Tony Khan, the AEW President recently talked with Sports Illustrated about the way AEW managed to deal with the deadly COVID-19 without releasing any company personnels or talents.
Tony Khan is pleased on how AEW dealt with pandemic
Unlike WWE, who released talents in bulk due to budget cuts in April amid the coronavirus crisis, AEW has dealt with the situation quite well. WWE had released several stars and as many as 300 staffs.
Also to be mentioned departments concerned with planning travel and event schedules were demolished and many long term employees were relieved of their duties as well.
Comparing to WWE, Khan and co. have done a great work in keeping their employees with the jobs in hand during the tough times.
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During the interview, when asked about dealing with the situation he said:
“I’m really pleased that we haven’t done that. We negotiated a great television contract that will keep us going, and that made it possible for us to hang on in a time when there wasn’t a revenue stream of ticket sales. Now the ticket sales revenue stream is very different. We were the No. 1 touring wrestling company per event, but that’s not a major revenue stream right now. The television revenue is such an important part of the business model.”
Khan continued:
“Frankly, I wasn’t concerned about making the biggest profit in 2020. We could have slashed and made some good money, but it’s been a very challenging year. Every company can approach it the way they want, but as the president and CEO of this company, it was important for me to keep people working and getting paid.”
However, Sadie Gibbs and Bea Priestly were released from AEW as they could not travel to the United States. Jimmy Havoc, was also released over #SpeakingOut allegations.
