AEW knew fans would question why Kenny Omega wasn’t facing a more established challenger at AEW Redemption. According to a new backstage report, that’s exactly why the company booked Kevin Knight in the first place.
Speaking during a recent Self Made Session, Self Made Pro revealed that after talking with people inside AEW, he was told the company believes its pay-per-view audience is loyal enough to support the promotion even when it uses major events to build new stars instead of relying on the biggest possible marquee matches.
“I spoke to people in AEW this weekend about Kevin Knight who is main eventing this show and there’s been a lot of conversation about why do they move up MJF and Kenny Omega? Why is Kevin Knight getting this spot? Why didn’t they just do that match here? And you definitely could have done Max versus Kenny here.”
Rather than viewing Redemption as a show that needed the safest possible main event, AEW reportedly saw it as an opportunity to elevate Knight by putting him in the biggest match of his career. It was noted that company officials are confident enough in the consistency of their pay-per-view business that they don’t feel pressured to book a blockbuster title match every time out.
“AEW is confident. They are confident that their audience is going to buy the show because statistical evidence proves there’s a certain amount of people every month that will buy every show because it’s a safe bet to be a very good pay-per-view. So when you know you’re not going to bleed money because the audience trusts you to put on a great show, you can then afford to put an unproven pay-per-view draw at the main event.”
That confidence apparently extends well beyond Redemption. One person within AEW made it clear to Self Made Pro that the company doesn’t see Knight’s World Championship opportunity as a one-off experiment or a reward for holding the TNT Championship. Instead, they believe this is only the beginning.
“One of the people that I spoke to told me outright, ‘You got to get him ready because this is the first main event of many.'”
That lines up with earlier reports, which noted that AEW had been planning for the TNT Champion to challenge for the AEW World Championship around this time for quite a while. The report also stated that Knight has been discussed internally for a significant push that includes future programs with top stars and a continued presence in the World Championship picture.
Whether Knight defeats Omega at Redemption is still viewed by many as unlikely. However, if AEW’s internal belief proves correct, the company isn’t booking this match simply to fill a pay-per-view main event—it’s betting that Kevin Knight can become one of the promotion’s next main event acts.
Do you think AEW made the right call by using Kenny Omega vs. Kevin Knight to build a new star instead of booking a bigger marquee match? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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