The question of who belongs on the Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling has been debated for years. In just the past few months Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kurt Angle both picked their four wrestlers, while John Cena made headlines this past week for saying he believed Brock Lesnar was the greatest wrestler of all time. During an interview with AL.com this week, AEW president Tony Khan threw his personal list out into the world — “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Bret Hart and the reigning AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. Earlier in the interview he talked about which stars he loved watching growing up.
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“When I first really got into wrestling, my favorite wrestlers at first were Ric Flair and the Macho Man, Randy Savage,” Khan said. But the first time I saw wrestling was Hulk Hogan on The A-Team, and I didn’t really know what wrestling was, and then I saw Hulk Hogan on WWF TV when I was a kid and that was the first time I’d seen pro wrestling. Then I learned about other pro wrestling, like WCW and then later when I was like 13, I got really into ECW, I started trading tapes with people through the dial-up internet, junior-high up into high-school. I was trading tapes on like AOL and message boards, with some people I still keep in touch with today. As I got into high school, Steve Austin and Bret Hart and Chris Jericho were probably my three favorite wrestlers, and I have the fortune now to work with Chris very closely.
Jericho was one of AEW’s first major signings, and became the promotion’s first world champion by beating Hangman Page at the All Out event.
On Wednesday Khan confirmed in an interview with Sports Illustrated that the Double or Nothing pay-per-view would be returning to Las Vegas in May.
“Last May, we sparked a revolution with our inaugural Double or Nothing pay-per-view event in Las Vegas,” he said. “Double or Nothing rocked the wrestling industry and led to Wednesday Night Dynamite, a top-rated weekly show on TNT reaching millions of viewers worldwide, and over 140,000 live event tickets sold to date.”
“It’s been an incredible run, and only fitting that we return to Las Vegas to celebrate our one year anniversary with AEW’s marquee event,” he added. “On Saturday, May 23, Double or Nothing is back for round two at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Last year’s event changed the world of wrestling, and this year the stakes will be even higher.”
