Tony Khan, the president and lead booker of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), has shifted how he manages the company’s creative decisions for 2025. At the center of this change is Khan’s belief that AEW storytelling improved when he decided to reduce the number of collaborative influences behind the scenes, making Tony Khan AEW creative control the guiding force for upcoming programming.
Fewer Voices, Sharper Focus in AEW Production
Khan revealed during a December 25 appearance on The Takedown with Jon Alba on SI that he had re-evaluated his earlier approach to collaborative creation within AEW. He acknowledged that while listening and working with others shaped his process, excessive input eventually hindered the clarity of AEW’s direction.
“Since you asked about the focus and some of the stories and putting the TV shows together, I definitely felt like I had had a good approach that I’d refined in 2020 and trying to be good, trying to listen, and be collaborative,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
He explained that allowing too many people to participate in the structure of each show had led to confusion and diluted vision, echoing earlier challenges he faced at the beginning of AEW’s run. Khan recounted that this same mistake returned and affected the shows as the company evolved.
“I think I had gotten too collaborative and it was kind of the same mistake I made at the beginning,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
Centralizing Creative Decisions and Outlining Shows
Highlighting the course correction, Khan described how he intends to eliminate large production meetings and instead take sole responsibility for outlining TV and pay-per-view events. For him, this streamlined process ensures a sharper, more coherent product week to week.
“I’m gonna eliminate the meetings between shows and I will put everything together myself between shows and then I’ll come in with the outline of what I want, rather than have a lot of collaborative meetings where everybody chimes in what they think we should be doing,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
Rather than dismissing collaboration entirely, Khan clarified he still sees value in working closely with the wrestlers themselves. He believes that direct exchanges between himself and performers are what make AEW thrive, provided other intermediaries do not cloud the communication.
“I don’t want to describe ever being collaborative is a bad thing, because the whole thing that makes AEW great is collaboration, but the collaboration should probably, at its best, be between me and the wrestlers and working to find the best path and not having a lot of people in the middle of that,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
In Khan’s view, there are opportunities for others to contribute to aspects like character development or executing plans within a show, but the process of building the main outline should remain under his direction.
“There are tons of contributions to a wrestling show, within a show, that can be found in terms of character work or once the outline is passed down, implementing that outline, but assembling the outline for the show, I’ve learned, doesn’t necessarily need a lot of people involved,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
Lessons from AEW’s Early Days and Recent Events
Khan reflected on past mistakes, noting that the earliest months of AEW Dynamite saw too many creative opinions, which prompted him to cut down on input by 2020. However, as the roster grew and new events emerged, more people began participating in the creative process again. After handling the creative direction of the Continental Classic last year almost entirely on his own, Khan realized he prefers molding the product personally and returned to this style for 2025.
“I thought that helped us at the beginning and I think it probably helped us this year, having that focus where I’m focused and not having four or five, six, seven, 10 people in a meeting contributing great ideas,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
He acknowledged the uniqueness and value of the ideas brought by collaborators, but emphasized a preference for evaluating suggestions in advance while preserving his personal process for assembling the show’s outline.
“They’re all good ideas in their own way and I still like to hear ideas, but instead of doing it as I put the outline together, I would rather do it looking ahead to next week and take some ideas as I put the next outline together, but putting the outline of the show together, I’m never going to let it be a collab… putting the outline of the show together, I have a good process for it and I’m back to the process that I used in 2020 and 2021,”
Tony Khan, President and Booker
What Lies Ahead for AEW Under Khan’s Firm Direction
Tony Khan has overseen AEW since its 2019 launch, guiding the organization through league expansions and major broadcast deals, including Wednesday’s Dynamite on TBS and Saturday’s Collision on TNT. The company is set for a pivotal year-end pay-per-view, World’s End, on December 27, headlined by Samoa Joe defending the AEW World Championship against MJF, Swerve Strickland, and Adam Page. The event will also feature the closing rounds of the Continental Classic tournament.
Khan’s renewed focus on individual oversight and direct collaboration with AEW wrestlers signals a shift in creative leadership, expected to deliver a clearer vision to fans and performers alike. As AEW steps into a new era of storytelling, the wrestling world will closely watch how Tony Khan’s creative discipline shapes the company’s future shows, partnerships, and live events.
