Tony Khan Rejected Pitched Idea To Have AEW Rampage Similar To WWE’s Backstage Format

Tony Khan and AEW have been doing things their own way, and Tony Khan is doing whatever he can as to not draw any comparisons to the WWE. In fact, he has even shunned the idea of having a Backstage format similar to WWE’s.

During an interview with Gavin Bridge at Monaco Streaming Film Festival, AEW Tony Khan said that he had been asked about having AEW Rampage as a discussion show similar to WWE Backstage but he rejected the idea.

“I didn’t agree with [WWE] Backstage at all. I didn’t think it was a good format. I had actually been pitched to do a format like that with AEW and I refused because I don’t think wrestling fans want to see that format. Wrestling fans when they tune in to watch their wrestling show, they want to watch wrestlers wrestle and Backstage, to me, should be like a lower-budget streaming type show. I don’t know if it had the legs to carry as a TV show, even though the people involved with it were awesome and a lot of them work for me now and are huge stars. I want to watch CM Punk wrestle. I want to watch Christian Cage wrestle. To me, that is the bread and butter. I love watching those guys talk about wrestling, don’t get me wrong, I think it would be a kick-ass streaming show, I don’t know if I would build one of my TV franchises around guys talking about wrestling. At least not in the context of analyzing it and breaking it down. For Rampage, it was part of the format that I turned down and refused to do. They said, ‘Would you do this as part of the third hour?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s going to be wrestling.’ I have a different format for it and that’s where Mark Henry (does interviews). There is that talk show competent where they talk before they wrestle. That is a little bit of a twist on the format, but it’s not, ‘Let’s look back on the week in wrestling’ and have a cup of coffee together, which I think is not a good format for a TV show.”

Tony Khan has made it clear that WWE is a competitor and has no qualms about letting it be known.

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(h/t WrestleZone for the transcription.)