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AEW President Tony Khan is busy steering his company in a successful year, but he also has to keep Ring of Honor and its talents in mind. Last month, he put the ROH World Television Championship on the 19-year-old Nick Wayne, and the new champ just shared a major goal.
When Nick Wayne defeated Komander at AEW Collision: Spring BreakThru, he became the youngest singles champion in ROH history. Now, he's got another record in his sights: the longest-reigning Television Champion ever.
On a recent episode of Close Up w/ Renee Paquette, Wayne revealed his reverence for the title and shared his goal of holding the belt for longer than anyone ever has:
"Definitely so like saying again, just like following the footsteps of people that I idolize, you know, a lot of people that I idolize went through Ring of Honor once upon a time and a lot of people have like held this championship, so to be able to hold it now and represent something that is like so special, and like feel like it's a very like big placeholder in this business is a very big honor to me. To win it so young, I believe the youngest to win the title is another just huge honor to me. I want to hold it for as long as I can, maybe become the longest reigning. I know it's a long time that I have to beat, but... What is the... God, do you know what the number is? (It's Jay Lethal. I believe it's like a year or a little over a year.) Okay. I'm willing to beat it." [H/T: Fightful]
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It should be noted that while Jay Lethal held the previous record, Samoa Joe surpassed him with his 574-day reign in 2022 and 2023.
Tony Khan is heading up both AEW and ROH in 2025
Early in its history, much of AEW's programming was booked by Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks. However, Tony Khan took control of the company's creative direction in early 2020.
Over the years, he's delegated tasks to executives and even formed a booking committee, but his promotion's storylines began getting murky in 2023, which caused many fans to wonder what was going on backstage.
Reports from earlier this year have revealed that Tony Khan has stepped back into the top position and is now "in the weeds" creatively, meaning he's resumed his role as the primary booker in All Elite Wrestling.
Since then, Tony Khan has worked to build new stars such as Nick Wayne and Hologram. He's also restored the company's focus on fan favorites like Hangman Adam Page, Kenny Omega, and Will Ospreay. Whether he can steer AEW to even greater success this year remains to be seen.
