Tony Khan Clears the Air on AEW’s Failed MSG Debut

Tony Khan is now clarifying comments he made about AEW’s early talks with Madison Square Garden—and according to him, there’s no bad blood.

During the AEW Worlds End media call, Tony Khan walked through how the idea came together—and how it eventually fell apart, not because of sabotage, but due to changing internal decisions at MSG.

“I got a call from somebody who no longer works there, who I have a very good relationship [with], who actually works in a building and a building we frequent,” Khan said. “He called and said, ‘I would love to have AEW here and we’d love to be the home of the first Dynamite.’ It would have been early 2019, and we hadn’t announced or scheduled the first show yet, but there was excitement and hype around it.”

Khan went on to say that he was genuinely interested in making it happen. But according to him, things changed once follow-up discussions began.

“I was offered to go there and we were really interested in it,” he continued. “Once we started to have more calls, they called me back and said, ‘We were really excited about it, but after doing more research, it probably won’t be more viable for us. We thought it was a great idea.’ I have respect for the person who called me. He said, ‘it’s not me.’ He was very apologetic and nice about it. I told him it’s nothing personal against him and I understood why his bosses felt that way.”

Ultimately, the plan for MSG fell through, and AEW launched Dynamite at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on October 2, 2019. At the time, Carrie Underwood was already booked for that same night at MSG, making the venue unavailable anyway. But Khan doesn’t believe any of it was malicious.

“We’ve gone on to be very successful in other places in New York,” Khan added. “I’m always open to brainstorming and thinking about different ideas with them, but the person here is a fan of AEW, and I don’t think he was trying to do anything hurtful or switch things around for us. It was probably a well-intentioned thing. He’s gone on to work other places and he probably has a good relationship with AEW. I don’t think it was anything nefarious.”

This follows what Khan said just days earlier during AEW Dynamite on 34th Street at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Speaking to the live crowd, Khan revealed MSG originally offered to host the first episode of Dynamite—only to pull the offer later on.

“You know, the first episode of Dynamite was actually originally going to be there. And they called me, they offered me the date, and they said, would you like to do the first episode of Dynamite here? And I said, yeah, I really would. It would be great. And then they called me a couple months later and they said, we don’t want you anymore… because it would really upset somebody.”

The audience quickly responded with a loud “F*** the Fed” chant, referencing WWE’s historical control of MSG. While Khan never mentioned WWE directly, the implication wasn’t lost on the crowd. He then described how the reversal made him feel blindsided.

“You really made me feel like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football.”

AEW eventually launched Dynamite at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., and the rest is history. But the MSG story continues to be a big topic of discussion—especially now that Khan has offered a better explanation.

What’s your take on Tony Khan’s clarification? Do you think MSG backed out due to pressure—or was it just a scheduling issue from the start? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.