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AEW president Tony Khan has recently discussed the similarities and differences between his company and WWE when it comes to handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world was plunged into uncertainty at the beginning of 2020 when countries were forced to lock down due to rapidly increasing rates of infection and death due to the then unknown virus.
The United States has been battered by COVID, with nearly 68 million positive cases and nearly 850,000 deaths since the pandemic began. While the country was forced to seek refuge at home, professional wrestling was one of the few entertainment sources people could turn to on a weekly basis.
The state of Florida deemed professional wrestling to be an "essential business," forcing both WWE and AEW to move to the sunshine state. WWE operated out of the Performance Center in Orlando, while Tony Khan and AEW operated out of Daily's Place in Jacksonville.
Now that both companies are back on the road touring, Khan has reflected on the pandemic era in an interview with Vegas Film Critic Jeffery K. Howard. Khan also touched on what he thought of WWE's "Thunderdome."
"Our competition through the pandemic, a few months later, they went to a fan wall. [It was a] virtual wall of fans like you saw in other sports, you know, TV screens. And I thought; let's bring wrestling back with live fans safely. We did it. We had no COVID transmissions by going into an outdoor amphitheater," Khan said. (H/T SEScoops).
Tony Khan's AEW got huge fan support since getting back on the road
While the Daily's Place era was fun for many reasons, seeing the company back in a sold-out arena was something every fan was excited about. The momentum that AEW has had since its "Road Rager" edition of Dynamite in July 2021 has been nothing short of remarkable.
The promotion recently released tickets for Dynamite and Rampage in the month of February, while those for shows in March will go on sale soon.
AEW Dynamite debuted on TBS on January 5th to much fanfare, with the aim in Khan's eyes to make it the number one wrestling promotion in the world.
Whether they achieve it or not, only time will tell.
