Tony Khan finally reveals if he's frustrated with WWE trying to instigate war with AEW

WWE has seemingly ramped up its counter-programming efforts against AEW in recent months. Now, All Elite head honcho Tony Khan has shared his views on the subject, and on his company's response to competition from the sports entertainment juggernaut.

Last weekend, All Elite Wrestling staged the 2025 iteration of All Out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The pay-per-view was initially set to go head-to-head against WWE Wrestlepalooza, an event that the Stamford-based company had announced for the same day as All Out in seemingly yet another attempt at counter-programming against the Tony Khan-led company. Interestingly, AEW ended up moving All Out to an earlier afternoon start time weeks ahead of the show.

More recently, WWE revealed that its developmental brand NXT will host a television special, Invasion, this coming month on October 7, incidentally on the same day as AEW Dynamite : Title Tuesday. During a recent interview with Going Ringside, Tony Khan was asked about the Triple H-led promotion's persistent counter-programming moves as of late, and the frustrations they may have caused. The All Elite CEO responded by highlighting his promotion's successes throughout 2025, and indicated that the competition presented by WWE has prompted him and his employees to work even harder to improve their product.

“Well, we’ve been having a great year. We’ve been able to stick and move and make it work really well for us. There’s always going to be tough competition and this sport, it’s very tough competition, the kind of competition that makes you work really hard 52 weeks a year.”

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Tony Khan was asked if there have been frustrations with WWE counter-programming AEW:​“Well, we’ve been having a great year. We’ve been able to stick and move and make it work really well for us. There’s always going to be tough competition and this sport, it’s very tough competition, the kind of competition that makes you work really hard 52 weeks a year.”​(Interview w/ Going Ringside)

Industry analysts have speculated recently that WWE is interested in ensuring that All Elite Wrestling does not land another major TV deal at the end of their current media rights agreement with WBD.

Announcements for this week's AEW Dynamite

All Elite Wrestling will stage this week's edition of AEW Dynamite at the Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. The episode will celebrate the six year anniversary of the Wednesday-night show, and will feature many of the company's top names. Besides appearances from Toni Storm and Jurassic Express, the following matches have been announced for the much-anticipated program:

• Darby Allin and Kris Statlander vs Wheeler Yuta and Marina Shafir [Mixed Tag Team Match]
• Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Daniel Garcia of The Death Riders vs The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs) and Hangman Adam Page
• Kyle Fletcher (c) vs Orange Cassidy [TNT Championship Match]
• Josh Alexander and The Young Bucks vs Kenny Omega and Brodido

Announcements for this week's Wednesday Night Dynamite [Image Credits: AEW's website (allelitewrestling.com)]

It remains to be seen what Tony Khan and his creative team has planned for viewers enroute to WrestleDream 2025, the company's next PPV.