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AEW President Tony Khan has faced quite a large obstacle in the second year of AEW's existence. The company has had to put on shows during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at times, that has been a struggle with several stars not available to be booked throughout the time that they are putting on shows. WWE has also been going through the same situation, putting on weekly shows during this difficult time.
However, according to Tony Khan during his recent appearance on The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast, something good has come out of the pandemic after all, and that's the COVID push.
Tony Khan explains what the COVID Push is; how WWE, AEW, and other companies have seen it
Tony Khan explained that in companies like WWE and AEW, where there was wrestling going on, stars have had to be pushed who might otherwise not have been, as they stepped up during the pandemic, when not all stars are available to WWE or AEW, or other companies.
"So I think we've had unique experiences that have helped us do it. There's an expression I saw somebody use on Twitter. Somebody used the expression 'the COVID push.' I was like, man, that is a harsh expression, but it is, frankly, a thing. That in the pandemic, when based on availability, there are people that have really stepped up. And that's what they got, and they're people who have made the most of it. It's not just in AEW, also in WWE, and any places that have been wrestling now.
Tony Khan went on to explain that AEW, WWE, NJPW, and other wrestling promotions had to be creative with what they had and that they could not rely on all stars. As a result of this, a lot of stars who stepped up got pushed to the moon.
"New Japan's back up, and you push the people you got, and we're seeing people trying to be creative and do the best they can with what they got. I thought Double or Nothing was a hand we were dealt and what we had to build up. And then coming back May 6, we'd already kind of put in the first layer of the house, the foundation, setting up Cody vs. Lance Archer and the TNT tournament, and then implementing other stories and reintegrating some of the people you'd only seen on video packages or promos for the past five or six weeks."
