All Elite Wrestling's CEO Tony Khan discusses pro wrestling's redeveloping landscape

On Aug. 27, 2023, an authentic thing will occur in the predetermined world of professional wrestling that could key a revolutionary era for the lucrative sports entertainment industry.

Four-year-old All Elite Wrestling (AEW) will present its annual "All In" pay-per-view event and sell over 80,000 seats in London's Wembley Stadium.

The number will break the record for Europe's largest-attended professional wrestling event.

On Wednesday evening, Aug. 16, the company was doing something less profound but still significant -- bringing its tour to Nashville's Bridgestone Arena for a "Fight For The Fallen" night of their TBS-broadcast program "Dynamite."

For seven decades, the Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville areas have served as high-profile destinations for the professional wrestling industry.

Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Jerry "The King" Lawler have had numerous memorable Tennessee moments. As well, names including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson briefly lived in Nashville as the son of journeyman star "Soul Man" Rocky Johnson, plus later cut his teeth as an aspiring star on Memphis' legendary regional circuit.

Proceeds from the event supported the Maui Food Bank's efforts to provide hunger relief to those impacted by the recent wildfires on the Hawaiian island.

Wrestling surges amid decentralizing economic marketplaces

For the past half-decade, the upstart AEW organization has synergized how globalism, digital-first access, social media virality and do-it-yourself ingenuity -- moreso than WWE's traditional marketing and stereotypical superheroics -- can create saleable content.

This isn't similar to the era between 1996-2001 when WWE was challenged by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), though. Imagine a world wherein two teams with equal levels of talent were guided by different perspectives on sports' entertainment values.

Unlike WWE's larger-than-life 77-year-old patriarch Vince McMahon, AEW's CEO, GM and Head of Creative is Tony Khan, a passionate yet thoughtful 40-year-old native of Chicago's suburbs.

For global sports fans, the surname Khan is related directly to Tony's father, businessman Shahid Khan, the multi-billionaire owner of the National Football League's Jacksonville Jaguars and English Premier League soccer club Fulham.

Khan describes AEW's recent success as "developing new milestones for professional wrestling, worldwide," in a recent conversation with The Tennessean.

For the promoter, AEW's growing acclaim is predicated upon blending men's and women's wrestling with "wild, unpredictable elements."

The past three decades since WWE's 2001 purchase of its competitors WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling have coincided with the development of social media, streamable programming and domestic economic downturns that have created a space for global marketing schemes to surge.

In professional wrestling, these decentralizing marketplace factors caused the explosion of a hodge-podge of regional to global wrestling organizations of varying impact and size, including Big Japan Wrestling, Chikara, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, Dynamic Dream Team, Progress Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honor -- just to name a few.

WWE's attempts to capitalize on this boom have primarily involved its "NXT" promotion. That developmental circuit re-trains independent wrestlers (and those brand new to the industry) to perform a style more conducive to a busy travel schedule, plus learn to publicly present WWE as more a publicly-traded corporation than a privately-owned sports entertainment company.

Pro wrestling's next wave of independently-developed superstars

Watch AEW and you'll see names associated with professional wrestling's late 20th-century boom including Christian Cage, The Hardy Boyz (Jeff and Matt Hardy), Jeff Jarrett, Chris Jericho, Dustin Rhodes and Sting.

"Great veteran stars with TV recognition and renowned in-ring reputations are helping our younger, less-renowned talents deliver home runs for our growing brand," says Khan.

However, the three decades that have elapsed since wrestling's last big boom have aged that quintet to somewhere over 300 years of age.

"I love wrestling's history and highlighting how well it's connected with people in the past," Khan continues.

WWE also uses names from the same era, like Edge, Brock Lesnar, Rey Mysterio and Trish Stratus.

Perhaps, the time has arrived for the sports entertainment industry to embrace a new vanguard of superstars.

AEW's growth has been mainly predicated on superseding developmental for young talents and instead taking wrestlers developed in three decades of independent organizations.

Taking those raw talents directly from VFW halls, selling out 500-seat venues or occasionally packing arenas and stadiums and placing them directly on live television on Wednesday's TBS-aired "Dynamite" program, or Friday or Saturday's TNT-aired "Rampage" or "Collision" broadcasts is a bold move.

But it's working.

Names from that independent boom era present in AEW programming include former WWE and independent world champions CM Punk, Bryan "Daniel Bryan" Danielson, Jon "Dean Ambrose" Moxley and Samoa Joe, Japan-renowned performers Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Minoru Suzuki and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), plus high-flying Mexican names Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix.

A main event for pro wrestling's future

AEW's "All In" main event features two independent-honed names not mentioned: 27-year-old prodigal AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman ("MJF") defending his championship versus his real-life friend, 34-year-old one-time similarly prodigal talent, Adam Cole.

The match provides Khan's ideal vision of pro wrestling's future.

The opponents are under 35 and not gargantuan former marquee wrestling icons like Hulk Hogan, Brock Lesnar and John Cena.

MJF, the proudly Jewish, Long Island trust-fund smart aleck -- who is also a charismatic yet sensitive blowhard -- that is so convincing in his character portrayal that, though a scoundrel, yields cheers. Cole's the quintessential high school multi-sport captain who graduated top of his class and eventually dated the career-focused dentist (literally, his longtime real-life girlfriend is former AEW Women's Champion -- and actual DMD, Britt Baker).

For the modern population, unlike Hogan or Ric Flair wrestling Randy Savage or Dusty Rhodes, MJF and Cole are "Real Americans" fighting for everyone's right to be sports entertained.

Khan summarizes the forthcoming main event's appeal with a future-forward statement.

"Young wrestling stars uniquely aware of wrestling's globalized marketplace are creating compelling content. The more people become intimately acquainted with these performers will be excited about their potential."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: All Elite Wrestling's CEO Tony Khan discusses pro wrestling's redeveloping landscape