{"id":223715,"date":"2026-10-15T17:19:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T22:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=223715"},"modified":"2026-10-15T17:20:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T22:20:31","slug":"aew-president-tony-khan-reveals-how-he-acted-as-a-leader-and-kept-the-aew-roster-tied-together-before-and-after-pacs-death-says-he-draws-inspiration-to-make-tough-decisions-from-jacksonville-jaguar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/10\/15\/aew-president-tony-khan-reveals-how-he-acted-as-a-leader-and-kept-the-aew-roster-tied-together-before-and-after-pacs-death-says-he-draws-inspiration-to-make-tough-decisions-from-jacksonville-jaguar\/","title":{"rendered":"AEW president Tony Khan reveals how he acted as a leader and kept the AEW roster tied together before and after Pac&#8217;s death, says he draws inspiration from Jaguars head coach Liam Coen"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2122929667\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Advertisements\"><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>AEW president Tony Khan has to juggle a large roster of talented men and women and recently with the untimely deaths of Pac and The Butcher Andy Williams, Khan has shown his ability as a leader to keep the roster tied together despite having to make difficult decisions on a regular basis when it comes to who gets pushed and who has to take losses on the roster. Khan said he faced the challenges of being a leader during the All Out PPV when Steven Borden was injured during the PPV before having to deal with the death of Pac, who passed away the next day. \u201cIts been a very interesting few weeks,\u201d said Khan speaking to PWTorch columnist Sean Radican during AEW\u2019s media call ahead of the WrestleDream PPV on Oct. 17.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I addressed the media following All Out, I thought there&#8217;s so many positives, and I was very excited.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing that was probably, during the show, the most challenging was the injury to Steven Borden, and Steven is doing well. And by the end of All Out, we had positive updates about Steven, so it was really exciting. And the pay-per-view buys looked very good, which they are very good, and all the numbers were exciting, and the show sold out, and it was a great crowd, and we&#8217;re, you know, very excited to go to Dynamite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Khan revealed that one way in which he is able to show leadership and develop relationships with some of the younger and incoming talent in AEW is by talking to them when ROH TV is taped in Jacksonville. The next ROH taping on for Khan happened to be scheduled for the day after Pac died. \u201cAnd then a show that people won&#8217;t think about as much, but everybody did a fantastic job the next day on that Monday,\u201d said Khan. \u201cThat Ring of Honor show that we shot in Jacksonville was very emotional and very hard, and I made it voluntary for everybody to come, but it was very good to connect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople maybe misunderstand and misinterpret, but I think with Ring of Honor it&#8217;s very good. It helps people get ready for AEW, and it helps me build relationships, and it&#8217;s by far the most time the young and incoming wrestlers are gonna get with me is at these events. And it helps us build that rapport and that connection. And having the Ring of Honor based in Jacksonville right by my football office, where I can golf cart back and forth from wrestling matches to the football meetings, as I did on that day, where I was in staff meetings with the team at the Jaguars and going back and forth on one of the hardest days I can ever remember that Monday, the day after Ben passed away.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/aew-dynamite-post-show-10-14-keller-kline-discuss-copeland-s-retirement-announcement-clockwork-carnage-build-ftr-mcmg-best-of-five--75800258\">CLICK HERE<\/a> (or search \u201cwade keller\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AEW DYNAMITE POST-SHOW (10\/14): Keller &amp; Kline discuss Copeland's retirement announcement, Clockwork Carnage build, FTR-MCMG Best of Five\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=75800258&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>\u201cGoing into that Dynamite and, and having to put together a taping of what I think has been some excellent Ring of Honor, and it&#8217;s certainly not the conversation and, you know, with the AEW WrestleDream being this weekend, but I think there&#8217;s been some great stuff in Ring of Honor if you haven&#8217;t seen the TV lately.\u00a0The upcoming weeks are the shows we shot there. There&#8217;s some really interesting stories. This past week set up matches for next week, which sets up stuff for the next week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And it was voluntary for everybody who was there and it was an excellent taping, and there&#8217;s some good stories and really good wrestling. And if you are basing it what you saw on Ring of Honor a couple years ago, I&#8217;ve really changed the approach, and I think the, you know, are doing the best shows certainly since the original tapings of Ring of Honor I did in Orlando, and I think the best TV I&#8217;ve done in Ring of Honor is right now, honestly, in Jacksonville.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Khan said that so many wrestlers were at the Dynamite taping that wanted to pay tribute to Pac that he could have filled weeks of TV. \u201cBut that taping was very hard, and then to go do the Pac tribute show, I would&#8217;ve loved to have used everyone there,\u201d said Khan. \u201cI mean, there was a whole locker room. You could&#8217;ve done an incredible&#8230; you could&#8217;ve done weeks of TV shows with the locker room that was there and everyone wanting to step up for Pac, but that was also the challenge of putting it together and for making the show that it was. And\u2026 you know, promoting the matches that we did and those are the calls you make.\u201d<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2348861642\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Advertisements\"><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>Tony said current Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen is someone he looks to for inspiration as a leader. \u201cAnd, you know, John (John Alba) mentioned Liam earlier. Liam and I are pretty close in age, he&#8217;s a couple years younger than me, and it&#8217;s incredible to see somebody who&#8217;s similar age and grew up watching sports and with a lot of the same reference points and stuff, and talks similar and, and is just a cool guy,\u201d said Khan. \u201cBut is an incredible leader and has to make tough calls in the moment and under pressure. And not, not to compare the two, but we do lead a team of great athletes here at AEW that I believe are the best at what they do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd NFL&#8217;s the biggest media property, the highest pressure job in the world, and I think Liam&#8217;s incredible and, and one of the very best at one of the very most challenging professions in the world, coaching professional football in the NFL. And he&#8217;s one of the best at it, so it&#8217;s really cool to be around him and to see that. But you know, somebody who has great command and respect.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I&#8211; for me, I&#8217;m just trying to do the best I can with it, but the wrestlers really stepped up and I just tried to put together the best show I could for Ben and the best show I could for Andy. And I thought the show we did for Andy was probably the best episode of Collision we&#8217;ve done, but I thought the show we did for Ben is the best show we&#8217;ve ever done. And it&#8217;s just in recent weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Khan said after the Pac tribute show he had to get ready for Grand Slam Paris in France and then Collision and make decisions for those shows as a leader following the tribute to Pac on Dynamite. \u201cAnd then again, you know, had to get the pieces in place for France, and that there was an underrated episode of Collision in between those where we got a lot done,\u201d said Khan. \u201cWe did a lot of building for WrestleDream and a lot of building for Grand Slam France on that Highland Heights, Kentucky Collision. That&#8217;s a really good show and it got a lot done because we weren&#8217;t trying to build business on that Pac tribute show.\u00a0 We were just trying to pay tribute to Ben as a friend and somebody that was a really important person in AEW for our fans and everybody who&#8217;s ever worked in AEW.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (10\/14) - AEW Dynamite w\/Keller &amp; Kline\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GW2Uj1M0Y6w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1042851827\"><div id=\"pwtor-4289617403\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Advertisements\"><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>AEW president Tony Khan has to juggle a large roster of talented men and women and recently with the untimely deaths of Pac and The Butcher Andy Williams, Khan has shown his ability as a <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/10\/15\/aew-president-tony-khan-reveals-how-he-acted-as-a-leader-and-kept-the-aew-roster-tied-together-before-and-after-pacs-death-says-he-draws-inspiration-to-make-tough-decisions-from-jacksonville-jaguar\/\" title=\"AEW president Tony Khan reveals how he acted as a leader and kept the AEW roster tied together before and after Pac&#8217;s death, says he draws inspiration from Jaguars head coach Liam Coen\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":184716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6163,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew-news","category-prowrestlingnews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-13-at-1.53.32\u202fPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223715","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223715"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223718,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223715\/revisions\/223718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}