{"id":160125,"date":"2023-06-08T12:45:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T17:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=160125"},"modified":"2023-06-08T12:45:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T17:45:56","slug":"editorial-tony-khans-booking-mistake-a-byproduct-of-one-of-his-strengths-and-how-to-fix-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/06\/08\/editorial-tony-khans-booking-mistake-a-byproduct-of-one-of-his-strengths-and-how-to-fix-it\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL: Tony Khan&#8217;s booking mistake, a byproduct of one of his strengths, and how to fix it"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1703669707\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>This past Mother\u2019s Day, I went to a cookout at my brother\u2019s house, and I had a long conversation with one of my nieces. We talked about her mother\u2019s earring business, raising chickens, and the circumstances that caused her to lose touch with one of her friends. When she mentioned this lost friend, I asked her if she regretted it, and she told me, \u201cI have no regrets,\u201d and I believed her because she is seven.<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of people say they have no regrets, but the ones who actually mean it are either too dumb to know the mistakes they\u2019ve made or too young to have made them at all. The truth is everyone has regrets because everyone makes mistakes. I do, you do, and Tony Khan does, too.<\/p>\n<p>At Double or Nothing last month, AEW made a rare mistake. To be clear, the mistake was not in the matches or in the outcomes of those matches. The mistake wasn\u2019t made by the wrestlers, crew members, or the unusually passive spectators. The mistake was intrinsic, systemic, and had nothing to do with what went on during the actual show; it had to do with what went on beforehand. It had to do with the stories that were told in the build-up to it, or more accurately, in the stories that weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>On PWTorch\u2019s Post-PPV Roundtable (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorchvipinfo.com\/\">a Podcast exclusive to VIP members<\/a>), Rich Fann referred to Double or Nothing as AEW\u2019s worst pay-per-view. As much as I love AEW, I have to agree with him, and not just because of how much I respect Rich Fann\u2019s opinions. In this particular instance, I agree with his opinion because his opinion feels correct.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong; the matches were good, the wrestling was spectacular, and the performances were memorable. AEW\u2019s worst pay-per-view was still a remarkable pay-per-view that earned its $50 price tag. That is a testament to just how good AEW\u2019s premium content is, but just because Double or Nothing was better than most pay-per-views, that doesn\u2019t mean it was as good as it could be or should be.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I want to be clear. I\u2019m not claiming I could do much better. In fact, I\u2019d probably do much worse. While I\u2019m good at writing and telling stories, that\u2019s about where the \u201cgood at\u201d part of my resume ends. I\u2019m not a guru, a savant, or a mastermind. I\u2019m not even good at math.<\/p>\n<p>Tony Khan is smarter than me.<\/p>\n<p>I know this because I have watched Tony Khan give interviews about wrestling, and he is able to rattle off answers I could never think of. He remembers minuscule details about the product he creates and at least half as much about the products others create. He remembers plot points that happened months or even years ago; he is able to connect the vaguest of dots, and he assumes others can do the same.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3075724266\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>That assumption is a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Most people can\u2019t remember where they put their car keys, much less what the Young Bucks were doing on Nov. 13, 2021, and as a result, AEW\u2019s storytelling can sometimes feel disjointed, unfocused, or &#8211; in the case of the build-up to Double or Nothing &#8211; non-existent.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure Tony Khan doesn\u2019t see it that way. I\u2019m sure, in his mind, Double or Nothing had a stellar build, but I\u2019m also sure a man of his aptitude could not fail to miss the less-than-minuscule detail of how quiet the crowd was.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if the crowd\u2019s tempered reaction weighed on Tony Khan at all? Did he think about it in his office, his hotel room, or his private jet? As a fellow perfectionist, I can\u2019t help but imagine that it stuck with him, at least subconsciously, and it might have even contributed to how much better AEW Dynamite was three days later.<\/p>\n<p>I hope that it contributed to how much better AEW Dynamite was because I hope Tony Khan is the kind of person to act on his regrets rather than push them aside and rely on platitudes like, \u201cI have no regrets,\u201d because quite frankly, it isn\u2019t healthy to have no regrets.<\/p>\n<p>I hope that when Tony Khan sat backstage and heard the underwhelming crowd that he felt a tinge of regret. I hope he regretted having not focused more on this event rather than on events coming later in the season; I hope he regretted not investing in some version of a script supervisor, and I hope he regretted allowing this pay-per-view\u2019s storylines to take a backseat to ratings ploys and hot-shotted angles. I don\u2019t say that because I wish him ill will; I say that because I wish him the best.<\/p>\n<p>Regret is a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>Regret is the discomfort that makes us grow, adapt, and make fewer mistakes in the future. I have many regrets, and I will have many more because it is a part of the process of maturing as a person, businessman, socialite, or artist. I personally believe Tony Khan is the kind of person who would harness his regrets and use them to accelerate the progress of what is clearly one of the brightest futures of any new wrestling promoter to ever step onto the sceneTony Khan loves wrestling; he loves his fans and he loves entertaining other people. He also loves learning. This seems obvious to me because you don\u2019t gain a wealth of knowledge as deep as the one Tony Khan possesses if you don\u2019t love learning. Tony Khan has forgotten more about professional wrestling than I will ever know, and I have studied this business like it was a thesis project I\u2019ve been writing since childhood. Given the love he has for learning, I hope he will allow Double or Nothing to be a learning experience for him.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-945263638\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>I hope in the future, Tony Khan will choose to sit down with trained storytellers and ask for their advice. I know many fans lament WWE\u2019s decision to hire an army of \u201csoap opera\u201d writers, but the outcomes of that decision were more indicative of WWE\u2019s corporate environment than of what good writers are capable of achieving. As a published author who studied screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, I can assure you that I know enough writers to know that we are a varied bunch of people with a wide swath of skills, styles, interests, and tastes that do not overlap with the vast majority of what happened during WWE\u2019s \u201cPG-Era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not saying AEW should be written by an army of \u201csoap opera\u201d writers. I\u2019m not even saying AEW should be written by people outside of the wrestling industry itself. I\u2019m just saying that it doesn\u2019t hurt to ask advice from experts with creative minds, and the best thing about advice is you don\u2019t have to take it.<\/p>\n<p>The mistake Tony Khan made in the build-up to Double or Nothing is easily fixable. All he needs to do is reach out to the people who can help him fix it. Reach out to the storytellers who play with people\u2019s emotions for a living; reach out to the writers who study story structure the way architects study actual structure; and reach out to the kinds of people who aren\u2019t afraid to tell other people when they think they\u2019ve made a mistake.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT MY FULL REVIEW OF DOUBLE OR NOTHING:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/06\/05\/aew-double-or-nothing-2023-ppv-review-bryants-look-back-at-the-entire-card-with-match-grades-and-show-grade\/\">AEW Double or Nothing 2023 PPV Review: Bryant\u2019s look back at the entire card with match grades and show grade<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>(David Bryant\u2019s totally normal amount of selfies can be found on his Instagram account @IamDavidBryant, and even more can be found on his Twitter account, which is also @IamDavidBryant because David Bryant is not good at naming things.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3512676233\"><div id=\"pwtor-4159104460\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>This past Mother\u2019s Day, I went to a cookout at my brother\u2019s house, and I had a long conversation with one of my nieces. We talked about her mother\u2019s earring business, raising chickens, and the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/06\/08\/editorial-tony-khans-booking-mistake-a-byproduct-of-one-of-his-strengths-and-how-to-fix-it\/\" title=\"EDITORIAL: Tony Khan&#8217;s booking mistake, a byproduct of one of his strengths, and how to fix it\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-guesteditorials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2022\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-08-19-at-3.15.42-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160127,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160125\/revisions\/160127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}