the parking lot and they were fighting on the hood of a car. It was just crazy stuff. They're balling on the wagon here. I love to see it. And I really, really have so much respect for both of those men. I think that's going to be a great match in the triple main event. I think that Willa Nightingale and Mercedes Monet is going to be a fantastic match. I gave a very long answer about that match. And I will repeat some of that now. But I think it's important to look back that it's been a year since Mercedes Monet last stepped into a pro wrestling ring. And that Mercedes Monet is one of the most recognizable, most charismatic, most talented wrestlers in the world, and was one of the biggest creations signings in the history of AEW. And I think that when you look at the match up between Mercedes Monet and Willa Nightingale, it's important to look at what's happened over the past year. Willa Nightingale has been one of the hottest wrestlers in the world. She's won the New Japan Strong Championship one year ago this week at the expense of Mercedes Monet. She went on to win the Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament. She won the TBS Championship. She's the face of the Super Station, the network with the longest, most prestigious history in the pro wrestling business of any television channel. And she's the face of that station. And to be the champion and have people gunning for you, that's one thing, but then to have somebody gunning for you and have that person be one of the best wrestlers in the world. And they haven't been able to wrestle for a whole year. And every single day they've woken up and they blame you for that. And it's just a tremendous situation. And I've been really looking forward to the match and promoting the match on pay per view for a long time. And also looking forward to a rematch after the way that their match ended in New Japan a year ago. And I think it's going to be tremendous. And I think that's going to be a great match. And also we have the Anarchy and Arena, which is going to be really crazy. The last couple of years, I think the Anarchy and the Arena match has been one of the best wrestling matches in the world yet. It has been at various points, not really wrestling. It's been street fighting, wrestling, and pure anarchy as advertised. So I think that these matches all present a great utility, great opportunity and great main event feel for the fans. And I think there are other great matches on the card too, that our main event already, absolutely. And we got so many great things on this card top to bottom. These are three that were in your mark for the Triple Main Event. I think there are other matches that would live up to that. I love the slot machine, the three-wheel slot machine in the Triple Main Event. And we thought that would be a really fun part of the promotional push for Double or Nothing. And I think it is, seeing all those big stars and big faces, homegrown stars like Darby Allen and Willow Nightingale, and great champions like Swerve Strickland or even, frankly, Ocada and the Young Bucks, despite our differences. And then some of the biggest faces and biggest names and nothing, see these veteran names like Brian Danielson, Mercedes Monet, Christian Cage, FDR, people that have built these reputations in pro wrestling. And I think that it's a really exciting Triple Main Event. And all the men and women in it are very important, AEW. And that's why I think it's great for the card and whatever the most important offer, you know, whatever, I think whatever the big pay per views come up. When you have something like this, it's our five-year anniversary show. It's one of our most important events of the year. You know, it's great to have such an important series of matches headlining the show. And in the past, the championship matches and the Enterthy and the Arena have been really a featured part. Last year, we did a double main event with the World Title match and the Enterthy and the Arena as the final matches. And I thought that this year with the introduction of one of the greatest free agents in the world, Mercedes Monet and her very intense rivalry with Willow Nightingale that is heated up. I thought that this would be a great match to add and make it a Triple Main Event. So that was the thought process. Thanks for asking. Thank you very much, Samantha. Okay, we're going to finish up here. We got two to go. Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer is next and we will complete our time today with Tony, with John Alba from Triller TV. We have about five minutes. Dave, you're up. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers where you'll find over 30,000 mouthwatering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. You can also save up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with fuel points, more savings and more inspiring flavors make shopping king supers worth it every time. King supers fresh for everyone. Fuel restrictions apply. Can you guys hear me? Hello? Hey, Dave. I can hear you, Dave. Okay, great, great, great. Tony, hey, so yeah, like this being the fifth anniversary, I guess like one of the questions that I have is when you look back on the five years, what would be like the most valuable lessons that you've learned, maybe your biggest surprises and with hindsight, is there anything that you would do differently where the experience that you have now and you would look back and go, I wish I could have changed that? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think we all, yes, I think there are a lot of things like that. And I think we all learn every day. And, you know, I think there's been a lot of great opportunities and moments. There are countless things that if I could have the ability to go back and change time, I would do and not only in AEW, but in football and in life, there are so many things where I look back. And I think all of us, right? I feel like if any of us had the ability to reverse time, we could do everything. And, you know, it's a corny expression hindsight is 2020, but it's true. But at the same time, I know that I have spent a lot of time learning and trying to soak up wrestling history long before we launched AEW, I learned and studied wrestling history because it was important to me to study things that had happened and try to learn from them, basically. And there are a number of things that, in all walks of my life, that if I could reverse and do some things different, I would. But at the same time, I'm very, very happy with all of it. And we are, to some extent, the sum of the opportunities we're given and choices we make. And I've been fortunate to get a lot of great opportunities and tried to make the best choices I could. And I'm very happy with where we've ended up with all of it. There's things, you know, when you make as many decisions as I do as a decision-maker, there's countless decisions that you could do over and look at how they would have turned out. And I think all you can do from those is then try to do something different in the future. But sometimes those opportunities are once in a lifetime and they don't come up again. So you just have to wait and see if you ever get a chance like that again or the next time you get an opportunity that even resembles that that you do the right thing, you learn from what happened in the past. So in this business, you make so many swings a week. And I think you learn from the pitches you swing at and you've got to keep swinging and taking shots. And, you know, Jack Nicholas said you missed 100% of the plots. You don't get to the hold. You know, I think it was like, "Michael Jordan, you missed 100% of the shots you don't take." I always liked the Jack Nicholas one a lot because it's a good golf. You know, it's true. Like, you don't get it to the hole. You're never going to make it. So it's a little bit. It's a similar expression, but it's not the exact same expression. It does have a little bit of extra imp to it. And, you know, it's a great question. I'm sitting here like thinking about it and giving examples. And I don't want to bury anybody or the company. You know, it's just, there's so many things in life. You know, I think about, you know, looking back in the NFL, if everybody could undo the NFL draft, all 32 teams would do something differently. You're in your out if they had the benefit of hindsight. So in sports, you know, it's good to think that way. So you can learn from the things you do, but you can also spend the whole life wishing you could go backwards because we're all really fortunate to be able to spend every day doing these things. I mean, pretty much everybody on this call, I gather, gets to do some things that really love with their work. Even if this isn't for all to do your full time job and you're doing other things, you're covering wrestling and I gather you're doing it because you love it and we all love it. And I try to look forward and, you know, we're all really blessed to be doing this. And, you know, I think we can all spend a lot of time looking back at pro wrestling history and learning from an even recent wrestling history and learning summit. But, you know, it's a lot of fun that we get to do this every day. Thank you. Thank you, Dave. As promised, we're going to get you in John Alba. You're going to bring us home here. John Alba from Triller TV. You got a few seconds here. Once you're far away and Tony, give John your best. That's you guys. Tony, congrats on five years. Pretty crazy. Remember that first press conference in Jacksonville. Amazing to see where we are now. So congrats on that. But turning the page from the past to the present in the future. How does the state of the NBA's future with Warner Brothers Discovery affect AEW's media rights negotiations? And would that maybe encourage you to explore other potential bidders outside of the exclusive negotiation window in that closes? Where do things stand there? Oh, well, I definitely won't talk to anybody before, before the window. And, you know, I'm very happy with being at Warner Brothers Discovery. They've been so great to us. And we've been able to find a home at TBS and TNT. And it's very fitting that AEW has been able to find a home with the networks that have been the home to professional wrestling for so many decades. And the tradition of pro wrestling on TBS and TNT, it fits like a pair of gloves. And I love being here. We've watched the company change a lot. And now we're under the management of David Zazloff, who has been great to me. And I'm really blessed to work for him. And he's given us more opportunities, including the two-hour window that gave us to create AEW collision, which has been so much fun for me. I think some of the best shows we've ever done in AEW have been on collision. I think some of the best matches in AEW history and some of the best stories have happened there on collision. And going from three hours a week to five hours a week, it's completely changed a company. And we've grown so much. And, you know, some of the very granular analysis that happens in pro wrestling, that's something that is very big. And we see a like, like I said, very granular analysis of data points week by week. But one of the biggest data points of all, and it's not just a week-to-week thing. It's a weekend week out is we've expanded from three hours a week to five hours a week. It's a big deal. And it's a big opportunity. And that is the most important growth. And we've been able to do it while sustaining the strength of the company and our paper, the business. And we'll continue to hit new markets and find new ways to deliver the show. I'm really exposited about going down to the East Sports Arena in Arlington for the collision summer series on the path to all in. And I think that that opportunity for collision and all these opportunities came thanks to Mr. Azloff and one of the other discovery in the team there with Kathleen Finch, Bruce Campbell, Sam Lindske, Dan Fox, all the great people that give us these opportunities weekend week out and the president of the network, Mr. Jason Sarlingus, who's a big fan of AEW and very knowledgeable and we're very fortunate to have a network president that knows that much about wrestling and cares that much about it. So I'm really blessed to be on TBS and TNT. I'm not sure what's going to happen with some of the other sports there, but it's very exciting that we're getting into college football now. There's a lot of great sports on TBS and TNT now in addition to AEW and the wrestling we do. They've got, you know, March Madness, NHL, MLB Baseball, and now college football in the NBA. And I'm sure that however this ends up that Mr. Azloff will still have a very strong lineup of sports and, you know, I watching with interested eyes as to what happens with all this stuff, but same as you. I mean, you know, it's a little different for me because I worked at TBS and TNT. So maybe following it a little more closely than the average person, but I think all of you working wrestling seem to be following it pretty closely too. So I think we're all kind of keeping an eye on it. But for me, I'm really happy to work here and very blessed. And every time I hear Tony Shavani, he's always on TBS and TNT, it puts a smile on my face, which means I get to smile a lot. And I work in the wrestling business, which also puts a smile on my face. So I'm very blessed by it all. And, you know, we're every day we could just bend here on TBS and TNT. It's a real blessing for us in AEW. Thank you, John. Tony, that's it. Do you have any closing thoughts? Yeah, thanks, Jim. Well, it's been five years, five great years, and I'm so excited for double or nothing. I can't wait to go back to the MGM Grand. It'll be surreal in back where it all started on our five-year anniversary weekend. And a lot of you on this call, this is not our first interaction over these five years. We've had a lot of great calls, some of you have asked tough questions, some of you have asked great questions, fun, nice questions. But through all the ups downs, great shows, all the great events we've had, really, really, really, very, I'd like to say, I would say a strong, I would say a big turnout from a lot of you coming to the shows, being at the scrums, being on these calls. We've had a lot of feedback, a lot of questions, a lot of articles, a lot of stories, you guys have all written thousands and thousands of words about AEW over the last five years. And I really appreciate it. Even if I haven't always agreed with everything you've all said, I think that all of you putting in the time and effort to covering wrestling makes all of our jobs and all of our lives better. And I appreciate that all of you do it. I think it's awesome, you know, wrestling, my favorite thing. And I really appreciate all the time you all put in on wrestling, especially on AEW. And thanks for doing it over the past five years. And hopefully we'll give you a great show on Sunday. And then we can celebrate five more years and many more after that. Thanks for coming to this media call today. And if you didn't get your question answered, hopefully we'll be able to answer it on Sunday at the scrum. And with that, Jim and Mandy and everybody on the AEW media team, I just wanted to thank all of you also. I tried to thank the media at the end of these calls, but I also really appreciate all of you for everything you've done for us over these past five years. Jim and Mandy and a lot of the team here from the beginning, Adam came in and joined us along the way. And I think we got a great group here. And I'm very grateful to all of you and thanks for a great five years. Well, thank you, Tonya. It's certainly been a privilege for all of us involved. And thank everyone here on the on the line. That is a wrap. 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