Tony Khan addresses CM Punk referencing David Zaslav on the debut episode of AEW Saturday Collision.
During the debut episode of AEW Collision on June 17, 2023, CM Punk kicked off the show with his return to the promotion, and he had a lot of things to get off his chest. During his opening promo, the former AEW World Champion claimed Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav refers to him as "One Bill Phil" because he is the "one true bill in an industry of counterfeit bucks."
Tony Khan addressed this promo and Punk referencing the WBD executive, saying it was a throwback to the kind of wrestling he grew up on, where top names Superstars were reference executives like Ted Turner.
"It was a throwback in many ways to the wrestling that I grew up on," said Tony on a media briefing prior to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2. "I remember being a teenage kid in high school and watching wrestling on TNT, a two-hour wrestling show every week on TNT, and seeing a huge wrestling star of the time come out and reference Ted Turner on TNT. I thought it was pretty cool to turn forward the clock to present-day and have a big wrestling star of the moment on TV referencing Mr. Zaslav, especially given the way this show came to be. In the 90s, Ted Turner said, ‘I want to give a slot on Monday night on TNT to pro wrestling.’ Here we are in 2023, and Mr. Zaslav, he runs the Turner networks and a large percentage of entertainment. He’s the boss of Warner Brothers Discovery, movie studios, TV channels, and so many things. It’s amazing to see how far that Turner empire has come and what it’s become from what we, as wrestling fans, knew as the empire of TBS, TNT, TCM, CNN, and those great channels."
Tony says he thought it was appropriate for CM Punk to give a shout-out to David Zaslav, and says the company is continuing to grow and push towards the magic number that Punk referenced in his first promo on AEW Saturday Collision.
"Now, with wrestling on TNT on Saturday nights, this was Mr. Zaslav’s idea. He was the one who said, ‘give two hours, 8 p.m. eastern, every Saturday night, to AEW.’ We created Collision, and it was, I thought, very fitting to see Phil give a shoutout to Mr. Zaslav," he continued. "It’s no secret that AEW, we’re trying to grow revenues, chasing that media bag, I thought that was very cool and a nice nod to the growing business that is AEW where we’re doing now multi-million dollar live gates, sell-out international shows, have a video game launching, and we already have nine-figure revenues. We’re growing and growing, and pushing to hit that magic number that Phil referenced. It was very cool and a nice nod to what a hot time it is in the wrestling business and how exciting it is for pro wrestling in the media space right now."
Elsewhere in this media briefing, Khan clarified that CM Punk has no ownership stake in AEW, confirming that Punk proclaiming that he "was trying to run a business" during the media scrum following AEW All Out 2022 was merely a colloquialism. Learn more here.
Fans can read what CM Punk says about his return to AEW, "Brawl Out," and more at this link.
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